Becoming a D&T Teacher

Design and technology prepares pupils to participate in tomorrow's rapidly changing technologies. They learn to think and intervene creatively to improve quality of life. The subject calls for pupils to become autonomous and creative problem solvers, as individuals and members of a team. They must look for needs, wants and opportunities and respond to them by developing a range of ideas and making products and systems. They combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues, function and industrial practices. As they do so, they reflect on and evaluate present and past design and technology, its uses and effects. Through design and technology, all pupils can become discriminating and informed users of products, and become innovators.

Design and Technology - The National Curriculum for England, DfEE & QCA

The National Curriculum in England also specifies the activities through which D&T should be taught:

• Product Analysis; in which pupils examine the designing and making of others
• Focused Practical Tasks (FPTs); short tasks with a specific teaching point to develop, for example, a technique, a skill, understanding of a processes or knowledge
• Design and Make Assignments (DMAs); longer tasks in which pupils demonstrate their capability to design and make in the specialist area.

Training to teach D&T in England

Teaching is a graduate profession - that is, you have to have a first degree. You also have to gain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)

There are therefore, broadly, two routes into teaching:

• A first degree that offers QTS - entry to all undergraduate courses is via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)
• A post-graduate teacher training path - entry to most post-graduate routes is through the Graduate Teacher Training Registry (GTTR)

There are also on-the-job training routes, known as the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP), the Registered Teacher Programme (RTP) and the Overseas Trained Teacher Programme (OTTP) - administered directly by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). These allow a graduate to be paid an unqualified salary while gaining QTS in a teaching job. Availability of places is dependent on schools offering places to the programme.

In addition, some institutions offer a D&T specialist degree in Education Studies that offers progression onto a PGCE course after graduation. Graduate Recruitment leaflet (pdf, opens in a new window)

The D&T Association's publication D&T Connections lists course and careers information (2Mb pdf file, opens in a new window)

Teach West Midlands

The Teach West Midlands website has been designed by providers of Teacher Training in the West Midlands and has details on routes into teaching D&T and ICT. http://www.teachwestmids.org.uk/ite/dt/overview

Teaching D&T in the North West

To find out more about training to teach Design and Technology in the North West of England, go to http://www.teachdt.org.uk/

Beginning Teaching

At the end of teacher training courses, having passed all the Standards and the skills tests, Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) is gained. Applications can be made for jobs as a qualified teacher, in schools that are able to support the statutory induction process for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)