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2024/25
2025/26

PGCE Secondary Design and Technology

  • Year of entry
    2025/26
  • Course duration
    Full Time: 10 months
  • Year of entry
    2025/26
  • Course duration
    Full Time: 10 months

Our PGCE Secondary Design & Technology enables you to address all aspects of design and technology, gain experience with placement opportunities, and develop the skills and knowledge to teach design and technology at secondary level.

This Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Secondary (Design and Technology) course leads to the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), qualifying you to teach the 11-18 age group in secondary schools in England and Wales.

You will examine a range of pedagogical approaches to design and technology teaching and explore all aspects of secondary design and technology, including specialist expertise in areas such as textiles, resistant materials, electronics, food technology and graphics.

Your tutors have national reputations as experts in the field of design technology education and art and design education, and as subject specialists in school. The course involves both a practical and theoretical approach, to enable you to reach your potential as a fully qualified teacher.

You will learn through a series of practical seminars and workshops in purpose-built design studios with extensive resources and equipment, as well as in school workshop spaces. Interactive and discussion-based teaching techniques will encourage you to engage, reflect and challenge. 

Interactive and discussion-based teaching techniques will encourage you to engage, reflect and challenge.

Sessions may include:

  • participating in workshop-style sessions with your peers, including work with PGCE Art and Design trainees
  • attending presentations by subject experts
  • working on tasks in groups
  • having individual tutorials
  • visits to schools or other education settings
  • visits to museums, galleries or sites of educational interest such as The Pitt Rivers, MERL and Reading Museum (e.g. materials handling)
  • writing assignments on aspects of subject teaching and Professional Studies.

For food technology sessions we use the excellent facilities in one of local partner schools to train our teachers in the day-to-day workings in food technology kitchens.

These learning activities will help you to develop a toolkit of knowledge and skills, ensuring you are well prepared to tackle challenges and opportunities throughout your training and your career.

Alongside the University tutors, you will also be taught and guided by a team of committed and experienced University-trained school mentors.

Placements

Placements enable you to develop the skills and knowledge valued and desired by employers - you will build your confidence in the classroom and gain practical teaching experience. Placements also provide you with the opportunity to connect with potential employers and build your professional network.

At Secondary level, we have strong relationships with around 90 schools in the local and surrounding area. It is a testament to the strength of these partnerships and the regard with which our graduates are held, that most schools in Berkshire employ at least one graduate of the Institute of Education.

On your Secondary PGCE course, you are required to carry out three placements in two different age groups - ensuring you receive a broad range of experiences. Two placements must be undertaken in a school setting but the third can be taken in a different setting - allowing you to sample teaching in an alternative environment.

We offer our students an unusually flexible and broad range of contexts and educational environments - you will have the opportunity to gain experience in special needs schools, Pupil Referral Units, independent schools, museums, and charities.

You will have plenty of opportunities throughout your course to apply your developing skills in real settings. In schools, you will be involved in:

  • observation of other teachers
  • planning and teaching small groups and whole classes
  • planning and teaching elements of lessons and whole lessons
  • reflecting on and evaluating your teaching
  • receiving feedback on your teaching
  • gaining experience in the range of responsibilities of the classroom teacher.

Climate and sustainability education

At the University of Reading we believe that climate and sustainability education is everyone’s responsibility. This is why we have set out our vision that all initial teacher trainees should be able to access training that empowers them to effectively incorporate climate education within their teaching across all levels and subjects as part of our National Climate Education Action Plan.

Across all of our Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes at the Institute of Education, you will learn about:

  • what is happening to our climate, how to help children learn about climate and sustainability in an age-appropriate and accessible way, and how to develop your own positioning as a teacher
  • climate justice, the impact of current and future changes to our environment and climate on ourselves and others and implications for teachers
  • how to translate knowledge and theory into change and personal action through building climate and sustainability education into your planning, teaching, and children’s learning.

Visit Partnering for the Planet to find out more about the University of Reading’s world-leading work in climate science. 

Research

98% of our research is of international standing (REF 2021, combining 4*, 3* and 2* submissions – Education). 

For more information, please see the Institute of Education website.

New UK/Republic of Ireland students: £9,250

New international students: £25,850

Fees information

The fees listed are for full-time study, unless otherwise stated. Fee information will be confirmed in offer letters sent out to successful applicants. You can find further information, including information for part-time study, through our dedicated fees and funding page.

EU student fees

With effect from 1 August 2021, new EU students will pay international tuition fees. For exceptions, please read the UK government’s guidance for EU students.

Additional costs

Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details.

Financial support for your studies

You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. Students from the UK may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover these costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available.

The Department for Education (DfE) also offer a range of scholarships and bursaries. To find out if you may be eligible, visit their bursaries and scholarships webpage.

The majority of our graduates go into schools and inspire children to develop into happy, confident and well-informed individuals. Other alumni take their educational skills to the worlds of business, culture, art, healthcare, human resources, adult learning and further varied fields.

The support and training we give our students enables them to develop into resilient and creative teachers with the ability to adapt. The transferable skills and strengths they develop are also recognised outside education, and are therefore desirable in many different areas of employment.

The placement opportunities and careers support we give our students ensures they are attractive to employers. This is qualified by the consistently high employment rates our students enjoy in local and regional schools.