PGCE but no bachelor's Non-B (Teacher)

[AMC EP]

I am looking at hiring a teacher from England to work at my school (in Thailand) but he has only a "Higher National Diploma Certificate" (two year degree) which he calls a half a degree along with a PGCE.

Does anyone know if this is good enough for him to get a teacher's license in Thailand? He will obviously then need a work permit and 1 year non-b, but I'm most concerned about the teacher's license.

Our Thai staff don't seem to think it's good enough because he doesn't have a bachelor's degree, but if he's a qualified teacher in England I would think that should be good enough.

Any help would be appreciated.

[ubonjoe]

Moved to the teaching in Thailand forum for info on the teaching licence.

[Scott]

Hopefully, others with some experience on this matter will be along to give their input.

My experience has been that there must be a bachelor's degree to get the Teacher's License, at least in the past several years.

There may be exceptions that someone can let us know about.

[aidenai]

Below are the current teacher license requirements.

1. Be at least 20 years of age
2. Hold a degree in Education or an equivalent or in other related fields accredited by the Teachers Council
of Thailand or
• Hold other degrees and a teaching license from abroad or
• Hold other degrees and a graduate diploma in Education with 1 year course of study
3. Completion of training course on Thai Language, Culture and Professional Ethics from a training
institution approved by the Teachers’ Council of Thailand
4. Not Possess any of the prohibited characteristics pursuant to section 44 of the Teachers and Educational
Personnel Council Act B.E. 2003
• Having improper behavior or immorality
• Being an incompetent or quasi-incompetent person
• Having been sentenced to imprisonment in any case, in the opinion of the Teachers Council of
Thailand, which may bring dishonor upon the profession.
5. Have experience in teaching with not less than 1 year

http://site.ksp.or.th/about.php?site=license&SiteMenuID=219

[aidenai]

Below are the current requirements for the provisional teaching permit.

1. Must not be less than 20 years of age.

2. Hold a Bachelor’s degree which benefits education, and it must be certified by either the Teachers’
Council of Thailand (TCT) or the Teacher Civil Service and Educational Personnel Commission (TEPC)
or the Civil Service Commission (CSC) or shown in the list at The World of ALMANAC (the
applicant may check your degree certification at www.ksp.or.th by selecting “professional license section
, foreign teacher’s qualification check” or at the website of TEPC or CSC).
3. Having specific skills, abilities and knowledge needed for foreign teachers in the teaching and learning of
foreign language curriculum.
4. TOEIC certified score report (except those who come from a native-English speaking countries:
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ireland, The United States of America,
Commonwealth of Australia, New Zealand and Canada) or passing score on the other foreign language
proficiency test.

http://site.ksp.or.th/about.php?site=license&SiteMenuID=221

[simon43]

An HND is not 'half a degree'. It will only allow the holder to enter into the second year of a 3-year degree course, not the final year. (I know because prior to obtaining my BSc and MSc, I obtained an HNC and then HND ==> 7 years in total of study).

I am somewhat surprised that the HND holder was able to register for a PGCE course. 'PG' means 'post-graduate' and an HND holder is not a graduate.

Still, somewhat off-topic...

[Ajahnski]

A co-worker had a similar situation last year. He did a certificate program for a 2 year degree, and then did additional courses for what the university called a Higher Diploma. A year or so after he got his diploma, the university changed that into a full bachelor's degree. (They kept the curriculum the same, they just recognized it as the actual bachelor's degree that it was.) He has also been working on a master's degree through a university in the US.

Now, you are supposed to have a bachelor's already before you begin any post-grad work. (How did this guy get a PGCE? I'd seriously question the school that he got it through.) Despite having his current master's program transcripts, and transcripts showing that his higher diploma required 120 credit hours of work, Krusapa wouldn't accept it. This is also despite the fact that he had been a teacher for 5 years already, and had a teacher's license from Krusapa!

He had to contact the university and get a certified letter stating that his higher diploma was, in fact, the equivalent of a bachelor's degree. (Fortunately, our dept. head had enough English skill to read and certify the letter for Krusapa, so he didn't have to pay to have it translated.)

I think you're gonna have problems if you try to hire this guy.

Also, fwiw, my current head of department has been amazingly open and honest with me. She told me today why she has been so picky about documents with us. Apparently, if a school makes an illegal hire, then the school director can be fined. Even if the teacher came through an agency that claimed to have vetted the teacher. Not only would that be a huge loss of face for the school director, but also for the department head too. They are apparently cracking down hard these days.

[Colabamumbai]

Now with the new rules they want to see a B.A., but you can get him a "waiver" for the first two years.

[SlyAnimal]

Does he have a teacher's licence in the UK? (PGCE is a Post Graduate Certificate in Education right? So if after gaining his qualification, he has been teaching in the UK for a few years and gained his full teaching licence there). From memory (And this is from when I read up about it a few years back), there is a special provision for a teacher's licence for applicants that have a current teacher's licence in their home country even if they don't have a bachelor degree. If he does have one, he'd be applying for a temporary teacher's licence, rather than a provisional teacher's licence (So basically the waiver for teachers who need to do a culture course + teaching experience in Thailand, rather than the waiver for any tom dick & harry with a bachelor degree). But yeah, that's only if he has his teacher's licence. I can't remember the specific details of how the exception worked, but if he does have a licence then it's worth pursuing. If he doesn't, then he'll find it really difficult (And even if he does have one, being an irregular case it might be more difficult anyway). Unless he's an otherwise exceptional candidate, it's probably easier to simply hire someone else.

Edit: Had a brief look on ksp.or.th and couldn't find the information about this that I remember (I'm sure it was on their site that I saw information regarding this). If he does have a current teacher's licence from the UK it's probably worth looking up more on this, but if he doesn't then it doesn't matter anyway :-P

[nellyp]

Everywhere I have looked into this requires a BA minimum. It may help if you knew where the PGCE was issued. Also, is it a PGCE or PGCEi? May be worth asking if he has QTS from the UK as PGCE should give you that.

[remobb]

I will offer him a job.