This course is still open for entry in September 2024 – please visit our Clearing and Late Application page.

Postgraduate Taught

PGDE Secondary (Business Education)

Are you are a graduate in a degree related to accounting, economics or business management? Are you looking for an inspiring, challenging and socially empowering career?

Our new one-year PGDE Secondary (Business Education) course will prepare you to teach business education in Scottish secondary schools and beyond, providing you with an internationally recognised secondary teaching qualification.

If you are passionate about business education, especially with a social justice, sustainability and health and wellbeing agenda, then there has never been a more important time to learn the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding to enable you to transform young lives as you learn how to evaluate the social, ethical, and global factors that affect local, national, and multinational organisations.

As a graduate of our unique course, you will help to prepare young people to face the challenges of 21st century citizenship in these fast-changing times.   

Why QMU?

  • Guaranteed employment for one year following graduation: Scottish students are guaranteed paid employment for one year in a Scottish secondary school as a Business Education teacher.
  • Longstanding expertise, with a strong focus on advancing social justice: Study at a university with a 145-year history of teaching for social justice. Social justice underpins QMU’s world view, and our new Business Education PGDE offers a fresh and vibrant approach to learning to teach in Scotland.
  • Staff expertise: Our staff have subject and professional knowledge based on their expertise from teaching in schools and in initial teacher education in university settings. Collectively we have many years of experience in supporting students entering the teaching profession and strong links with the Queen Margaret Business School, with its emphasis on the need for ethical, social and ecological responsibility in business.
  • Range of learning experiences: As well as offering you the opportunity to learn how to teach Business Education in a classroom context, we will enable you to engage creatively with the role of outdoor learning in the school curriculum, gaining experience in our dedicated campus Outdoor Learning Hub.
  • Make a difference: Learn to teach a subject with the power to shape young persons’ lives and society. As a graduate of this course. you will be an advocate of sustainable business practices that help support social justice, sustainable lifestyles, and economic and social wellbeing. Our course will support you in fostering a global business mindset to enable you to teach and transform lives within our local school communities.
  • Professional accreditation/registration: The course is accredited by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS). As a graduate you will be eligible to register with the GTCS.

 

Studying for a PGDE (Business Education) at QMU -  a short film

 

PGDE Secondary (Business): More information and what you will achieve

The PGDE Secondary (Business Education) course will engage you in a critical understanding of contemporary ‘real world’ issues. 

You will learn how to underpin your inclusive teaching practices with key themes of social justice, sustainability and health and wellbeing; and consider critically children’s rights and how to plan for inclusive practices which enable all young people to participate. More generally, you will learn how to engage young persons in ICT for business contexts, in effective communications strategies, and develop their financial awareness and understanding of human relations strategies as well as their knowledge of enterprising life and employability skills all necessary for participation in twenty-first century global citizenship. Researching theories of leadership and organisational learning and change will enable you to engage young persons in the skills of independent learning, research, critical analysis and problem solving.  

You will also learn about the role you can play as a business education teacher to drive forward the discipline within its contemporary social, cultural, and political contexts.

Professional enquiry is an important aspect of the teacher’s role. On our course we will teach you how to conduct research in your classroom to enable you to make evidence-based decisions in support of pupils’ learning.

How will I be taught?

Structure and exit award

PGDE (120 credits) with the possibility of 80 credits at Masters’ Level 11. You must complete the full PGDE.

Teaching, learning and assessment

The course is structured between 18 weeks of teaching at QMU University (which is a mixture of mostly face-to-face and some blended learning) and 18 weeks split between two secondary school placements.

Teaching consists of independent and collaborative learning in workshops. You will engage in research and produce three written assignments and one Individual presentation all of which will be either assessed at Levels 11 (Master’s degree level) or Level 10. Teaching practice is assessed in schools.

Assessments are designed to:

  • optimise accessibility for students with a range of strengths and abilities
  • provide variety of opportunity to be challenged and to excel
  • engage students in the importance of being literate and communicative in a range of formats and media
  • model and demonstrate assessment procedures for student teachers so that they can incorporate this into their own teaching practice.  For example: the importance of assessment; transparency of approaches to assessment, value of providing a range of assessment formats, and ways and means of providing feedback and feed-forward.

The PGDE shares the pedagogic approach of the other courses in QMU’s Division of Psychology, Sociology and Education, foregrounding:

  • critical thinking
  • student collaboration
  • independent learning
  • involvement with global real-world issues
  • interprofessional, interdisciplinary learning
  • practical experience, experiential learning and critical reflection
  • practical upskilling in food and textiles
  • peer/group work
  • enquiry-based learning
  • debate and contention
  • outdoor learning activities

Placements

Placements are an invaluable way of building on your theoretical learning and by applying this in practice, seeing the evidence of how teaching Business Education can benefit young people.

You will complete an 18-week placement in two different secondary schools in Scotland.

Placements are generated through the GTCS Student Placement System (SPS) and are based on a student’s term time address. Students may be required to travel within a 90 minutes radius to their placement and are responsible for meeting their own travel costs.

Please see the 'Entry requirements and application information' tab for information on costs related to placements. 

Teaching hours and attendance

This is a full-time, demanding course, lasting 36 weeks in total, split into 18 weeks of campus teaching and online learning and 18 weeks on placement.

Class sizes

The expected class size for this PGDE will be  approximately 20 students.

Teaching staff

You can read more about the teaching staff on this course at the bottom of this page. Please note that teaching staff is subject to change.

Modules

  • Reflective and Critical Practice (Placement modules) (40 credits): This module has a particular focus on professional values and the roles and responsibilities required of a teacher in relation to the 2021 GTCS Standards (SPR). This module is assessed by observation of teaching practice in Schools at SCQF Level 10.
  • Business Education in the 21st Century (40 credits): This module aims to equip you with the skills to teach BGE and the senior curriculum within Business Education departments in a secondary school context and to engage critically with research to inform your approaches to transformative learning in schools. Assignments are research based and one is a recorded presentation, with the other being a written submission. Both elements must be passed to achieve this module.
  • Education: Theory, Practice & Research (1) (20 credits): This module will develop your critical and reflective skills in the context of classroom-based research and enquiry through building a literature review as a focus for your practice-based research.
  • Education: Theory, Practice & Research (2) (20 credits): This module will develop your skills in conducting classroom research.  You will create a research plan for classroom research and present this to a live audience.

NB The modules listed are correct at time of posting (October 2023) but may be subject to change. In the event that modules change, QMU will seek to use reasonable endeavours to ensure that there is no detrimental impact on students.

Careers and working as a teacher

Scottish students are guaranteed a job for one year in a Scottish school following graduation as part of the GTCS Teacher Induction Scheme. After graduating, candidates register with the GTCS for provisional registration and on successful completion of a probationary teaching year will be awarded full registration.

When a person successfully completes a teacher education programme at a Scottish university they will receive a teaching qualification. By law they must register with the GTCS before they can be employed as a teacher in a Scottish local authority school.

Newly qualified teachers in their probation year currently start on a salary of £32,217 in Scotland. Secondary teachers get an additional £8,000 if they choose to complete their probationary year anywhere in Scotland. Once you are fully registered, this increases incrementally over the first six years from £32,217 to £48,516.

The Teacher Induction Scheme offers a guaranteed one-year training post to every eligible student graduating with a teaching qualification from one of Scotland’s universities. 

Visit In2Teaching's Teacher Induction Scheme webpages for more information.

See the videos on this page to hear about the experience of current Business Education teachers.

PGDE Secondary (Business Education): Entry requirements and application information

Entry requirements

Successful applicants must, as a minimum, meet the requirements as set by the Memorandum on Entry Requirements to Courses of Initial Teacher Education in Scotland produced by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), which specifies general entrance requirements for all applicants and subject-specific requirements for secondary applicants. Shortlisted applicants will be invited for an interview. The minimum entry requirements are:

  • A degree validated by a higher education institution in the United Kingdom (UK) or a degree of an equivalent standard from an institution outside the UK
  • Applicants must have a minimum of 80 SCQF credit points at SCQF level 7 and above in relevant subject areas (including 40 SCQF credit points at SCQF level 8 or above).

The 80 credit points must come from two of more of the areas listed below:

  • Accounting
  • Economics
  • Business Management

PLUS

  • A National Qualification in English at SCQF Level 6, for example:
    - Higher English Grade C or
    - A Level English, Grade D or
    - GCSE English Language AND English Literature, at 4/C IN BOTH or
    - Irish Leaving Certificate Higher English at Grade H4/C2

NB: Higher ESOL is acceptable for entry to PGDE courses only. It is not accepted for entry to BA (Hons) Education Studies (Primary).

AND

  • A National Qualification in Mathematics at SCQF Level 5, for example:
    - Standard Grade/Int 2/National 5 Mathematics Grade C or
    - GCSE Mathematics at 4/C or
    - Irish Leaving Certificate Mathematics Ordinary Grade 3/B3

NB: National 5 Lifeskills/Applications Mathematics is accepted in place of National 5 Mathematics.

International: You will be required to provide evidence of English language competence at no less than IELTS 6.5 with no individual component score less than 6.0.

Accreditation of prior learning: You may be granted exemption from studying a module or modules up to a maximum of 60 credit points, provided you can demonstrate successful achievement of all the learning outcomes.

Other requirements

  • A satisfactory criminal records check from the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme.

Disability/health conditions:

If you have a disability, long-term physical or mental health condition, or learning disability, it should not stand in the way of your studying at QMU. However, if you are not sure whether your disability might be a barrier in your studies or in relation to the professional standards, please contact the disability service who will be able to have a conversation with you about reasonable adjustments and supports available to you.

Other costs

  • The additional costs associated with placement travel and accommodation are the responsibility of the student.
  • The cost of the PVG check is the responsibility of the student. Please see PG 2024 fees page on our website.

Applying for this course

You should apply for this course as part of the UCAS undergraduate scheme before 31 January 2024. Late applications may be accepted if space remains, please contact Admissions to check.

UCAS code: 0002

So that we can fully consider your application, you will need to provide supporting documents to QMU's Admissions team as soon as you have applied. Failure to provide these means we will be unable to assess your application.

Please contact Admissions to provide the following:

  • your degree certificate (if already awarded)
    • your academic transcript listing all the modules you have completed
    • evidence of Higher English (or equivalent) if already awarded
    • evidence of National 5 Maths (or equivalent) if already awarded

Application deadline

This course is still open for an August 2024 start.

Terms and Conditions

The delivery of this course is subject to the terms and conditions set out in our 2024/25 Entry - Terms and Conditions (Postgraduate).

More information and contacts

For admissions or eligibility enquiries, please contact Admissions

Alternatively please contact Linda Craig (Programme Leader)

Course Overview

Delivery
On campus at QMU and on placement
Duration
1 year full time
Start Date
August 2024
Subject Area
Fees & Funding
UCAS Code
0002
SCQF Level
11

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