I'm in a bit of no mans land at the moment.

After completing my degree I'm not sure what to do next. My ultimate goal is to teach music in secondary schools but obviously I'm too late to get on a course for september so what should I do in the meantime.

I've recently passed my Grade 8 Vocals with Rockschool as well.

Any suggestions

One idea:
If you want to do the PGCE then you will need experience working in different schools so if you don't have enough already you could arrange to do some voluntary work in a couple of local/different schools. You may know someone or have a family friend that works in schools that would be a point of contact.

I've got quite a bit of experience in schools as I worked in a school before I went to university and have been back recently.

It's more paid work I need suggestions for. I certainly can't afford to live on no income at all. I've struggled enough on a student loan.

Is it definitely too late to apply for a PGCE in September? You might get a place through clearing if you apply now.

In the mean time, how about taking on some private pupils to bolster your teaching skills / experience. You could find a friendly accompanist and hire yourselves out as entertainers at weddings etc.

If you are going to teach music in schools, I would have thought some keyboard skills are fairly essential - maybe you could do something about that too?

Good luck

It looks like flute is your first instrument in which case a qualification in it would doubtless be of help. If you can get a diploma (teaching or performance) then your chances of getting well-paid private teaching will increase significantly. I would hesitate to recommend a teacher without some kind of official instrumental qualification and I think a lot of parents would be unwilling to send their kids to someone without a diploma or at least grade 8 in the instrument they teach. If you get a diploma you could justify charging a professional rate (c.£20/h) too. I know you have a BA but it's not the same at all. If the expense is prohibitive consider applying for a grant from a musical charity.

There is a real danger of reawakening the whole qualifications debate with this statement. Many BA degrees comprise a very strong element of performance which is at least equivalent to a L diploma and often beyond. Not to mention the combined musicology and composition skills that are included in a full degree programme!

Why not see if you can find work as a teaching assistant? Many of my friends have done this before going on to ITT.

Well, it depends on what you want the work for. If it's just to tide you over for a year and you can type / use spreadsheets etc, then a regular office job, or temp work might be good. It pays, it's often not too taxing. You can also build up a private practice at the same time (although that will then be taxing). If it's temping, it's easier to give up as well.

Alternatively, if you want to do something connected with teaching, then becoming a teaching assistant as suggested would be a good idea. Working in arts, theatre or education admininstration/charities would be useful background stuff, but I don't think either pay all that well, and it might be difficult to find jobs.

Yes I know, many BA holders have exceptional performance skills. But some BA degree courses require no performance at all, or a very low standard, and as such a BA cannot be taken as equivalent to a performance diploma. So in order to teach performance, it is very helpful for parents (your potential employers, after all) to have a clear idea of your abilities which a diploma provides on no uncertain terms. A BMus is a different thing, I suppose, to some degree.

Again, the whole BA vs. BMus thing has been debated in great detail in other threads, with the conclusion that these are just titles - the details of the degrees can vary greatly. It is possible to have a BA degree which has a far higher performance component than someone elses BMus degree (and vice versa). I have a BA degree from a very reputable institution which included a very high performance element, but well grounded alongside musicology and compositional elements (amongst others).

Hello

Some great suggestions here already. Try looking around local schools for Teaching Assistant jobs which pay, unlike volunteer work. I know jobs are hard to come by these days, but term has just about ended now and people often leave at the end of the accademic year. You could also get a job in a school as a specialist TA who supports specific children with learning difficulties.

Most other things I can think of have been covered. You could always find a completely unrelated job for a year just to raise funds for a PGCE. My head of Music worked as a waitress and receptionist for a year while she waited for her course to start in the following accademic year. I realise it's not ideal, but money is money if you can't find a more teaching specific job, it all goes on the CV afterall!

Best of luck

I really wouldn't get too hung up on qualifications if you want to start teaching privately - in 4 tears, I think only one person has ever asked me about my qualifications. Parents are much more likely to make up their own minds based on whether their child is enjoying the lessons and appears to be making some progress. Starting from scratch can be a bit tricky, but once you have a few pupils, word of mouth should lead to a fairly rapid expansion.

Please lets avoid another tedious discussion about the relative merits of different degrees and diplomas etc.

I did private tuition for GCSE and A level maths for about 8 years, and every single student I taught (which ended up being between 2 and 10 per week) came from word-of-mouth recommendation, either from the Head of Maths/other maths teachers at my old school or from friends/relations of the people I'd already taught. Not one person ever asked me about my qualifications. I do have a maths degree and a maths PGCE but no-one ever enquired.
I found my flute teacher on musicteachers.co.uk (or whatever the site is called) and to be honest I chose him because he lives about 10 minutes away from me and he had written that he teaches classical and baroque flutes and didn't make any mention of pop music! After about 5-6 weeks it occurred to me to Google him and decided it was a bit late to be intimidated either by his qualifications or where he taught or what else he'd achieved!

What about a "Grad GAP" year? Many schools will give you experience teaching on a lesser pay scale for a year. I work in an international British school in Kenya and we do that all the time! Sometimes it gives you a good idea on whether or not you really want to do something as well!

Thanks for the suggestions. Sorry I haven't been about, I had a wisdom tooth out on Tuesday so haven't been about.

I'm hopefully teaching singing in September. I understand what you mean about qualifications. I've recently got my Grade 8 vocals with rockschool so I feel confident enough to go down that route. I also know someone who teaches singing in schools who hasn't passed any singing exams and she's only had hers queried once.