BioInnovation (PDip)

Program Overview

The BioInnovate Ireland Fellowship Programme is a 10-month experience that equips aspiring innovators with a proven, repeatable process to identify unmet clinical needs, invent a novel solution to address them and prepare to implement those solutions into patient care through startups, as intrapreneurs or other channels. The programme follows the biodesign innovation process which provides a systematic approach to the identification of unmet healthcare needs, the development of novel technologies to address them, and the subsequent development of business and commercialisation plans to bring them into patient care. Fellows will be selected based on their experience, passion and drive, as well as their potential to become leading innovators in the health technology field.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The PGCE (Further Education and Skills Sector) is a Level 7 nationally recognised qualification for teachers, trainers and tutors in the further education and skills sector. It equips you to teach in the post-14 further education and skill sector, which includes colleges, sixth forms, adult and community learning, the NHS, offender learning, the Police service, private sector training organisations, and alternative provision in pupil referral units (PRU). The course focuses on developing your practical and academic skills through reflective practice. You will work closely with your subject specialist mentor and your course tutor, who will observe you teaching and help you to develop your practice and skills. This qualification enables you to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to achieve the Learning and Skills Teacher Occupational Standard in order to teach and be employable in the further education and skills sector.

Outline:

Compulsory Modules:

• Teaching, Learning and Assessment in the further Education and Skills Sector: This module aims to provide trainee teachers with the necessary foundational skills for teaching, learning, and assessing in the Further Education and Skills (FES) Sector.
(Module code: TS2000)
• Developing Subject Specialist Practice: This module aims to develop your professional skills and behaviours as reflective subject-specialist practitioners in the Further Education and Skills (FES) Sector.
It will develop your confidence and independence in meeting the changing demands of teaching, learning and assessment and explore and develop an evidence-based approach to the teaching of your subject. (Module code: TS2001)
• Designing and Developing an Inclusive Curriculum: This module aims to develop your knowledge and skills for curriculum planning, review and development, so you can develop a holistic, inclusive and evidence-based approach to curriculum decisions and practice.
(Module code: TS2002)
• Advancing Subject Specialist Practice: This module aims to advance the link between educational theory and its practical application to the development of subject specialist knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge and pedagogy.
It will enable you to evidence the Occupational Standard and develop your full potential as a teacher. (Module code: TS3000)
• Research Informed Practice: This module aims to develop your critical insight and proficiency in research-informed practice, using both the literature base and your own empirical research of your subject specialist teaching.
(Module code: TS4004)
• Policy and Professionalism in the Further Education and Skills Sector: This module aims to develop your critical insight in the role policy plays in shaping education practice from policy processes, enshrinement in law, implications for institutional policy and how these impact and translate to the professional practice of teachers in the further education and skills sector.
(Module code: TS4005)

Assessment:

The course uses a wide range of assessments, both individual and group-based. Examples of assessment methods include:

• Reports
• Case studies
• Reflective writing pieces
• Presentations
• Academic posters
• Observations of your own and others’ teaching practice
• Assignments

Teaching:

• The course recognizes the diversity of student learning needs and experiences.
Teaching, learning and assessment strategies have all been designed to meet these differing needs.
• Guest speakers from different areas of the further education and skills sector may also be included as part of the course where applicable.
• Your teaching placement is a central feature of the course.
You are required to teach for a minimum of 150 hours of teaching over the period of the course together with a minimum of 100 non-teaching hours over two placements. This is a national requirement.

Careers:

The PGCE (Further Education and Skills Sector) opens up a wide range of teaching opportunities across the sector. Teaching opportunities exist in various organisations including further education colleges, alternative provision, sixth forms, adult and community learning, the National Health Service, the prison service, the Police service and private sector training organisations. On successful completion of the course you can apply for QTLS status through the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) which will enhance your opportunities to gain employment as a qualified teacher in a secondary school, academy or free school.

• PGDip Professional Practice in Education
• MEd Professional Practice in Education
• Doctorate in Education

Other:

• This PGCE will not confer Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).
However, there are opportunities to work in secondary schools, including academies and free schools after completing this PGCE, especially so if you complete professional formation and gain Qualified Teacher, Learning and Skills (QTLS) status.
• This qualification is suitable for those who are already teaching (in-service) as well as those who are new to teaching.
Your partner college will assist you to find a placement, but this is not always guaranteed.