Any Americans Who Completed Teacher Training in the UK??

I am interested in speaking with any Americans who completed their teacher training in the UK. What route did you take? Did you have any issues with your US qualifications?

I have been investigating/applying for a lot of programs, but keep running into issues with my US Bachelor's degree and US qualifications.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I see from your sig that you've done a lot of work abroad.  Are you looking to do primary/secondary teaching or EFL?

I see from your sig that you've done a lot of work abroad.  Are you looking to do primary/secondary teaching or EFL?

I am looking to do primary training.

I have 5 years experience of teaching EFL in Asia while one of those years I worked as a Year 1&2 teacher at an International School in China. I have been working as a teaching assistant with hearing impaired children with the Education Department in Guernsey, Channel Islands since January, 2013.

I have a BA degree from the US in International Studies.

I am currently speaking to Teach First about whether my qualifications are eligible for admission into the program. I am waiting to receive my score reports from the Advanced Placement (AP) tests I took in 2003. These scores will apparently relate to the A levels scores.

Other programs have rejected me because they say the US BA degree is only comparable to a UK BA degree standard, not an honours, which they require. I even looked into "topping up" my university degree with Open University, but they wanted me to do 2 years of study for about £10,000! And I would still be a square one, an unqualified teacher.

I guess one of my main issues is that I am looking for a program that is salaried, ie School Direct or Teach First. I don't think this is unreasonable considering my experience in education.

It has been a very frustrating journey and I been trying for over a year. I know that I want to be a teacher and am good at what I do, I just need the opportunity to get on a program to prove myself.

I'm afraid I can't help you then, I'm an EFL teacher.  It's an odd thing about your degree, I've never heard of anything like that, though I have felt for some time now like the UK, and especially NARIC, undervalues American degrees. 

You might consider a PGCE once you have ILR, because you can work as you study, so its basically funded, though unfortunately that doesn't help you in the short term.  I hope something works out for you!

I would have thought that the issue is your first degree is not in a subject that is normally taught at primary (and very likely, secondary) school, because often teachers do the degree in the subject they want to teach and then a post graduate certificate in education (PGCE) for the appropriate teaching level (i.e. primary or secondary). Some universities for teaching primary school students do a three year BA (Hons).

Maybe a school centred initial teacher training programme, but I am not sure if you'd qualify without ILR:
http://www.education.gov.uk/get-into-teaching/teacher-training-options/school-based-training/school-centred-training     

Or looking where there's vacancies on teacher training courses, providing you are eligible without ILR:
http://www.gttr.ac.uk/

Good luck!