Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (Primary) PGDE

The University of Edinburgh

The Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) Primary is for graduates who wish to enter the teaching profession at primary school level. This programme is one route to qualified teacher status in Scotland.

The PGDE programme is academically and professionally focused, drawing upon the expertise of its faculty and institute. The programme is located within the Institute for Education, Teaching and Leadership (ETL); the institute draws on a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, through the strength of the relationships with our partners, both locally and globally.

In particular, the Institute has expertise and professional impact in the changing role of teachers and leaders in a contemporary world; in learning for sustainability; in outdoor learning; in widening participation; in digital literacies and in areas of curriculum development like STEM and STEAM education all of which align with the GTCS Professional Standards.

This is an intensive programme of study with half of this time spent in placement schools and the other half spent studying on University of Edinburgh campus. Through graduate level study of education and professional placements, you will engage in being and becoming a teacher in Scotland.

The programme is designed to develop critically informed and confident teachers to meet the needs of our children and young people in the 21st Century. The PGDE programme aims to capture an interdependent view of the world and a deep commitment to sustainability and social justice for all. To achieve this the pedagogies employed aim to provoke a cultural shift away from transmissive teaching to something more agential and socially transformative.

Through our university-led and school-based placement therefore, teaching and learning aims to engage with and challenge taken for granted assumptions, encouraging and supporting our PGDE students to look inwards to their beliefs and assumptions and outwards to wider educational practices and policies, both nationally and globally.

Mental health and wellbeing partnership Student teachers at the University of Edinburgh also engage with our mental health and wellbeing programme.

This is provided through our unique partnership with children’s mental health charity Place2Be and helps you to support mental wellbeing in your classrooms and in yourself.

Accreditation Graduates are qualified to teach and eligible for provisional registration from the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS). Eligible graduates may join the Teacher Induction Scheme, a guaranteed, paid one-year probationary teaching post, or take up a Flexible Route.

Accredited by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) for the purpose of exemptions from some professional examinations.

Accredited by the Association of International Accountants (AIA) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations.

Accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations through the Accredited degree accelerated route.

Accredited by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations.

Accredited by the EFMD Quality Improvement System.

Accredited by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations.

Accredited by the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland (ICAS) for the purpose of exemption from some professional examinations.