Biographies of recent trainees

• Caroline embarked on the programme with a first class honours degree in Learning and Teaching. She had been working in a primary school for several years while pursuing her degree studies and had gained HLTA status.  Caroline made an EBITT application because, ‘Employment based training with its opportunities for two significant placements convinced me of the benefits of this route.’ Caroline feels that the programme offered her ‘The support of a cohort, classroom confidence and an excellent all round training.’  She was judged to be an ‘outstanding ‘trainee at the end of her training and has been appointed to a Key Stage 2 post in Leicestershire.
   
• Like Caroline, Deepa had prior experience as a teaching Assistant. Deepa had heard about Encompass GTP through a Leicester based Open Schools programme in which she had participated. As a result of this programme she looked into the various training routes available to her and thought that ‘training on the job’ offered her the best option. Her experience as a trainee has confirmed that she made the right choice. The programme gave her ‘The support of a security blanket ... and confidence.’  Deepa is delighted to have secured a Key Stage 1 post in Leicester City. ‘I always wanted to be a teacher. It was my dream.’
   
• Unlike Caroline and Deepa, Matt had not worked in a primary school prior to embarking on the programme.  His background was in IT, but he had taken paid and unpaid leave from his paid work to obtain weekly experience as an observer and volunteer in a primary school.  This experience convinced him that his future carer aspirations lay in teaching and so he applied to Encompass for a place. Realistically employment based training was the best financial option for him but his wife had trained as a secondary teacher through a GTP programme and it confirmed for him ‘... how beneficial school based training is.’Matt has been appointed to a Key Stage 2 post in Leicestershire – in the school where he volunteered for a year.
   
• Clare, a science graduate, embarked on the Early Years training option, having had several   years experience in a non maintained Early Years setting. She chose an employment based training route because she felt that it suited her way of learning with the opportunities if offered to apply learning directly and with an immediacy which she felt might be less possible on a conventional PGCE programme.  She has found the programme interesting and challenging and, in addition to the professional resilience it has developed, has given her increased personal strength. Clare too will be working in Leicestershire.