Guidance for Interviewers

Guidance for PGCE Interviewers based both in school and the University - in order to build consistency into the standards and practices we employ when recruiting trainees to the PGCE programme across both University-led and School Direct interviews. Please ensure that your colleagues in your Base Schools have also seen this document.

IMPORTANT: You must ensure that at least one interview panel member for PGCE applicant interviews has completed Safer Recruitment training within the last two years, in accordance with the DfE Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance.
You will be asked to confirm this when you submit your Applicant Decision Form

Entry Requirements

Basic entry requirements for the PGCE courses can be found:

• Primary
• Secondary

The formal offer emails sent to applicants (you will be copied into) will give details of how to provide evidence for each individual requirement.

Equivalencies

Your co-ordinator will be able to assist, however please also see some guidance on equivalent qualifications below

Contacting Candidates

When you are contacting your applicants that you wish to interview, we have examples of our PGCE University-led (Core) interview invitations for Primary and Secondary, that you may wish to base your invites on:

Ahead of their interview our University-led interviewees are given the following information and advice:

• Primary  
• Secondary

Please Note: These pages are written for a University-led interview, so some aspects will vary, however you may wish to ensure that the information on there is given to your interviewees in some form to help reduce queries further down the line.

Additional Form to Send

Please send out a DBS Checklist with all interview invites, this also gives them opportunity to declare if they have been abroad.

Skills Assurance

The Professional Skills tests in numeracy & literacy are no longer required for entry to the PGCE course. This year the interview should instead help identify any support needs in literacy and numeracy that will be addressed during their training year. (Our University-led interviews have a task that asks applicants to write professionally and interpret school data). You will include this on the offer recommendation form.
More information about Skills Assurance can be found here

Applicants you do not wish to invite to interview

Please notify us of the candidates that you do not wish to interview (rejections) on the Application Decision form