My cousin will be finished her degree in June (almost there) and wants to find a trainee GTP in a PE department - obviously secondary. She has been contacting schools but I just wondered if any fellow forummers may be able to offer me any insider information as regards to anywhere that may be after a highly competent graduate who will be a credit to the school where she will eventually end up working? (She has had recent work experience with All Saints School in Sheffield and therefore references can be provided).

Obviously there is no biased whatsoever!

Look forward to receiving any PMs with details where she can send her CV/cover letter. Many thanks.

What has made her consider a gtp as opposed to a PGCE?

She could write to schools directly.

You need to contact schools directly and find out whether they have a GTP programme. Check out the Times Education Supplement on Fridays (TES), some job adverts will say GTP available. If you have a particular skill (or particular sport) they may be keen to hire you and will sort out GTP for you. Otherwise you will have to apply for a PGCE. It all depends really whether you want to work in a private or state school, private schools are more likely to offer the GTP.

www.tesjobs.co.uk also has all the jobs that is the paper every Friday too :)

I did the GTP training route the first year it ran - How old is your cousin? You do have to be 24 in order to be able to apply. The scheme was designed for people who had worked for a number of years and couldn't physically afford to drop a wage altogether in order to go back to uni in order to do a PGCE but were ideally qualified in other ways to teach.

I was offered my job by going for a different job at the school, they then offered me teaching instead. We have a GTP PE student at the school I currently work at - he was interviewed by the university and had to be accepted onto the scheme before being placed here. Might be worth contacting Hallam university. As I understood it, places are limited and you have to apply to the course rather than the school. I might be wrong though - Its been 4 years since I started it now.

No disrespect to your cousin, but they will find it hard work to get on any GTP or PGCE PE course. I'm on PGCE PE now and the competition was fierce. Relevant work experience is good, the more the better. Coaching awards are also great. Everyone on our course has a 'main sport', one they play regularly to a good standard. Even once you've completed the course, competition for jobs is even fiercer and you really need to get as much experience in as many sports as possible. The GTP is aimed at people mid 20s above, but contact schools anyway. The likelihood is a private school is more likely to offer it. I don't mean to put a downer on things but this is the case. There is a teacher shortage in every subject but PE.

Thanks for that...she tried the PGCE course but didn't get on. She's had experience in schools and plays a sport to a good standard regularly. I would have thought she had excellent prospects to get on but they said no.

She has tried phoning the course leader on numerous occasions to gain feedback about her interview process but the idiot has never had the decency to call her back - even after saying he would(I say "idiot" because I feel it is extremely important for people to be given feedback so they can learn from their experiences), and she contacted him numerous times but he's been rude in not responding.

She has contacted schools directly (and was at the time when I originally posted) - I was looking for any other avenues.

However, I am pleased to say, she found herself a route!

A loss to the course though that refused her - she would have been a credit to the faculty.

Thanks for all your advice!

With the PGCE course it all depends where you apply to. The sports unis - Loughborough, Bath, Birmingham fill up first and early application is essential. Each uni has their own selection criteria. I go to Loughborough and had to sit through a group talk, followed by participation in a small group discussion then a 1:1 interview. Other unis have practical sessions. I know that Sheff Hallam and Leeds Met have a very strange selection process, I know of excellant graduates who have been rejected by them.

One of the key aims of the PGCE PE course is to ensure that teachers have enough experience of all sports to take into schools. it is impossible for the department to coordinate all of it, therefore they sometimes rely on trainees supporting each other. We have a discussion forum where we can request info from others, for example if I had a volleyball lesson coming up and I was stuck for ideas I could request some info from a volleyball player on the course. Having a sport is great, a willingness to help others as well is even better. it is about sharing your sport with others and learning off others as well.

With regards to Sheffield, King Edwards School recruit student to help in the school at lunch, supervising the yards etc. It may be possible to do this (you get paid for it) and then ask if you can stay and observe a PE lesson every now and then. I think Birkdale recruit people for a year long Assistant position in the PE department. Unis will always ask you about good PE lesson (from your time at school and observations). Why was it good? Were pupils active? The big buzzwords are 'health', 'time on task' (how long was the teacher talking to them, in some schools a 1 hour PE lesson is reduced to 20 mins activity), 'differentiation' (how will you cater for more able and less able performers).

With sport today everyone wants to work in sport, and some unis who proud themselves as being sports unis are actually quite stuck up their backside which is probably why they won't respond to calls. Go onto the Guardian website and search for university department ratings for sport and exercise, you'll see whose good.

Sorry to waffle on but I hope this helps!