Opportunites - School Based Training
Secondary PGCE Application Guidance from the University of Hertfordshire
Our joint mission with our ITT provider is to recruit and retain high quality candidates into teaching to meet the needs of our locality as well as nationally. We provide personalised programmes which are delivered by excellent classroom practitioners and Specialist Leaders of Education.
If you want your initial teacher training to put theory into practice, to gain confidence with increasing classroom experience and to benefit from the skills of experienced successful practitioners then this one year school centred training programme is worthy of consideration.
SCHOOL based training TUITION FEE (unsalaried)
School Based Training unsalaried is a fee-paying training route which leads to the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). The PGCE comprises 60 masters level credits and Qualified Teacher Status. This route is generally available for all subjects.
To apply for this route you must meet the statutory requirements for initial teacher training (see eligibility requirements). Your degree should be at least 50% in the subject you wish to teach although we will consider in some cases degrees that are closely linked e.g. an engineering degree for a science training place.
As the name implies this is a tuition fee funded route. For September 2026 the tuition fees that Dacorum Schools Alliance are £9,790 (full time) and £9,776 (part-time). Bursaries are available in some subjects while student loans can be accessed in support of paying fees. Some applicants are also eligible for maintenance support through training.
Once trainees have accepted places on this training programme they can then make applications for tuition fee loans through Student Finance England (Student Loans Company), to cover the cost of their training. Trainees in priority subjects may be entitled to a bursary which is determined by the subject and degree class.
Trainees on the School Based Training Tuition Fee programme are not employed by their training school and do not receive a salary. They are supernumerary which means all of the classes they will teach are ’borrowed’ from a teacher employed by the school. Consequently there is flexibility in the training to allow the teaching timetable to grow at a rate that suits the trainee within the constraints of the training year. It also means there is scope for guided teaching and team teaching at the start of the training.