School of Education careers support

You can be confident that you will be gaining the skills and experience you need to pursue a career in the education sector. Our strong links with schools, local authorities and professional bodies ensures that you receive current and relevant training.

We align our courses to the real world and prepare you for the workplace by:

• working closely with local schools and other partners to feed their input into our programmes
• integrating employability skills into our courses
• adapting and refreshing our curriculum to reflect current issues and trends in education
• providing opportunities for you to work directly with education practitioners

If you take part in our postgraduate teacher training courses you will spend 120 days based in schools, predominantly one ‘home school’. Working in a school gives you hands-on experience, insight into your role and the chance to engage in the day-to-day interactions within the school environment.

Our close ties with a wide range of organisations and learning providers within the education sector means that you’ll have access to excellent placements and potential networking opportunities.

Our Education and Early Childhood Studies programmes, for example, provide extensive work-related learning opportunities including an option to take part in a placement abroad, such as Germany or Nepal. Some of our Education Studies courses give you the chance to work with children in a variety of settings such as at a Steiner School, a Montessori School or a Forest School in Wales, as well as in mainstream schools and with early years providers. Our Education Studies and Special and Inclusive Needs programme offers a range of interesting work placements, including Everton Sure Start Centre, Broadgreen International School, Sandfield Park, Children and Adult Mental Health Services, Alder Hey Hospital and Claire House. For further information on the placement opportunities of specific courses, please see the course factfiles.

Our University-led teacher trainees are placed in our partner schools within the local region. You will gain your teaching experience primarily in a ‘home school’ with a six week placement in an ‘alternative’ school. You’ll spend around 120 days on placement in schools, being introduced to professional teaching practice by an experienced mentor. You’ll develop skills in planning for learning, organising learners, behaviour management, assessing learning and working with others through a phased training programme. The School Direct route, on the other hand, offers trainees a more school-centred approach with substantial time spent in schools and the majority of training organised by teachers at our partner schools. You can find out more about our teacher training programmes and the training options available to you by taking a look at our routes into teaching section.

All of our initial teacher education programmes are accredited by the National College of Teaching and Leadership and students who successfully complete our PGDE programmes graduate with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), the essential accreditation for anyone who wants to teach in state-maintained and special schools in England and Wales.

The School’s academic team is made up of successful teachers and other education specialists who maintain strong links with schools, local authorities, national CPD networks and professional bodies to ensure you receive the most up-to-date training, gain varied professional experience and insights into the field, and forge useful contacts within the sector.

We have a growing international reputation through a range of successful projects delivered in collaboration with universities and education providers in Sweden, Poland, Greece and Singapore.

Student Futures, our careers, employability and start-up service, offers a wide range of resources to help you plan your next steps, both while you are at university and after you graduate.

We offer in-depth careers advice and guidance via one-to-one careers meetings with our team of Careers and Employability Advisers. Access Careers Zone 24/7, our online careers platform, which includes a jobs board offering internships, placements and graduate jobs, as well as a range of eLearning courses, careers assessments, our exclusive Skills Checker tool, and digital careers Apps, including AI-powered CV360 and Interview360.  Opportunities to meet and engage with employers at recruitment fairs and employer events help you to grow your professional network and find opportunities and an extensive programme of careers and employability workshops help you secure the job you want.

We offer over 150 paid, short-term ‘Discovery’ internships each year working with a local organisation on a graduate-level project that you can fit around your studies.  You also have exclusive access to opportunities for flexible, part-time and full-time temporary paid work through Unitemps at LJMU - our very own on campus recruitment agency, enabling you to earn some money while you study.

Find out more about how our Student Futures can help you.

Part of the Student Futures team, the Start-up Hub helps students and graduates to find out more about starting up a business, becoming self-employed or working as a freelancer.

From Architects to App developers, Coders to Craft bakeries, Drone operators to Dance Companies, Script writers to Sports nutritionists, our experienced and well-connected team can help you validate your idea, understand your customer base and connect you to the local start-up eco system.

Whatever your situation, you can book a 30-minute meeting with a friendly Business Adviser from the Hub to discuss your ideas and aims, and devise a plan to move forward.

The team also run a varied programme of workshops and events designed to help with all aspects of starting a business, becoming a freelancer and developing enterprise skills.