The Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) is an initial teacher training qualification that students can apply for once they have completed their degree. The minimum entry qualification into a Postgraduate Certificate in Education is an approved undergraduate Bachelor’s degree, which includes appropriate and sufficient academic subject content knowledge to teach school subjects for a particular phase of schooling. Usually, students who register for the Senior and Further Education and Training Phase Teaching specialisation need to qualify for ONE FET Teaching Specialisation from the list of approved FET Teaching Specialisations and ONE SP Teaching Specialisation from the list of approved SP Teaching Specialisations.

The PGCE prepares graduates for teaching through an intensive one-year full-time programme. The PGCE focuses primarily on developing teaching skills (HOW TO TEACH), and not knowledge of the subject/s you intend to teach (WHAT TO TEACH). Students are therefore expected to have the necessary subject disciplinary knowledge in their chosen subjects for teaching in a school before embarking on a PGCE. 

The PGCE will enable students to register with the South African Council for Educators (SACE) as qualified teachers.

I completed my B.Sc degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1992. At the time to go into teaching we had to complete a Post Graduate Higher Diploma in Education (HDipEd) with two subject specialisations. 

In my B.Sc I passed the following subject knowledge courses:

• Zoology I, Zoology II and Zoology III.
• Botany I, Botany II and Botany III.
• Complimentary Biological Sciences II with Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology.
• Chemistry I.

In 1993 I registered for the HDipEd and successfully completed:

• Theory of Education.
• Biology Teaching Methodology
• Physical Science Teaching Methodology
• Teaching Experience (3 weeks at Queens High School and 8 weeks at Jeppe Boys’ High School)
• Computer Literacy 
• Language endorsement (language proficiency for Language of Teaching and Learning and Language of Conversational Competence  based on Matric certificate).

 In July of 1993 I was informed that without Physics in my degree structure I could not graduate until I completed Physics I through UNISA. This should have been identified when I registered by was overlooked. I began teaching in 1994 and at the end of 1995 moved to teach in Private schools and then left teaching in 1998. When I came back to teaching in 2003 it was a requirement to register with SACE. So I registered provisionally with SACE and then completed Physics I modules in 2007 – 2008 and also completed some Chemistry II modules in 2009. In 2009, based on my results from the HDipEd, the content courses from UNISA and my teaching experience the Senate of the University of the Witwatersrand awarded me with a PGCE with the following credits:

• Theory of Education
• FET Methodology: How to teach Life Sciences at Grade 10-12 level
• FET Methodology: How to teach Physical Sciences at Grade 10-12 level
• SP Methodology course: How to teach Natural Sciences at Grade 8 – 9 level
• Teaching Experience in the FET and SP subject specialisation/s
• Two Competency Endorsements (Language and Computer literacy)