As a former postgraduate certificate in education FE student at Keele University, I want to warn prospective students about the qualification certificate issued on completion of the course. I enrolled for and successfully completed the postgraduate certificate in education course to teach in further education.
However, the completion certificate simply states that the qualification is a certificate in education - not a postgraduate certificate in education - a qualification I understand to be of a different status than the course I completed. The certificate in education for teaching in FE is a course open to people training to lecture in vocational areas rather than academic fields and it requires considerably less work.
On receipt of the certificate, I protested to Keele's education department.I eventually received a letter confirming that I had completed the PGCE. To date, Keele still refuses to issue an accurate certificate, saying that it is not its policy to include the wording "postgraduate" on its certificate courses, whether or not there is a difference in status.
I am now employed as an English lecturer in a college of further education. I work with colleagues who completed the certificate in education and hold the same certificate as I. Other colleagues, who completed PGCEs in FE at other universities, hold the correct certificate.
Keele should issue the correct certificate. If I had only wanted the certificate in education, I would have followed that course, which is offered by a number of other institutions, rather than the postgraduate certificate at Keele.
Elaine Woodvine Clayton, Newcastle-under-Lyme Staffordshire