Our latest guest article on Mosaic Fit’s skills
is this:
Our Teaching Assistant Skills Career Guide
(1) Entry-level requirements
Teaching assistants (TA) require basic numeracy and literacy skills that are usually GCSE or qualification equivalent to National 4 or 5 in English or maths along with experience of teaching children.
For working with children in primary, secondary level or in special schools required them to qualify for Level 2 and 3 courses. Level 3 Award in Learning and Supporting Teaching in schools is also required in some schools.
(2) Day-in-the-life of a TA
Teaching assistant depending on the training and experience and the TA the status ensure that the children are supported in their learning and can be engaged during activity in class.
Depending on the requirement of the class, they also carry out many administrative duties such as preparation in the classroom and management of extracurricular activities.
Teaching assistants are also given lunchtime and playtime duties at primary level. At Higher levels the deliver teaching activities on a one-on-one basis or in groups and also coordinates teaching support.
Typical Teaching Assistant Career path
As TA, one can progress to different grades ranging from the entry-level to the HLTA based on experience and training. In the HLTA level, TA is also engaged in planning lessons and development of support materials for delivering lessons in an unsupervised manner.
There is also scope for coordination of activities in particular areas of learning such as IT or SEN.
TA Job opportunities
Many online platforms post advertisements about TA such as Guardian Jobs, National Careers Service, indeed.co.uk, reed.co.uk. For the demand for online teaching assistant jobs, there are also job advertisements on eTeach.
(5) Where to find more information
The recognised organisations where all the necessary information regarding the job requirements, skills, salary, career opportunities of teaching assistants can be found are Prospects.ac.uk, UCAS and other such platforms.
Rob Williams has been a Chartered Psychologist for 25 years, including test design consultancy for school test publishers ISEB, HODDER and GL
Our skills blog
- School interview skills
- Learning skills
- GCSE exam skills
- 11 plus practice skills
- Maths skills
- 11 plus skills
- Reading skills
- Aptitude test skills
- School exam skills
- Interview skills
- Cyber-security skills
- Memberships
- Dashboard
- Purchase
Brought to you by educational assessment specialists,