Ross Woods, rev. 2019, '22
What if you have a school teaching qualification? Unfortunately, a school-teaching qualification does not meet the requirements of the Certificate IV.
Some schoolteachers resent being asked to do the Certificate IV, feeling that they already exceed the requirements. Ironically, this attitude makes them less likely to successfully complete it. A better attitude is to do a good job of it in record time.
It is true that trained schoolteachers always exceed the Cert IV skills requirements for teaching. Some shifts in teaching practice have also prepared teachers better for the Cert IV, for example, outcomes education, work experience, Structured Workplace Learning, and some aspects of student autonomy.
A school teaching qualification (B.Ed., Dip.Ed., Dip Teach.) does not by itself meet the Cert IV requirements.
Schoolteachers tend to vary greatly in some skills required in the Cert IV. Those who are trained to teach applies competency-based subjects seem to have less difficulty. Those who teach primarily conceptual skills usually unfamiliar with the following:
Some make the transition to training adults very well but others just as clearly don't.
| What teachers are best at | What many teachers find most difficult in the Cert IV |
|---|---|
| Integrating teaching and assessment | Separating teaching from assessment, especially in developing Recognition of Prior Learning assessments |
| Teaching children and adolescents | Teaching adults |
| Developing conceptual understanding in students | Working with actual competency |
| Guiding learning in controlled environments (schools) | Guiding learning in uncontrolled environments (workplaces) |
| Requiring the best effort from students, even if it is not yet up to workplace standard | Requiring workplace standards of competency |
You should consider RPL if you've been teaching VET to post compulsory students. The same protocols can also work for some non-VET units if they are outcomes based. Your students must be of post compulsory age, because you are required to demonstrate that you can teach adults. These students are old enough to be in a VET college (e.g. TAFE) and instructed under VET protocols as adults.
In some versions of Certificate IV in Assessment and Training, you must be able to give instruction in a Registered Training Organisation, so your school experience normally cannot meet all requirements.