What qualifications do I need to be able to teach in Canada?

Question

I am studying in England for my BSc in Health and social welfare, but I am interested in teaching in Canada. What qualifications will I need after my degree to teach there, and where would I have to study these? Will I have to take the qualifications in Canada. I was going to take a teaching course after my degree anyway, but would my qualifications from England be sufficient to teach in Canadian schools?

Answer 1

Try Googling, "teacher's college Canada". That should help you out there. I found one link, indicated below, that might help you out. I'm not sure if your British qualifications would be viewed as 'equivalent-to' here in Canada; however, historically, foreign trained professionals have always had to undergo further training before being able to practice here in Canada.

I should mention that Canada has a rather large glut of teachers, many of whom are unemployed in their field. The problem there is that many prospective teachers all want to teach in large urban areas. So, if you are willing to live and work in more remote towns, then you may have a somewhat easier time of things.

Your success depends partly on what subjects you wish to teach. If you are interested in teaching fingerpainting, English, History or any of the "softer" subjects, you will find it tough-bordering-on-impossible to break into. However, if you are going for your BSc in Health and social welfare, you may have a slightly easier time of it. Better yet, if you finish teacher's college qualified to teach any of the "hard" sciences, especially mathematics (it's not called 'maths' here), science, chemistry or biology your chances of things working out will be better.