If you wish to pursue a teaching career, both primary and secondary school teachers, including special education needs (SEN) teachers all must have a recognised teaching qualification and also must be registered with The Teaching Council.

To withhold primary school teacher training it is a 4-year concurrent Bachelor of Education degree. A national strategy was introduced to improve literacy and numeracy skills by The Teaching Council increased the length of study from three to four years.

There are alternative routes into primary teaching. You can go straight from another degree and do what is called a post-graduate programme. The Professional Master of Education is a two-year, full-time Level 9 postgraduate professional teacher education programme. At the end of this, you can become a fully qualified primary teacher. But all applicants must have a minimum of a Level 8 degree in any discipline in order to apply for this.

Sometimes, Leaving Cert students may opt to do an Arts degree and approach a teaching career this way. This is usually three years and allows students to study subjects which are both relevant in the primary and secondary school curriculum. An advantage to this option is for students who do not achieve the required HC3 at Leaving Cert will get another chance to meet the Irish requirement by passing Irish during their first year of an Arts degree.

Within this sector secondary school or post-primary teachers choose to specialise in a particular area that interests them like English, History, Geography etc. and share this knowledge with their students. It is a very important role, that is challenging but also requires a special kind of dedication.

To become a secondary school teacher you must have a degree level qualification and a completed teacher training qualification as well as their specific requirements for their specialised subject.

As with primary teaching, there are also two routes to becoming a second level teacher: Concurrent or Consecutive. 

Concurrent is the teacher training element that is built into the programme – a wide range of programmes are concurrent, typically those with practical, laboratory and workshop elements.

The consecutive route is where you complete an undergraduate degree in your area of choice, followed by a Professional Masters in Education (PME). Entry requirements to the PME include a degree in at least one subject which meets the criteria for registration with The Teaching Council.

The Institute of Guidance Counsellors is organised around a Branch structure.

There are 16 Branches around the country in different geographical regions.

These are: Cork, Clare, Donegal, Dublin North, Dublin West, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny/Carlow, Midlands, Mid West, North East, Sligo, South Dublin/Wicklow, South East and Tipperary.

The Branch will elect it’s own Branch Officers: Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and PRO who will manage the affairs of the Branch.

Each Branch has at least one representative on the National Executive Committee. This is the body which implements motions passed at the Annual General Meeting and manages the affairs of the Institute between AGMs.  The National Executive normally meets at least ten times per year.