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Health Professions Postgraduate Certificate in Education

Take your career to the next level by building on your health profession knowledge and skills.

A member of staff working at a laptop at a bedside in a mock hospital ward

Key course information

LevelShort courses and CPD
Duration12 months
Fee£2,500
AwardPGCE
Course codeCID1448

Course summary

The PGCE Health Professions will help you build on your experience, knowledge, and teaching skills and take your career to the next level. You'll develop confidence in delivering learning using various methods and promote learning and teaching in your clinical setting. The course is ideally suited to those with significant education or teaching responsibility in their role, such as clinical educators.

  • The course has a strong focus on developing practical skills around teaching and assessment
  • You'll learn how to help colleagues in your clinical setting to learn more effectively
  • You'll be taught in state-of-the-art clinical and simulation facilities, including the Living Lab
  • Visiting guest speakers from a range of backgrounds will share their experiences of working in the field.

For available funding opportunities, please contact cpd@sunderland.ac.uk.

What you'll study

Core module:

Learning and Teaching: Applying Theory to Practice (30 credits)

Explore academic practice and gain an overview of learning theories relating to clinical education. Explore practical classroom teaching and learning approaches including the use of specific methods such as problem-based learning, small group and one-to-one teaching, and the use of role modelling in professional education, while also covering a range of pedagogical approaches. Identify both why you are taking an approach, as well as having the ability to implement, adapt and evaluate contemporary approaches to health professions education.

Route module:

Designing Learning and Assessment for the Health Professions (30 credits)

Gain an insight into the theory behind the utilisation of signature pedagogies and approaches to learning and teaching such as problem, case or team-based learning, and develop skills and confidence in delivering learning using these methods.

Systems of student support including mentoring, coaching and supervision feature in this module, and participants will be encouraged to explore the use of different systems in different contexts to meet the needs of a diverse student population. Explore in detail the range of assessments used in the clinical setting including the use of OSCE and other variants, the assessment of skills and competence.

How you'll learn

You'll be taught via a mixture of lectures, group-based seminars, and interactive workshop activities. The course includes applied educational theory, with practical skill development in a range of teaching methods such as inter-professional learning and clinical simulation.

You'll be assessed via multiple methods, which reflect the underpinning principles of universal design for learning, including essay format, a spoken individual presentation (viva), a written module document, and verbal defence.

The course is taught on a part-time basis, every Monday from 9.30am–3.30pm.

Entry requirements

Fees and finance support

The tuition fee for this course is £2,500.

The employer usually meets course costs – we advise you to speak to your workforce development lead before applying.

We also accept self-funded applicants and encourage anyone wishing to explore their options to contact cpd@sunderland.ac.uk(opens in new tab).

Apply now

Contact the Corporate and Professional Education team for further information about applying for this course by calling 0191 515 3361(opens in new tab) or emailing cpd@sunderland.ac.uk(opens in new tab).