Career development: CPD for music teachers

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development – but what does this actually mean? Often simply taken to mean training, it is in fact a self-directed, overarching and holistic process of developing your skills and knowledge.

Importantly, CPD can be pursued every day as you work. There is always something to learn from your professional experiences, as long as you can maintain a thoughtful, reflective attitude. CPD also helps you set career goals for yourself and make connections with others who are on CPD journeys of their own, expanding your professional network.

Where do I start?

One way to make CPD a regular part of your working life is to keep a journal. You could note down any questions, insights and learning points that arise from your professional activities, including:

• Any training and what you learned from it
• Tips picked up from colleagues
• New resources or ways of working that you discover
• Feedback from students
• Insights gained from taking on a new responsibility, such as a leadership role or deputising for colleagues
• Lessons learned from mistakes or critical incidents

Keep your journal in a way that feels right for you. Brief and concise is fine if it means you will actually keep and use the journal.

Longer-term goals

Once you have got into the habit of keeping a journal, you may wish to reflect on what it reveals when you read it back. Try doing this at regular intervals, for example once a month. Do your journal entries identify any gaps in your knowledge? Do they suggest a particular strength that you hadn't appreciated before? Do they help clarify the parts of your job that you enjoy and would like to develop? This kind of self-reflection can indicate what kind of training might be useful for you, feeding into your longer-term goals.

Other work goals may be more immediately apparent. For example, you may want to expand your teaching practice and need to develop your business and marketing skills. Again, this is an indication of where training might be able to help you.

There are many training providers in the music education sector. A good first step, therefore, is to try and get a sense of the sector in all its diversity before diving into a particular piece of training.

The music education sector

What does ‘getting a sense of the sector’ mean? If you are reading this, the chances are that you are on the right track. You are proactively keeping yourself up to date with debates in music education: who is saying what and, perhaps more importantly, who is selling what – and why. Many individuals and organisations have products or services to offer, competing with each other to make these as useful as possible. This is good news for the consumer, but it means you need to stay on your toes.

To do this, try searching for the hashtags #musiced and #musicedchat on social media, particularly Twitter. Linked to these hashtags you'll find plenty of teachers comparing thoughts on what does and does not work for them. You'll also find a number of music education academics who have interesting things to say on the fundamental issues underpinning music education, like policy-making and pedagogy.

As well as Twitter, make a habit of checking websites that post news and important announcements about music education. As well as this magazine's website, try Music Mark (www.musicmark.org.uk), the Incorporated Society of Musicians (www.ism.org), the Music Teachers’ Association (www.musicteachers.org) and the Musicians’ Union (www.musiciansunion.org.uk), all of whom publish useful content. As well as checking these websites and others, follow any related social media feeds and sign up to e-news updates where these are available. As part of your CPD journal, it might be an idea to devote a page or two to listing all the different music education organisations (there are many!) along with summaries of who they serve and what they can offer you.

Sources of training

You have now dipped your toe into the music education sector and have developed a sense of what's going on within it. How do you now find the training that's right for you?

Start by looking on your doorstep. If you teach in schools or other community settings, ask about training opportunities offered there or by partner organisations. The advantages of this are that there might be funding available to support you in taking the training, and that the training might be well tailored to the context you are working in.

Also try your local music education hub. Perhaps you teach for the hub – but even if not, the hub should in theory be a central go-to point for anything related to music education in your area. This includes training and CPD for teachers, so it is worth trying to make contact, and again there may be training bursaries or subsidised places available. Similarly, try Arts Council England (www.artscouncil.org.uk), which works closely with all music education hubs and sometimes advertises related training opportunities on its website.

Moving beyond your immediate locality, there are many training providers in music education that operate at a regional or national level. Here are some useful starting points:

• The Music & Drama Education Expo (www.musicanddramaeducationexpo.co.uk), which happens annually in London and Manchester, is the UK's largest free CPD event for music and drama teachers. It is affiliated with this magazine and aims to offer something for everyone

• Music Mark (www.musicmark.org.uk) has a useful page on its website signposting to training from a wide range of providers

• Future Learn (www.futurelearn.com) has various free online courses in music and music teaching

• Musical Futures (www.musicalfutures.org) offers courses for classroom music teachers

• Drake Music (www.drakemusic.org) offers training on working with students who have special needs and/or disabilities. There's also a Scottish branch (https://drakemusicscotland.org)

• Creative Education (www.creativeeducation.co.uk) offers a range of training options

• Music Education Solutions (https://musiceducationsolutions.co.uk) offers online courses, conferences and Skype training

• Sound Connections (www.sound-connections.org.uk) runs a range of conferences and training events, often with a particular slant towards diversity, inclusion and equality

Training from the MU and the ISM

The Musicians’ Union (MU) and the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) are perhaps the largest membership bodies in music education. Both have a wealth of resources and materials freely available on their websites for teachers to explore. Teachers should also be aware of the following from the MU:

• The MU offers a range of events (see the events page of its website) to help members who teach develop their skills and knowledge, from finance and self-promotion to creativity and wellbeing. These are mostly free or heavily subsidised
• The Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU), of which the MU is part, offers a training service that is fully accessible to MU members. Much of the training is free and covers a wide range of topics, from assertiveness to vlogging. MU members need to complete a registration process
• The Art of Teaching is a joint project from the MU and MusicTeachers.co.uk. It comprises over 100 videos about teaching, with information and ideas from experienced professionals working across genres, age ranges and ability levels. Search for and watch the videos on YouTube

And from the ISM:

• The ISM's sister charity, the ISM Trust, is active in developing professional development for music educators. Its most recent publication is Indian Takeaway, a guide to learning and teaching Indian classical music. It also offers guides on performance anxiety, providing a broad and balanced curriculum for school leaders, support for teaching the music part of the National Curriculum and more
• The ISM runs a broad range of webinars and seminars. Webinars have recently covered topics such as setting your tuition fees, composing with Dorico notation software and safeguarding for vulnerable adults. Seminars are provided on a range of topics on request
• The ISM also provides information on its members’ training and CPD offers (see the ‘Courses run by ISM members’ page of its website).

Qualifications

Qualifications recognise the skills and knowledge you develop through training. They can be offered as part of training or separately. If a piece of training isn't linked to a qualification, this doesn't necessarily delegitimise it, as completing a well-respected piece of training can be a kind of currency in itself. Some training comes with a certificate or record of attendance, while other training is advertised as ‘CPD certified’ or similar. This can be beneficial, although it pays to ask the organiser what such a claim actually means.

Many teachers reach a point where they feel that a teaching qualification would help them. If this is you, try looking first at newer qualifications (established within the last decade or recently updated) as these tend to engage better with contemporary issues such as special needs, diversity and technology. On the other hand, a brand-new qualification might still be finding its feet, so try and find out what others are saying about it before you commit.

Check also that any qualification will assess your teaching in person or by video. Older qualifications often seek to assess you through assignments about teaching, which employers and others who engage teachers may see as less valid.

What about pay and recognition once you have completed a qualification? School-based classroom teachers are often qualified and paid according to their qualification level, although academies – now the majority of schools – can in theory hire teachers without qualifications and pay them what they choose. Nevertheless, a qualification is still the most common route into classroom music teaching. Find out more on the government's ‘Get into Teaching’ website (https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/).

For instrumental and vocal teachers, it unfortunately remains the case that there is little formal connection between qualifications and pay, beyond a minority of enlightened employers that offer (and have the budget for) a progression ladder for teachers who are willing to develop their skills. However, qualifications can still help individual teachers negotiate better rates from themselves, as well as increasing job satisfaction and general employability.

Qualifications for instrumental and vocal teachers

This section focuses on just a selection of qualifications that are available for music teachers. You are encouraged to pursue your own research into this active and fast-changing area.

The Certificate for Music Educators (CME) is a Level 4 (equivalent to early undergraduate level) qualification for music teachers. Assessment is through assignments and live (or video) lesson observations. The CME is awarded by Trinity College London and ABRSM with training offered by a range of third-party providers. Visit both awarding bodies’ websites to find out more. The strength of the CME is that it deals in the same fundamental teaching concepts whether you are working with early years learners or older piano pupils (to name just two groups of students), so you can find a course that will help you apply its principles to your specific context.

Manchester Metropolitan University's PGCE in Secondary Music with Specialist Instrument Teaching covers both secondary classroom music teaching and instrumental/vocal teaching. It is delivered in partnership with the Royal Northern College of Music and leads to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), typically a requirement for classroom teaching (although not necessarily in academies, as mentioned above). This programme is ambitious and distinctive.

The charity London Music Masters offers a one-year ‘PGCEi’ in group string teaching, in partnership with Birmingham City University. This course offers options to progress on to QTS afterwards, although it is not included. This is a new course that may in time expand to cover other instruments and approaches.

The European String Teachers’ Association offers a range of courses including the CME (mentioned above) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching, both in partnership with Chichester University. The latter, a Level 7 course (master's equivalent), is predominantly online and does not offer QTS, although it does include transferable master's credits. Teachers of all instruments and voice are catered for, not just strings. These courses are now a few years old and seem to be generating a positive buzz.

The Piano Teachers’ Course is a part-residential, part-distance-learning programme that leads to its own certificate, with options to take ABRSM teaching diplomas. It came out of the European Piano Teachers’ Association but now operates separately. It has many loyal advocates.

The British Kodály Academy offers training and certification for teachers wishing to pursue this particular approach to music teaching. Dalcroze UK and Orff UK offer similar programmes.

Things to check when choosing a qualification:

• Is training included, or is it up to you to arrange this?
• If training is included, is this online or in person?
• Is mentoring included?
• Does the qualification lead to QTS? This is usually associated with higher-level qualifications and is often unnecessary for instrumental and vocal teachers
• Can you access funding to take the qualification from your employer, the provider or elsewhere?
• What other costs will be incurred, for example on books, software or residential accommodation?

I wish you satisfaction and fulfilment on your CPD journey, whatever form it may take. Now to update my CPD journal…