Teacher Education: experience requirement
The following programs require applicants to have a minimum of 75 hours of practical experience (paid or volunteer) working with children/youth from Kindergarten - Grade 12 in educative ways:
Practical experience
- Experiences must be in face-to-face settings, interacting with groups of three or more children/youth.
- Experiences must be completed within the past four years, and prior to the application deadline.
- At least 50 hours must be completed in Canada within the past two years.
- Your 75 hours can be completed in one or two settings, but at least 50 hours must be from a single, continuous experience.
Examples
- Coaching team sports
- Working as a camp counsellor, summer program leader, or after school program leader
- Group tutoring or teaching (e.g. music classes, specialty extra-curricular activities, etc.)
- Working with faith-based groups or other youth groups
- Volunteering in a school classroom
- Working as an educational assistant in a school district or independent school
- Cultural work in Indigenous communities
- Cultural, social justice, and inclusion-themed work with youth
- One-on-one tutoring
- Peer tutoring as a high school student
- Teaching at the college or university level (including being a teaching assistant)
- Parenting, babysitting or caregiving
Summary of experience template
Use the provided template to tell us about your practical experience and identify two people who will submit confidential reference forms. A sample summary of experience is available to help you prepare your submission.
- Submissions that do not use the template will be rejected.
- You may be invited to an interview with the Teacher Education Office to discuss your experience.
- If you previously applied to Teacher Education unsuccessfully (including wait lists), you must still submit a summary of experience (and references) with your new application.
Confidential reference forms
The people you identify as references in your summary of experience must submit confidential reference forms directly to UVic.
- One of your references must be a supervisor.
- Your references cannot be:
- coworkers
- relatives (including in-laws, step-family, etc.), friends or family friends
- a classroom teacher whose only relationship to you is as your teacher
- someone you taught, tutored or supervised
- somebody who is also applying to a UVic teacher education program.
- References must be submitted on the provided form.
- Reference letters will not be accepted.
- Results of references are not released to applicants.
Instruct your references to email their completed forms to educapp@uvic.ca before the application deadline. Late submissions will be rejected.
Confidential reference form (PDF)
Tips
- Confirm your references as soon as possible! If you wait too long, they might not be available or have enough time to submit reference forms.
- Check in with your references at least one week before the application deadline. They'll appreciate the reminder!