The university master’s degree in Teacher Training offers pedagogical training and enables graduates, engineers, architects and graduates to be able to work as a teacher of ESO, Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and language and artistic education in public, subsidized or private centers. This master’s degree replaces the old course to obtain the Pedagogical Aptitude Certificate (CAP), it lasts one course (60 ECTS credits), although depending on the university it is possible to take it part-time, for two academic years, and includes internships . There are centers that offer the distance modality, 100% online, and each university determines the hours, groups, specialties and other academic specifications. As a requirement to be able to take the master’s degree, a B1 level of a foreign language is required.
The study plan consists of three thematic units: generic, specific and practicum, each one with its corresponding subjects. It should be noted that the offer of specialties available depends on each Autonomous Community. Maria Cugat, educational psychologist and expert in teacher training, points out that this master’s degree “pursues pedagogical training, that is, it does not provide the student with content that she has already learned in the degree. Hence, the specialty is not so relevant in this sense, but the practical part is. There are highly trained people, but who do not know how to explain themselves or transmit the passion for learning to their students, and this is what the master’s degree should teach”.
The practical part that Cugat refers to is the common practicum module, to which must be added the master’s thesis. In Catalonia, the practicum is carried out in the centers selected by the Department of Education; The distribution of the internship centers is carried out, preferably, according to criteria of territorial proximity or specialty of the chosen master’s degree. People who have the CAP or hold the title of teacher, educator or educational psychologist before October 1, 2009, do not need the MUP to practice. In addition, those people who have taught –before September 1, 2009– for a minimum of twelve months in public or private centers of regulated education should not take the master’s degree.
