Trinity's Certificate for Music Educators (CME) qualification launches in September 2013 and, over the years, we have been fortunate to have garnered the commitment of a number of music education specialists dedicated to delivering the qualification. In this blog, Dr Marie McNally from Music Educators Online shares her story, from first learning of the new qualification to starting her own business offering the CME.
'I first heard of the Certificate for Music Educators course when it was still about a year away from making its way on to the stage at a Musicians' Union Education and Teachers' conference. I was working at the Elgar School of Music at the time and was also embarking on a PhD journey looking at the massive variations in qualifications and pay of music teachers. This was a qualification I wanted to know more about and, on its launch in 2013, I persuaded the Elgar School of Music to support me in setting it up at the school.
The validation process was rigorous - this was the first time I had set anything like this up - but I knew that, at the school, we had the skills to deliver the course to a high standard. Armed with a bundle of confidence and lots of support from the Head of School, I set about fulfilling every criterion. Our validation meeting came with some advisories but these were quickly addressed and we were good to go!
The next five years were exciting; we had some contracts with music services, as well as individual learners to support. It was small scale but seeing teachers grow in their confidence and development was rewarding. We had varied cohorts, from new teachers looking to develop their confidence and skills, to older teachers looking to refresh their careers. We also had several music educators who did not start life as musicians but wanted to develop their core skills, including an artist working with percussion and a dance teacher working with young disadvantaged teenage mums. The beauty of the course was that there was something for everyone.
However, this was also the most challenging part of leading the course - matching very different skills to core learning aims must have an element of subjectivity - but there was always support on hand at Trinity. We were able to navigate this landscape, capturing the best of each learner in their individual skills, and ensuring that they were set up to continue their development long after the had completed the course.
I left the music school and the CME in 2019, and then we were hit by the pandemic. It was coming out of this that I put forward to a former colleague the idea of setting up on our own and delivering the course entirely online. This new online landscape, that was only a little familiar prior to Covid, had been strengthened by the need to run our lives entirely in the cloud. We knew that we had the knowledge and resources to deliver a strong course, and now it seemed the time was right to branch out in a new company. The Music Educators Online was born!
The course has now opened to learners from outside of the UK, as well as those teaching adults, and this has also opened up what we can deliver. We run entirely online, from online seminars which are shared with our learners, to recorded lesson observations and mentor sessions. It works for us. We have a rolling pattern of six online seminars which run through the year and cover different aspects of the learning objectives and allow us to also run a rolling enrolment system. Learns can essentially join at any time in the year and have access to prior recorded sessions, but also know that a live session will be coming up at some point. We find the online sessions are lively and we have had some interesting insights from our learners.
We are also always learning and evolving. This is still a new venture for us as we enter our second year. But, with a steady stream of learners joining us, it is one which is growing and which we are very proud of! Our learners show a deep willingness to improve their teaching and personal growth, and to be able to help facilitate their journey to this qualification is a real privilege!'
To find out more about the CME, visit our website or email cme@trinitycollege.com.
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