Why should I train non-residentially?

Course or College?

Since theology is to do with the whole of life, it may be best learned and applied within the continuing setting of job and daily life, with all its pressures and opportunities to make connections.

If your vision is of a ministry exercised through work, you will probably need to keep your job, not only as the base for the ministry you hope for, but to provide the context for reflection during training.

If you are married, it avoids uprooting your family twice — once to train, and again on ordination. Training in this way may impose other pressures on family life (see the section on Family and Training).

To cope with this pattern of training, you need to be reasonably settled in job and family — which normally means that you must be over 30.

It is a demanding but creative pattern — by no means the ‘second best’ or ‘back door route’, as it used to be described.

What qualifications do I need?

NOC has no formal entry requirements, though your diocese or district may have. The course has included some who left school at 14, others with several higher degrees… and everything in between.

At your initial interview, we will want to ensure that you can take advantage of a course of continuing education, that you have the necessary motivation for the work required, and are able to attend appropriate weeknight and weekend sessions.

You will need certain skills of reading and organisation to cope with the demands of private study, and to express yourself coherently, on paper and in speech. If you need special help here, it can be arranged.

Although no previous qualifications are required by NOC, you may need some for the degree programmes through Leeds. Our Director of Studies will be glad to discuss this with you. Leeds University accepts life-experience and professional experience as well as formal qualifications for its entry requirements.

What qualifications do I get?

All who complete the Course receive an NOC Certificate which is validated by the Churches Validation Framework on behalf of all the sponsoring churches. The certificate is all that you will need for ordination in your church. The NOC course is designed to offer a training for all aspects of ordained ministry.

The work done in the evenings, as well as satisfying the NOC requirements, can also count as a module in a degree programme. By the end of the three years students will have gained enough credits for either a diploma, a BA or an MA depending on the level at which you want to work. Occasionally students with a good theology degree may be funded for a higher degree (MPhil or PhD) in conjunction with NOC training.