Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Career change : how to get into teaching? (without going back to school)
Having spent the past ten+ years facing a computer screen I have decided to dedicate the rest of my working life to people. Nice thought, but how do I get about it?
I'm in my late forties, have changed directions a few times, needless to say that I have more skills than qualifications and that I do not have a proven experience of working in my new chosen field. As a qualification I have what I think is an equivalent to a foreign BSc, but I couldn't even tell if this counts as a degree. I have taught skills to people along the way through my different jobs, but this doesn't exactly make it to my CV. Finally, I only want a part-time occupation once I'm in, which I guess rules out a lot of options. And, no, I am not a parent, forget about mum jobs. The only positive is that I have been doing some voluntary work with kids since earlier this year.
I thought of becoming a teaching assistant, someone else said I could become a mentor, either way I know I'd be good at it (I would!) but... this is such a maze! I don't know the education system over here, but can't face going back to school for a year or more to study. Can I start somewhere and get training along the way?
Does anyone here know about the teaching world and could give me some advice?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Maths is one of the shortage subjects, so there is more ££ support for teacher training. See govt website and link to bursaries. But these depend on your degree grade, so you may have to haggle. If you can get some hands-on experience this year, then apply for the PCGE for next year, you could be earning all of £27k as a new teacher by September 2014...
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Permalink Reply by Isabelle on
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Just to say thanks for all your tips, comments, encouragements and discouragements, great for getting ideas flowing.
I will first visit agencies to talk face to face with recruitment staff. They might recommend a course for further qualification and I could double that with voluntary work in a primary school. Hopefully I won't have to pass GCSEs or finish my architecture studies in order to be a teaching assistant earning some £50-70 a day – though who knows...
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Permalink Reply by Martina Dervis on
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Take it from somebody who's done the crazy thing to go back to year 1 of undergraduate study (with 18-year-olds!): do not even think of taking GCSE's, it would drive you mad! Remember: you do have GCSE and A level equivalence. AND you've completed a two-year HE course.
If you want to work with children, schools are not the only place (as other people have pointed out). Have you thought about museums education or similar things? What other things do you find interesting that you could pass on to children? Art? Crafts? A love of the natural world? Gardening?
Once you have a clearer idea of the job you might want to do, it's easier to look at the possible routes that might lead there.
As for your cv, it's always more difficult if it looks 'foreign'. You'll simply have to explain it in terms of equivalences that people understand here and highlight all your relevant skills.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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As OAE obliquely said - you cannot expect just to walk into a classroom and start teaching. Teaching at any level is a profession and you need training in the skills and techniques required. Without that training, all you would be fit for is wiping dirty bums.
But I wish you luck
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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"Without that training, all you would be fit for is wiping dirty bums"
Speaking as someone who works in a special school, you need training for that too.
Unless, of course, its ones own bum John
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Permalink Reply by L F T Snowflake on
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and speaking as someone who spent four years in SEN schools, I second that!
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Thanks, John, for mentioning profession, training, skills, techniques. After 40 years of chalk and OHP & OAP acetate in the bloodstream, interspersed with three further university level refresher courses at diploma and degree level (aged 35, 50 and 59), I have found this discussion extremely strange, unsettling, bizarre. But one must strive to conceal one's anger. In ancient Rome they left the menial task of paedagogy to slaves, preferably Greek slaves.
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Thanks. I don't think that I have ever said that I expect to just walk into a classroom and start teaching. I started this post thinking of applying for a teaching assistant position, which is very different to being a teacher.
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One thing to watch is the idea of " Contact Hours ". When I started teaching in a School of English the pay was quoted as £ 8.00 an hour. However, that was only for Contact Hours - ie when you're actually on your hind legs in front of a class.
The 0900-0930 daily briefing meeting, the two 20-minute coffee breaks and the one-hour lunch break were not paid so the real rate of pay came down to about £ 6.00/hour on site.
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Permalink Reply by Jenny on
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My story is similar to yours. I have been a graphic designer for 20 years but, as I got into it late, I am now too old for most design studios and have to work freelance (which I don't really like). Three years ago I decided to make my CELTA pay and go into teaching English.
My first teaching job (having volunteered there for several weeks) was at a training centre teaching Literacy Level 1 – a subject I knew nothing about – to adults sent from the job centre. It was a steep learning curve with a starting hourly rate of £7. However, by the time I moved on to another training centre after a year, I was earning £9 per hour. The conditions were appalling. Management was unwavering in its pursuit of getting the maximum work with the minimum expenditure. Worst of all, because success relied on getting results, results were encouraged to be got – one way or another.
My next job was in another training centre teaching ESOL to adults. At £12 per hour, I earned nearly as much as the first job but working part time. Higher management was again very poor, leading to crippling absences of basic teaching material. Again, the worst part was that results were an overriding necessity leading to some questionable practices before and during exams.
Following this, I spent almost a year as a learning support assistant in a FE college (16 to 19 year olds). I loved this job. I really felt I was doing something useful. However, it was paid through an agency (these roles usually are) with the result that I only got paid contact hours – if the teacher was absent, I didn't get paid. No income during school holidays (no NI contributions either). Here, I thought, there would be no underhand goings on when it came to exams/assignments. But I was wrong. All education establishments need results to ensure future funding. It is THE most important consideration and while they do try hard to assist students in every possible legitimate way, there are always some who need "extra" help to enable them to reach the all important level of success.
During this time I also volunteered in primary schools and found the same depressing story.
I have become so profoundly disillusioned that I have given up on a career in teaching. In spite of being rather good at it (in the top three in my first job - without resorting to giving "extra" help), I was never good enough and honestly, I don't think many people are. Until government scraps this mad competition for available funds, education will become more and more of a myth.
Having said all that, if you're still determined, the very best way of getting in to it is volunteering – in whichever establishment you want to work in. This looks excellent on your CV and if you're good you'll either be offered a job there or you'll get a glowing reference. Also, a lot of primary schools only employ future teachers as teaching assistants and if you're thinking of doing a PGCE, you'll be able to get a part time job as a teaching assistant which will help you on your way.
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