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The idea of using hard-earned skills to enhance other people’s lives is attractive, but getting there requires a level head, patience and realistic expectations. For those who’ve taken the plunge, what does this involve?

Teaching is a graduate career, so no matter what your level of practical experience, no degree equals no teaching job.

However, there are openings for volunteer classroom assistants, and once appropriately qualified, people in these roles have subsequently trained as teachers. Also, even if you graduated in the 1960s or '70s, your degree remains a valid starting point for working in education.

For mainstream primary or secondary teaching, qualifying generally involves taking a three-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) course, which essentially leads to a generic degree in teaching – primary teachers don’t stick to one subject.

In secondary schools, where generally they do, you’ll need a 12-month Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) qualification.

There are variations on this rule, but both courses lead to what Jon Gamble, the Skill’s Council’s director of lifelong learning describes as “a licence to practise” teaching, known in the staffroom as Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

If your skills lie with maths or science, education authorities will be particularly keen to hear from you.

For ‘high flying’ graduates who might be expected to earn megabucks in finance or banking, there are fast track courses that can get them onto the staff of schools, often in deprived areas. Within reason, age should not be a barrier to these.

Then there are licensed teacher schemes, such as the Graduate Teacher Programme, which allows graduate-level people in front of classes while they learn on the job, a process that can take anything from three to 12 months. You’ll find some variations of funding and availability between England and Wales.

Another route to QTS are school-centred initial teacher training courses. These have the tortuous acronym of ‘SCITTs,’ last for a year and are run by groups of schools and colleges.

In some circumstances, retraining to teach in further education colleges can take as little as three months (see case studies), but there are many education-related training and career options. You can find out more by contacting local colleges and education authorities to ask about teacher training courses.

Jon Gamble thinks the first step is to identify what skills you have to offer. He says that those interested in working in education shouldn’t automatically think of teaching, and that there are a wide variety of learning support jobs, which can range from school classroom assistants to further education lecturer support workers.

Often local schools will be happy for you to spend a day observing classes and perhaps shadowing teachers. There are also school open days, and seeing the reality of a job can often help you decide whether it’s appropriate for you.

“Reflect on your own motivations,” says Gamble. “A lot of people have stereotypical images of teaching, and find it very different from the world they remembered as a child. It wasn’t the profession they imagined, so talk to people you trust who are actually teachers to find out what’s good, and not so good.”

Not everyone is cut out to educate and motivate others, and some have found that the social and practical skills that have stood them in good stead desert them in a classroom situation. Good intentions, knowledge and enthusiasm aren’t always repaid in kind, but when it works, teaching can be immensely satisfying.

Written by Martin Gurdon

This article was created: 5 January 2007.
This article was last edited: 9 January 2007.

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