Getting a job is how you avoid living the rest of your life surviving on baked beans and rainwater.
It’s also a life-affirming, fun time, providing you enter the right job for you. The Insiders is your passport to what some of the most popular careers are really like.
From Teacher to Police Officer to Doctors, and more, we give you the lowdown on the highs and lows of the job, with need-to-know insights from those on the inside.
These guides, and the accompanying Insiders show, are your first step into the arena of work, and about a million times more helpful than an apathetic chat with any careers adviser.
Let’s go to work! Rewarding and nerve shredding in equal measures, becoming a teacher is about far more than a two month summer holiday. In fact, short of dressing up as a superhero and saving old ladies from muggers every day, teaching is one of the noblest things that you can do. Parents are entrusting their little tykes with you for up to eight hours a day and it’s your job to ensure that they don’t ultimately end up standing in the rain mumbling ‘Any Spare change’ or perched on roof of a building with a note that begins ‘Goodbye cruel world.’ If you’re good, you can shape children and help put them on the right path to a happy, fulfilled life. teacher.
Get involved. Before you even start thinking about training, get a feel for dealing with kids by finding work with the age group that most interests you. You could teach swimming lessons, coach a football team or help out at a youth club or playgroup. Better still, if you’ve got a mate who’s a teacher then ask if you can sit in on a class. After watching thirty screaming 10 year olds wrestle with their art projects, you might feel a little differently about your career options. Well, not poor exactly, but teaching jobs are notoriously low-paid. Heads of departments and head teachers can make a decent salary to be fair, but you’ll start around £20,000. In certain subjects, however, there can be generous ‘golden hellos’ when you start your first job. Think a couple of grand though, rather than a soft-top beemer. Once qualified, the easiest way to find a teaching job is to look in the paper.
Remember that teacher you had who ran out of the class screaming never to be seen again? It happens a lot, and you’d be surprised how many jobs are out there. Most schools recruit during the summer holidays but there’s plenty of jobs available year-round. The Times Educational Supplement (TES) comes out every Friday and lists jobs for all areas of teaching. TES Jobs is also available online at www.tesjobs.co.uk
This doesn’t mean that you’re the classroom entertainer, it’s more about relieving tense classroom situations with a few well-chosen words, thus avoiding further disruption. If you’re witty and flexible enough to roll with what your pupils throw at you (not literally hopefully), then they’ll look forward to your class and you’ll be a happier soul. An effective teacher must have high expectations. Work on an attitude that says that you know students can achieve to your level of expectations, thereby giving them a sense of confidence too.
Don’t be unrealistic though. Expecting primary school students to debate string theory or discuss Blake’s metaphysical imagery will only frustrate them and you. five top tips for being a teaching success. prepare to be poor. check out the job market. have a sense of humour. have high expectations. training.
You will need GCSEs at grade C or above in English language and mathematics. Before you receive Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) you need to complete a course known as Initial Teacher Training (ITT). You’ll have to spend a minimum of 18 weeks in at least two schools completing a programme of observation and supervised teaching.
Depending on where you’re at, there are several options available: As an undergraduate you can choose from a range of full and part-time courses in primary or secondary education. You study for your degree at the same time as training to be a teacher. As a postgraduate you can study for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in primary or secondary education. Or You can go for an employment-based route, where you train to teach whilst working in a school. As an undergraduate with at least two years’ higher education you can follow the Registered Teacher Programme. Graduates may choose to follow the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP). Finally, if you already have classroom experience, you have the option to follow an assessment-only route to QTS. Initial Teacher Training (ITT) is available from at least 130 providers in England and Wales, ranging from large universities to groups of schools providing School Centred ITT (SCITT). For full details, visit the Teacher Training Agency’s website www.teach.gov.uk