Are you considering embarking on a teaching career? Would you like a better understanding of the teaching profession? There’s a feeling that teaching is rather like a bubble. In other words, you can only really understand what it’s like from the inside. Teacher training courses do not fully prepare new teachers for how to forge a successful career. And much textbook content is hard to implement in practice. In this article, I have tried to provide answers to many commonly asked questions about teaching. By reading this article, you should therefore get a big-picture view of the profession.
Read more: Teaching at a glanceIn this article, I provide answers to the following questions: (i) What does teaching involve? (ii) Why should you become a teacher? (iii) Who should become a teacher? (iv) How do you become a teacher? (v) Where can you work as a teacher? (vi) What knowledge do you need as a teacher? (vii) What soft-skills do you need? (viii) What are the career prospects? (ix) What are the hours like? (x) Why are so many people leaving the profession?
What does teaching involve?
Teaching involves planning and delivering lessons. The planning for these lessons must exist on three levels: short-term (i.e. weekly), medium-term (i.e. termly) and long-term (i.e. yearly). Teaching also involves setting homework and marking assessments. In addition, you must attend meetings with colleagues and students’ parents. And you must collect regular and accurate data pertaining to your students’ performance. Alongside these core tasks, you will be expected to carry out duties and attend out-of-school activities.
Teaching is a demanding and labour-intensive role. You will typically arrive at School an hour before the students and you will leave an hour after they do. There is a tacit assumption that you will plan lessons in the evenings and on weekends, although of course school leaders have no legal right to enforce this. While in School, you will be on-hand all the time. Your door will always be open to respond to student queries and you will have many administrative tasks to complete alongside your teaching.
Why should you become a teacher?
Young people spend about six hours each day for about 10 years in School. This amounts to a considerable part of their lives. As young people spend such a long time in School, their teachers can have a large impact on their lives – for good or for bad. For young people, School can be empowering and inspiring, but it can also be demotivational and traumatic. Teachers play a vital role in defining School experiences for their students. By creating a positive environment at School, we set our students up to succeed – not just in their exams, but in their future adult lives as well.
At the end of their School careers, students must be ready to enter the adult world of work, further education and relationships. To succeed in the world of work, they must be literate, numerate and independent. To succeed in the further study, they must have a solid work-ethic and personal accountability. And to form meaningful and long-lasting relationships with others, they must have self-confidence and compassion. A bad teacher will not be able to provide students with these skills and opportunities, but a good teacher will. As a teacher, you have the opportunity to have a positive impact on a young person’s life. And that is something you should be proud of.
Who should become a teacher?
Teaching is a very rewarding career. You will have a positive impact on your students’ lives and you will build effective working relationships. But teaching is also challenging. It requires resilience, stamina and excellent inter-personal communication skills. Simply put, it is not for everybody. Teaching is a vocation rather than simply a career. The teachers who succeedin teaching and remain in the profession long-term are often the ones who live and breathe their job. Become a teacher if you enjoy working with young people and if you enjoy making a positive difference in people’s lives.
The inverse is also true. I do not recommend teaching as a career for anyone who does not have a genuine fondness for children and teenagers. Believe it or not, there are teachers out there who fit this description, and students detect it straight away. Moreover, teaching is not for the faint-of-heart. You may well witness drug overdoses, mental breakdowns and assault.
How do I become a teacher?
Becoming a teacher in UK is a 3-step process. First, you must attain a good Bachelor degree, preferably in the subject you wish to teach. Second, you must hold a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) qualification that contains a Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) component. You can study on a full-time academic degree programme, or (more commonly) on a School Centered or School Direct route. Third, you must complete a statutory Newly-Qualified Teacher (NQT) year.
Places on teacher training courses are competitive and most positions are non-salaried (although generous bursaries are available for certain in-demand subjects). You will need to pass a selection day in order to enroll on a training course, and completion of the course will not guarantee you an NQT position. If you fail the NQT year, you will be effectively barred from the teaching profession. And, even if you pass, there is still no guaranteed full-time position. In short, you have to be dedicated.
Where can I work as a teacher?
There are many types of educational institutions in UK. Being a fully-qualified teacher will enable you to work in State Schools, Academies, Colleges and Alternate Provision. Alternate Provision could refer to Special Needs settings, or to settings that cater for students displaying challenging behaviours. Thinking more broadly, there are yet more institutions that offer education as part of their services, such as libraries, museums and even prisons. In addition, many schools are run by Local Authorities, and so there are jobs in local government that are suitable for teachers.
Many people choose to pursue an overseas teaching career. This topic would require a book-length discussion in itself. Suffice it to say that most reputable overseas teaching posts require a Certificate in English language Teaching for Adults (CELTA) or similar qualification alongside PGCE / QTS.
What knowledge / skills will I need as a teacher?
Teaching requires a broad skill set as well as a good level of general knowledge. Below is a non-exhaustive list
- Literacy / written communication
You must produce reports and promote Standard English in your lessons, regardless of your subject area
- Mathematics
You must collect and analyze data pertaining to your students’ performance. You must also be comfortable working with weighted mark schemes
- General knowledge
As a teacher, it is your responsibility to address students’ misunderstandings, wherever and however they arise. You will need a good gasp of current affairs as well as critical thinking skills
What soft skills will I need as a teacher?
There are many lousy teachers with excellent subject knowledge, just as there are many brilliant teachers with ropey or outdated subject knowledge. Teaching is all about communication and building relationships. As such, the following soft skills are required.
- Inter-personal communication
Teaching involves communicating with colleagues, students and students’ parents. This communication is both verbal and in writing
- Patience
Young people often lack maturity and critical thinking skills and you will have to make allowances for their age. Moreover, some students will struggle to access concepts that, to you, are simple
- Resilience
Teaching is a challenging career. Many students feel lost in School and will take out their frustration on you. Again, young people often lack maturity. You must have a thick skin and you mustn’t take this kind of thing personally
What are the career prospects as a teacher?
The entry-level salary for NQTS is (at the time of writing) about 22K, which, compared to other industries, is relatively good. Pay progression beyond this point is based on satisfactory completion of appraisal objectives. As a teacher, you may wish to become Head of Department (HOD). From there, you may be able to seek promotion as a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). SLT roles are typically either academic or pastoral in their focus. There is a formal qualification aimed at those wishing to become head teachers: the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH), although this is not mandatory.