Becoming an economics teacher - a good idea?

[sergeantmajor]

DH wants to leave his miserable job in the City and is thinking of retraining as an economics teacher.
He is used to stress and long hours. But he hopes that the cut in salary will be compensated for in job satisfaction.
He very much likes the subject and very much likes older kids and has experience teaching at university level (but would need proper teacher training).

Can anyone answer the following...?

• is there much demand for economics teachers?
  
• is it a huge mistake considering teachers are leaving the profession in droves?
  
• are there any big considerations that are not apparent to outsiders?
  

It's a big step so would appreciate info and opinions!

[noblegiraffe]

My school offers economics A-level. This is 9 hours a fortnight so the rest of the economics teacher's timetable would have to be other subjects - business studies the most obvious choice.

[Franny1977]

I trained as an Economics teacher 16 years ago and have taught maths my whole career. I'm now a Dep.Head so have a very small teaching timetable so will probably never teach Economics again :-)

He will most certainly have to offer another subject...

[Franny1977]

Should have been :-(

[G1raffe]

He'd be popular if he taught maths as well....

[Lilymaid]

If your DH has an Economics degree (with a significant Maths component) he could train as a Maths teacher and offer both Maths and Economics. There shouldn't be much difficulty getting a job!

[FinallyHere]

Could he also teach maths? There is currently a significant shortage of maths teachers and hence support for retraining.

[Lightbulbon]

Lots of schools don't do economics. He might have more luck in the private sector.

It's probably too niche to be the only subject a teacher does.

[toomuchicecream]

Both economics/Business Studies teachers left my son's grammar school last summer. Of the 2 people recruited to replace them, one of them was apparently nervous from the outset as her previous school didn't teach economics so she'd only taught Business Studies for the last 6 years. She was off sick before Easter and won't be returning - the A2 students are now being taught by a Maths teacher who did an economics degree plus someone else who is covering under the direction of the Maths teacher. All of which suggests to me that they've really struggled to recruit, so depending on where in the country you are, there could be a choice of jobs waiting for him.

[toomuchicecream]

What he really needs to do is take a week's annual leave and spend it in a school observing. That will give him a better idea than anything else what the reality of life in school is like.

[CrowyMcCrowFace]

I teach in an international school with a big focus on economics &/or business studies.

Definitely openings in the overseas sector.

UK mainstream (my background) - you'd need to offer maths, I'd say.

No trouble getting work, but it's a grim environment in England atm. If your dh were my friend I'd advise him against - & I love teaching.

[t4gnut]

If he thinks the hours in the city are long and stressful teaching is going to come as a shock - its worse. Better off at Tesco's - hourly rate is better.

He may get a few hours a week teaching economics in a big secondary but budgets and performance measures are such that these subjects are being cut. Private sector will probably snap him up though. In the state sector he'll end up teaching maths as there's always a shortage of maths teachers.

[Heirhelp]

He should read through the staffroom section of MN and the tes forum. What was it did not like about his old job? Long hours, pointless paperwork, no breaks durring the day, not being appreciated, impossible targets based on things out side of his control? These are all the things in teaching. He really needs to get into a couple of different types of schoola to find out what teaching is really like but remember a teachers day and job is much more than actually standing in front of a class.