Leaving Teaching help

[ButterflyTulips]

I'm having a complete crisis of confidence and lack of direction.

I mid 40s and no longer in a position to leap into something new full of energy (can't move, can't do full time if it's practical like teaching.)

I taught in schools and then moved into adult education. I'm on a crazy "flexible" contract which feels like a zero hours contract in disguise and tutors are treated really badly. I earn £15k a year and work mors than my hours. I do currently get school holidays off though.

I have 2 very good degrees (oxbridge and an OU first) but have now completely lost confidence.

I need to move up (didn't get the role due to lack of management experience which makes me think this is a catch 22 position) or out.

I dont know how to move out. I don't want to move into a basic admin job if it doesn't have any progression. I would like to start earning a decent salary again and so move into somewhere where I can progress.

I feel in a much less secure position than a recent graduate despite years of experience now!

Any help or encouragement would be fantastic.

What do you teach? And where? This is the perfect time to return to schools if I'm honest, they're desperate for teachers!

There's a Facebook group called 'life out of teaching, exit the classroom and thrive'. Join it and have a look at some posts. Lots of advice on there.

Fingers crossed for u OP. I'm.nearli 55 and will be going soon- had enough and can'ttake the pace.. No money stashed away, no real plan apart from.leave , take pension early and top.up with another job. Have heard there is a Facebook page for after teaching? No idea of any more than that as don't do Facebook. Good luck

It sounds as if, more than anything, you need a reputable employer whose T&Cs bear scrutiny. Would you consider a move into working for a local council or the civil service?

Oh I am absolutely not returning to schools. There's a reason they're crying out for teachers...

I would like to change career. I would have loved to have been an Ed Psych but it's not possible to retrain near me. I'd really like an actual career path or a job with prospects.

People mention civil service but we don't have any big departments near us (not in a big city). I saw a fab trainee exams role but it's Coventry! I can't see that there will be anything (other than prisons and police which I don't think I can do) unless fully remote.

I really don't know what I want to do and I think being 40s makes the fear of getting it wrong even more of an issue than being in 20s and trying something.

I've run a lot of adult Ed groups and love working with adults and generally enjoy teaching adults but the work culture and the really bad pay means this won't be sustainable. But has a lot of what I'd hope would be transferable skills. Designing and delivering training.

Ironically I've run Wellbeing groups which get fantastic feedback and I'm great at creating a group and meeting people where they are at and encouraging adults etc.

I have a fast analytic brain and am quick to learn.

I just feel so rudderless.

EveSix yes I've been looking at local council roles but not sure how to make the leap or at what level. So many jobs are advertised at full time around 24k.

I don't want to end up in a junior role that can't lead to progression. I looked at early help roles but same issue. I've looked at ehcp caseworker roles but as they're always advertised I think we must churn the out. I almost need someone in the council who "speaks council" to explain what opportunities there might be and what I'd be suitable.for.

Ironically the adult Ed is council run but very different pay and conditions for "core staff" than for tutors who are on these crazy variable contracts.

I absolutely need stable hours and some degree of flexibility but I will work hard and have a good brain. I just need to retrain. I think.

My fear is leaping into a junior role somewhere and there being a ceiling as I'm not professionally qualified in a different profession.

Apologies if I'm waffly. I woke up early worried. I know I am good at my job it's just not sustainable and I feel so lost.

I don't even have lots of years of pension due to lost of part time when kids were small. 😬

I hope I haven't missed the boat.

(secondary psychology)

If you’ve run a class room you have management skills, lots of transferable skills.

I’ve mired to an Insurance company, lots of scope for promotion, lots of training and professional qualifications.

I’ve noticed a lot of these roles are down as admin but they aren’t what we would have called admin jobs - mine is complex.

Have you considered online schools? Depending on your subject there are now some well established ones that pay similar or close to scale. I work for one of them and it's been like having a complete career change, whilst still getting to teach (actually more of that than you do in classroom as it removes most of the behaviour management issues). I don't mean online tutoring. Proper online schools with timetables and all the rest.

I just saw your subject which is perhaps a little bit more specialist. But worth following all these schools on LinkedIn, it's likely to be the time they advertise soon if anyone's moving on they would give notice soon. They don't all use TES (some do).

Or if you are really completely done with teaching that Facebook group does have so many great suggestions and like minded people. (Perhaps a bit of an obsession with recommending the civil service.) I really worry about the state of schools in the coming years with the mass exodus.

Good luck.

It was applying for a manager role within my own organisation where I was told this. I think it's specifically managing people. They don't seem to promote from within.

I really wouldn't thought of an insurance company - that sounds really interesting! And fantastic re training and qualifications. What sort of role did you go in as?

And yes I'd happily wfh on a complex admin role. It's more than it looks like some council/NHS admin jobs are aimed at those with just gcses and don't look like there's room for progression.

Absolutely more than happy to do an "admin" type role if it is interesting and wi either pay okay or lead onto something else.

I need not to be on a variable hours contract.

Schoolescapee (love the name). I also teach functional skills maths which I imagine is more in demand. I teach a variety of subject and yet feel I need to claim for a few hours here and a few hours there and earn very little!

Its not impossible but I think I want to teach/train adults or leave entirely. I want to be able to have a sick day and not feel I've let everyone down (not that I'm often sick it's more the intensity) and have some flexibility in my work.

Assessment organisations. Exam boards recruit lots of teachers for subject knowledge and school knowledge. They often recruit for subject advisor type roles.

I do exam marking but that's only for a month a year. I don't live anywhere near any exam offices or that would be ideal.

Hope you find something. I’m in a similar boat. The Facebook group does help point out that teachers do have all sorts of skills we don’t think we have. Teaching had eroded my confidence away to nothing. I went into it so enthusiastic and got every interview I went for. Now the thought of an interview terrifies me and I genuinely don’t think I could do it. I was on a website yesterday called made by mammas. There were a few good flexible jobs on there. It’s good to even try to narrow down the area you want to go in then you can read the adverts for those types of jobs.

My dream would be to work for guide dogs for the blind. Jobs have come up there recently and they provide training. It’s closely linked to teaching as you match up dogs with their people and a teaching degree is actually mentioned on it. There are loads of things like this out there, it’s just trying to find them. The Facebook group does have a lot of help, too much if anything as it’s so overwhelming to try and look through everything

Make sure you sign up with did teach. Their newsletter is good just for ideas as they have jobs who look specifically for ex teachers. Also follow pennyten on Twitter - she does an edujobs post every Sunday for those of us who want to leave the classroom. Most are quite high level but the odd one comes along!
(check out charity jobs as well.)
good luck

If you have a psychology degree what about NHS talking therapies- many trusts have ‘wellbeing practitioners’ or Clinical Associate Psychologists ( fairly new roles) the latter payband is from around 33 to 43k and there will be opportunities for progression up to band 7 (50k). These roles are Usually funded to train.

Yes maths will be much more in demand although where I am the maths teachers doing FS also do GCSE. We do have pensions and sick pay etc. Not as good as TPS but it's something.

The point made about re-framing your skills is a good one. On that Facebook group I've seen a few people mention using a CV writer to help them. There are people/companies now who specialise in this and can make your CV much less "teacher-y" to give you a better chance of getting noticed. Search for CV in the group some options should show up.

Environment agency. I met an ex teacher who worked there - mostly remote (maybe 1-2 meetings per month to travel to). She raved about how well staff are treated and said that people come from all different sorts of backgrounds. She recommended going for a lower level role to begin with, then working your way up from the inside. No relevant qualifications needed! (i.e. science/environment based).

It’s shit OP. FE colleges have had huge budget cuts from the government, and they’ve responded by taking away stable teaching careers and putting staff on “flexible” contracts. It’s basically a zero hour contract by another name, designed to save money by depriving staff of their legally entitled employment benefits and conning them into working extra hours for free. You’re earning less than minimum wage, it’s disgusting.

I get your point though, it’s difficult to get out when you’re not qualified in anything else. And if you start applying for jobs you’ll quickly discover that employers are prejudiced against ex-teachers. They’ll tell you stuff like you’re not experienced in a commercial environment, you don’t have the mindset to put profit first instead of people, you do realise that you won’t get cushy holidays and go home at 3pm, and colleagues will treat you as a peer and won’t defer to you and call you Mrs X? Basically all of the shitty assumptions that the general public have about “lazy teachers” will be applied to you, making it very difficult to get hired.

I tried for years to get out of teaching for the same reasons as you. Nobody would hire me. Interviewers said I was too “teachery” and wouldn’t cope with a “real job”. In the end my only option was self employment. I went to a local business centre which offered free support, did a few short courses in finance and marketing, then set up a small business. I removed all mention of teaching from my public profiles eg LinkedIn, I don’t tell people I was a teacher because they judge me and think I’m lazy (couldn’t be further from the truth but that’s the public perception of teachers).

The one good thing about the bloody “flexible contracts” is that you can taper them off slowly as you build up your business. Use them like they’ve used you.

Gosh seeing teachers as lazy 😔. It's so sad isn't it.

@Icannotbudget I'd not hears of the clinical associate psych and that sounds exactly up my street. (I so wanted to train for Ed psych and would if I had a uni locally!!) Although I imagine it is highly competitive in the way that assistants are. I've looked and bizarrely our NHS says they have a number of these roles but

"Are you a Psychology graduate with a 2:1 or 1st Hons Degree who has gone on to complete Clinical Associate Psychology training?"

When I've googled the training it looks like unis are offering it to in house roles but I can't see a training contract role. I will email them and ask!

Other role I wish I'd done was OT as in my 40s I'd be able to move into a management role within that. Starting from the bottom and retraining (no career change courses here) is too much.

I'm seeing Evryone around me at this stage move into more flexible work or more senior work and able to make decisions etc and I feel I've galled down a snake in a giant game of snakes and ladders despite good degrees and working hard and a range of skills and experience!

Do you have a degree in psychology?
You could undertake the training to assess for exam access arrangements, dyslexia assessments and also private dyslexia lessons/workplace support and advice for adults. They could get funding through access to work potentially.

Have you considered instructional design or Ed tech? I left the classroom to be a learning designer and love it. There's more money in corporate roles, but I love my HE role, which has 44 days leave, lots of flexibility and a decent salary.

From September the government is setting a minimum of 4 hours maths teaching for 16-19s without grade 4. I work for a college FS department and we are looking for 2+ teachers and the same in our GCSE department. I have a full time permanent contract and earn £44k. If you like your current job but not the conditions you have options. If you happen to be in the midlands pm me but otherwise look to your local FE colleges.

Oh wow. No not midlands. I teach functional skills on this strange variable contact and have 16 hours contact time and earn £15k....I m feeling short changed! It is nice adults and I do have huge variety in my week as I also teach some disability education and Wellbeing. I do like the actual job. If they gave me 44k tbh I would stay.

How many hours contact time is ft permanent out of curiosity and is that rougy term time only for contact?