AIBU to want a career now?

[LaineyPea]

I have name changed as my dilemma may out me in R.L. I feel like I'm having a midlife crisis and don't know what to do (I'm only 32). I have DS1 (6) and DS (3) and I am looking get back into work. SAH due to redundancy on Mat Leave. Not worked for 3 years.

Although not for the lack of trying!
I set up my own Childminding Business - started the process 12 mths ago, registered November 2011. But I no mindees at the mo.
I have the option of doing a Level 3 Childcare Qualification probably the last course that my Local Authority will fund.
I also do a bit of cake decorating too - getting 1 or 2 orders per week - been doing this since last summer.

BUT
I have always wanted to teach (Primary 3-7), do I just go for it now? I have a good degree, I have experience in school from volunteering last year and I am due to start going in again next week.

Basically I have several career paths that I could choose:

1. Childminding.
2. Work in a nursery or pre-school work (I currently do supply on an as and when basis.)
3. Cake Decorating (no trainng in this).
4. Teacher training (GTP or PGCE as I have Degree)

The first 3 fit around school picks for my DS's
The 4th means that I will never ever be able to pick them or be there for assemblies etc.

I am not afraid of the work involved in teaching although I am sure it will be more than I imagine. Its just the not being there for my lads.

I have a v v v supportive MIL who is encouraging me to teach (she has known me since I was 16 and knows it is my ultimate dream)

Oh Mumsnetters what shall I do?

BTW I cannot return to my old career as it is v niche and the company I used to work for is on the rocks.

If you really want to do teaching, nothing can stop you, but have a look at the TES website first. In particular, the Jobseekers, NQTs, Supply Teachers and Unemployed Teachers forums.

I qualified as an early years teacher in 2008. It took a year and a half and a move from one end of the country to the other before I got my NQT job, a temporary post for 6 months, although I was then asked to do a maternity cover at the same school, so ended up being there 13 months and completed my NQT year. That finished 14 months ago and since then, I have been looking for a part -time job, with no success. I have had 10 days of supply since May last year, including only 1 this year, despite having to pay for a childminder 2 days a week so I am available for work. I am going to stop at Easter though, as I worked out I have spent £300 on childcare this year for £95, 1 day's work. If I don't find a part - time post by summer, that's it, although I don't know what on earth I will do instead, as I was either a T.A., a trainee teacher or teaching since 2004, so no current skills in anything else. Luckily for me, I am able to be a SAHM and I enjoy it far more than full-time teaching, but ideally, I would like to work 2 or 3 days a week. I sometimes feel at the age of 34, I could never work again.

People who qualified after me have found things even harder, and there are a few people from my course who didn't even get the chance to start their NQT, so don't think that I am just unlucky and things will be different for you. There are thousands of teachers all over the country in similar circumstances to me.

So, for your own sake, think very, very carefully about teacher training. By all means, do the course and enjoy it (although several people reckon the PGCE is one of the hardest years of your life), but don't expect to find a job easily afterwards. You might be very lucky and find a job within a few months, but you will be the exception.
I do wish you well in whatever you decide.

Thank you CremeEggThief I will take that into account.

Why on earth are they running to courses if there are no jobs? It sounds like an awful situation to be in.

It has definitely made me think twice.

*the courses

Lainey, the more cynical among us would say it's one way of keeping unemployment figures down, as while you're training, you can't sign. The TDA's response when I once complained to them that they should find jobs for all of the unemployed qualified teachers before encouraging any more to train, was the retention rates for new teachers is so low (only about 50% are still in teaching 5 years down the line, I think, but if that's not accurate, feel free to correct me), so they always have to have a new bunch coming through. And they don't care if they only need half of them to teach while the rest have to put up with unemployment in a depressed economy, I'm afraid.

I have put my whole life on hold to try to establish my career, even putting off having a DC2. My DS is 9 and a half and I have been working towards this since just before he turned 2. I made that choice, but now I have to live with the fact I might never have another child, as I am 34. I always try to see the positives of just having one child and everyone I know thinks I am happy with just one (I have never had the stick that some people with an only seem to get, for example), but sometimes I feel so sad about the choice I made. At times, the only things that have kept me going are my faith that I am just as good at teaching as everyone else on my course; the ones who got jobs quickly (about half, but this was 4 years ago) were just luckier or better at interviews than the rest of us, and the fact at least I didn't have to pay tuition fees and. I got a bursary. It would have been even worse to not get a job after investing money, as well as everything else I put into it.

CremeEggThief I am sorry about your situation, do you know what you will do next?
You have really made me think again about this. I am at the point of needing to retrain, but would hate to go to all the hard work and for nothing to come of it.

I also suspect that the universities who are offering the courses don't care as long as they are getting students through the doors.

I would get a bursary of approx £4k due to having a 2:1 but would have to take a loan out for my fees.

Is it the same across the age groups or is Early Years / KS1 more competitive due to more people wanting to teach that age? Do they need more KS2 teachers?

Thank you, Lainey. I am not sure what I will do next, but we are moving to a new area during the next few months to join DH (he has started a new job and has already moved), so we are going to talk about trying for another one before it really is too late and maybe there will be more supply available, as it varies from area to area. See, I still try to stay hopeful, despite everything.
I think doing a general primary course keeps more options open, especially for supply. I see more KS2 job vacancies in my current area, although still hardly any, and as I don't have any KS2 experience I don't feel confident to apply or do KS2 supply. So at least with a general primary course, you should get experience of all the key stages in your placements. My couse was brilliant for early years theory and practice, especially Foundation stage, but the only out-of-phase experience I got was half a morning observing Year 5! Some universities would ensure more than this. The standards, values, agendas and procedures vary so much from each other, so be aware of that. Another thing to watch out for is if there are 4 or 5 universities in and around a city, it'll make the competition for jobs even fiercer. When I lived in Bristol, there were people from all the neighbouring counties and even Wales and parts of Somerset and Devon searching, because a lot of universities did teacher training. Sometimes there were 300 applying for a job and this was in 2008 and 2009, before things got worse.

I think it's possibly the same across the board in primary.

I didn't correct your assumption earlier because it was a minor point, but I wasn't made redundant. Since qualifying I've moved schools to a new job each September on maternity cover/long term sick (stress!) cover/fixed term contracts because the schools haven't know what their budget is going to be for the following year. Each year, I've not been kept on because staff returned to work , falling rolls meant class numbers were reduced... A lot of schools are running on deficit budgets because of the impact of Single Status. A lot of school are training HLTAs to cover classes for PPA and short term staff sickness, which is why CremeEgg is having such bad luck with supply. They just can't afford the agency fees. So the budget cut that meant my job no longer existed, but they anticipated that when they took me on, which is why it was fixed term.

The problem with this type of contract is that on top of all the stresses of teaching, there is the added stress of getting to know new children, new families, new ways of doing things, new politics, new colleagues, new staffroom politics, new classroom, new resources every September and there's the inevitable things you don't find out about until May that would have been really useful in September. Every. Year.

It also means that come March, you spend a lot of time job searching, filling in application forms, taking time off to attend interviews...

You can't ever make long term financial plans because you don't know if you'll be employed or not.

You only need to look at the other threads on here about teachers to understand some of the feelings of people/parents towards their children's teachers.

Only you will know if you can do it!

good luck with whatever you do though. x

thanks for the insight!
I have been encouraged by a friend who did a GTP (started 2010) and was given a job teaching Y6 at the end of her placement and is completing her NQT year at the mo.
So I have not been exposed to the more negative side of things.
My friend has acknowledged that she has been v fortunate, she has a job in an outstanding CofE School.
But I would say after knowing her for almost 21 years she would be an outstanding applicant anyway (I don't want to do her down).

I am based in South Yorkshire and would hope to do my course at Bishop Grosseteste. But would have competition from Sheffield Hallam plus others from the Universities which are within easy reach.

I only have to listen to the parents at my son's school to realise what a thankless task it can be.