To consider a career change - gardener or secondary teacher?

[Fatkins]

Slightly cheekily posting here for traffic, sorry.

I am currently taking a break from my career, which has mainly been in coordinating corporate travel and HR admin.

I am trying to decide what to do next and I'm not convinced I want to, should or even could go back to what I did before. It was highly competitive then and I'm out of the loop! Also, I remember the hours and stress levels being fairly demanding in the industries I worked in.

Anyway, I am now thinking through what I could do instead and I'm weirdly torn between two very different ideas; secondary teaching (I have a degree in a subject I could teach, but would need to do a pgce) and gardening.

Wonder if anyone has any experience of retraining in these areas and has any words of wisdom / caution.

Another thought is should I study HR / recruitment and try and get back in with a qualification to boost my CV.

Neither.

Boost your HR creds/quals and go into HR proper rather than admin.

You're probably right blueskies. Maybe I'm having some sort of crisis.

Envisaging frollicking around growing vegetables and imparting knowledge like some sort of history pixie .

Too tall and fat to be a pixie .

I’m an English teacher and my brother is a (pretty successful!) landscape gardener with his own business.

I hope to give you a balanced view! I have been teaching nearly 17 years. I LOVE it, but am on my knees with it right now. It’s got harder and harder. It’s about as far away from a stress-free job as you can get. That said, the kids are amazing, every day is different, the pension is golden and the holidays (well, summer, I work the rest) are the perks.

My brother out earns me, BUT it’s incredibly physical. We are twins- I can stay in my job til retirement, he has ten years max before he physically can’t cope.

We are both very happy and love our jobs really, but I am more secure for the future (assuming I don’t break).

Teaching is very much a vocation- get some classroom experience before you make your decision!

Hope this helps! Zep.

If you do pick teaching (don't) then train in history. English teachers have the worst marking load and are stuck with all the kids all the way to 16, whereas at least in history the ones who hate the subject can drop it at 13. Plus you can set random stuff like 'build a castle' for homework. Way better.

Ex English teacher here!

But really, don't.

Do a CIPD qualification and go back into HR. I LOVE working in HR and have changed around between working in recruitment, general HR, Diversity & Inclusion, L&D and Organisational Development - there are so many different elements and so much scope to find which bit you love. It also tends to be super-flexible. My sister is a teacher, she loves it but is knackered all the time.

Maybe L&D is a bit like teaching...

I used to do admin for an L&D team and enjoyed it.

Teaching has become a truly horrible job. Avoid at all costs.

I am a gardener and also design and construct gardens, I retrained at 26 in horticulture and then worked and trained in a few high profile places. It’s paid off as at the age of 40 I have gone back full time after having 3 dc and can charge £25ph and do projects I love.

I have been supported by my dh when it got tough after maternity leave but where I live there is a thriving horticulture business and people willing to spend money on their gardens.

Look at where you live and get some training and be prepared to tell everyone and his dog what you do ! I tell everyone so I get work by reputation and word of mouth

I say it because if you don’t feel the calling to do it then don’t, it’s too much right now. The physical feeling of the cuts on education are absolutely heart wrenching. I will never ever leave teaching because the kids need us so much and I love them. They all matter so very much but the cycle of fuck all money, little parent input and crazy expectations from ofsted etc.

Is getting too much - so many schools are at a literal breaking point! (Sorry pressed post by accident!)

Just remember that teaching is becoming a very small part of the job and will become smaller when we become even more liable for the mental health of the child.

Actually, what about forest school teaching?

It wouldn't involve either gardening or teaching your subject, but it would involve being outdoors in nature teaching children.

I was also going to suggest becoming someone who works part time in multiple different fields. Although I wasn't going to use the word pixie to describe it

I kind of think dealing with stress and job satisfaction is about putting employment in perspective and not making it the most important thing in your life in terms of feeling fulfilled. So, if there are parts of your career that don't fulfil certain needs you bring them into your life in other ways rather than searching for the single perfect job to make you feel complete. Even if that means working non-traditional patterns.

I don't really advise teaching. If you were to teach, go for history and politics. Do not do English. Repeat: NOT English! At least not if you wish to avoid endless marking and exam stress.

Gardening: Seems lovely. Although I always think it's better to keep a hobby as a hobby. Once it's a job it might be less fun.
Also, you are unlikely to teach part-time and garden part time. The paperwork even for part-time teaching would eat well into your days off, and the remaining days you DO have off you will likely want to spend sleeping on the sofa or with family and friends.

Kind of agree with the recommendation you've had to do something like HR at least part time as main source of income, and keep the gardening as a side-line, not main source of income.

As a history teacher, who can be pretty introverted and have endless marking, I would love to be a gardener! Maybe the grass is greener (!) although I love the actual teaching of history and the kids, just not the outside of the classroom stuff.

I think you should go part-time both, or the forest school idea could be very good?!

Oooooh the forest school idea sounds amazing too. I'll look into that.

Teaching is so, so hard. To career change you would have to have a burning desire to do it - a scratch that just had to be itched. Gardening isn't an easy option either but may be less stressful, unless you are running your own business and have the worry of chasing payments etc. How about something like the National Trust Horticultural apprenticeships? You would get great training whilst still having the camaraderie of a team. They also are keen to have diverse ages and women.

Love of a subject isn't enough for teaching especially English. You'll be faced with 75% of English hating students. One in five don't have a single book at home. It's battering your head against a brick wall. Trying to teach Shakespeare and 17th century poetry to literature hating teenagers is hell. The national curriculum seems designed to make teens hate reading, all the novel, play and poetry options are irrelevant and alien to them. And the exam obession! A and A* students are a fiddle. Everyone else is a daily battle. I managed 5 years before moving to further ed.

Would really advise against teaching. After 17 years in tough inner-city secondary schools it has broken me - dealing with constant poor behaviour, being responsible for kids' results when there's so much more going on with them, constant scrutiny (obsevations, learning walks, paperwork scrutiny, book looks etc etc) it is exhausting and never-ending. Think long and hard OP.

Do both part time. It sounds like you'd make a great teacher.

I think try both part time is a good suggestion. You’ll have the February break, Easter and then Summer holidays as peak gardening time, so could work out really well.

5 years ago I gave up my corporate job to become a gardener, and life is so much better. I earn half what I used to, so make sure your finances and living expenses are in order. But the freedom of working for yourself is amazing, very little stress (apart from tax return time), pick and choose when you work and who you work for. Working in all weather can be challenging sometimes, as can the general public and their expectations vs their budget.

This book will give you some help to get set up wordery.com/start-and-run-a-gardening-business-4th-edition-paul-power-9781472119964?currency=GBP&gtrck=bDM1VEhobTZlVytDYUtxTGQ3S3ZTanFZU280RWZHZHNMOXZwbm1pQzlJWk5NaUpTNFdoVGdpUEJXRUM0NWhBQmVadGp2TU0ycUlMRHAvYUZsY0ovUUE9PQ&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6cHoBRDdARIsADiTTzY5zNRwzkSVgbIFUWDiiJYAgJo7gZjIq_hYm3Qh6g7u0lv1jhsrVHYaAkHFEALw_wcB

For some inspiration, have a read of this www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/09/what-im-really-thinking-the-gardener