To want a job, any job, but just not in teaching!

[LorlieS]

I need out!

20 years in education but enough is enough.

Any suggestions re my next job? 😀

As a nanny you could earn an equivalent salary. It provides an opportunity to meaningfully help with the development of the children in your care.

Education staff in a museum?

I left teaching many years ago to work in staff development in HE. I know teaching is tough but there a few jobs that will give you the same salary from the start and none that will give you the same holidays.

Excellent point!

Although when I stopped teaching at secondary school, my spending went down because I was no longer eating out, relying on takeaways, and buying frivolous things to cheer myself up.

But you might not be doing any of that anyway so definitely consider the pension point.

I teach in a PRISON and it's incredible compared to secondary. They are so grateful and happy to be in class, and are paid to do it.
Lots of paperwork, longer teaching day, but you can't take any work home. I love it.

Nursery Assistant would be huge drop in pay

I wonder how many teachers are going back from the holidays thinking the same thing? I’m only in my 30s and I think I’ve probably got 1-2 more years left max before I’m done. I’ve started thinking about what else I could do too, it’s daunting isn’t it!

Pension payments to make the equivalent if a teacher’s pension will be huge as you need to cover the state contribution

Pensions in the Civil Service are good. Better than teaching I believe. Lots of transferable skills from teaching and they employ based on ‘behaviours’ rather than just previous job titles. I found some places saw teacher and assumed I didn’t have skills that could transfer to an office job.

It really is daunting! I stayed longer than I should have because I felt trapped. Escaping was the best thing I’ve ever done and I’ve never been happier. It really is worth the leap.

@BeingATwatItsABingThing I've been qualified 20 years this year. It's just got worse and now it's unbearable.

Agree you need to look at pension, although with 20 years teaching behind you, you probably have a decent amount already? Civil Service is a good option with a great pension.

It really does just keep getting worse! There is no let up and no real measures to improve it.

This is true. However, self-employed people are taxed far less on the same earnings. Also the number of hours that teachers actually work should be considered to calculate their true hourly rate.

Say for example if a teacher's salary is £35,000. Pension contributions are 9% from the teacher and 24% from the employer so 33%. But of course average salary DB schemes provide roughly 1.5x the benefits for the same contributions as a DC scheme due to the favourable tax treatment and index linking and the risk being borne by the employer not employee, so the rough salary required to replace the pension benefits through a DC scheme without the teacher decreasing their taxable pay is (24 x 1.5) + (9 x 0.5) = 40.5% contributions (on top of the 9% they already pay themselves from base salary remaining unchanged) so a total salary of £35,000 x 1.45 = £50,750

With 39 weeks per year of work if the teacher is in reality working a 60 hour week their hourly rate of pay is under £22, including being able to replace their pension benefits privately through a DC scheme and still take 13 weeks per year off! Their real hourly rate of pay is even lower if they also do some work in school holidays, which most say they do.

This means if they can secure an employed role at £22 per hour they will likely be able to ensure a similar net pay and pension outcome by working a more manageable 45 hours per week and having 6 weeks of annual leave (because holidays are paid): £50,750 / 52 / 45 = £21.68 per hour.

If self-employed 45 hours per week with 6 weeks of (unpaid) holiday they would in theory need to earn £25 per hour however, due to the hugely favourable tax treatment for self-employment, it would likely actually be a lower hourly rate required than for employed work taxed via PAYE to achieve the same net earnings.

DH left teaching last year after 25 years as his mental health was shot to bits.

He now works in a FE college as their Mental Health and Wellbeing Co-ordinator and the difference is staggering.

He is so much happier. We were just saying today on the first day of term, imagine if you were having to go back to school today, the horror of it!

Pay wise, its not quite as good as teaching, but not far off and honestly, worth every penny!

I’m a full time nanny (50+ hours a week) and I’m on £65,000. I have a pension too. As a teacher you’d be in demand!

Pleased to hear it works out for a lot of ex-teachers. It is really hard to articulate what the issues are in teaching because they are so vast and systemic. I just know I can’t do it for the rest of my career and I know a lot of my colleagues feel exactly the same.

The above assumes zero pension contributions from another employer as well, when all employers are required to be part of self-enrolment now so make at least some contribution, and many even in the private sector make matching contributions up to a limit. So in reality a teacher would need to work only maybe 40 hours per week in an employed role at £22ph with six weeks of holiday to be able to match their current salary and pension outcome, with the £35k salary in teaching that I used as an example.

It's mad that teachers are paid so little when the average full time salary in the UK was £38k in 2022 and with 8.1% pay growth average in 2023 now stands at £41k (not including employer pension contributions and employee benefits).

What do you teach ??

Hang on yesterday you were a qualified teacher working as a TA who wouldn't consider going back to teaching because you don't want to pay for childcare and your mum goes mad if you want to collect as late as 4.30.

How does that work with your new career or are you looking at retraining so you can pay for childcare?

I left teaching to work in insurance- I was a Maths teacher of 15 years and have a degree in Statistics. There’s a lot of transferable skills from teaching. Although I took a £10k pay cut (from UPS3) I am rapidly climbing up the pay grades and have potential for promotion under 2yrs in.

I now do a lot of coding, as well as spreadsheet wrangling and work from home 4 days a week. The job is mainly stress free, and there’s enough to keep me interested.

Downside is the loss of the holidays, and it’s not the same buzz as being in a classroom. The upside of being able to walk my children to school, book time off to attend sports days and assemblies, and the care about stress and workload management (totally absent from teaching) make all the difference.

Intrigued as to why you think this when self employed are taxed at the same rates but also don't get holiday or sick pay.

I have really liked the idea of this but cannot seem to find jobs online. Anything I find seems to be more about education support rather than actually being a teacher in a prison or YOI. Could you tell me how you got into it?
thanks.

I'm a TA and have never felt so broken. I arrived at the christmas holidays genuinely feeling like i was heading for a breakdown. Feeling slightly better now after a wee break, but the dread of going back to work is growing. I feel a bit of a fraud though as I don't have the workload/responsibility that the class teacher does, but I genuinely don't think I can carry on.

I have a degree, and a post graduate but fell into this role while my DD was at primary. She's now nearly finished secondary schooling and I'm still here, mainly as I have ZERO idea what to do.

I cant offer any suggestions as to future roles, as I feel washed up and without any skills to offer. I think 8+ years of this job has eroded any confidence that I may have had.

Educational publishing.

This is fascinating! Where do they advertise these jobs?