Why is it so hard to get a job in a secondary school?

[BlackSun1989]

So my husband is doing his pgce to teach secondary history and he's had 6 interviews so far, no job. Well the 6th one was today and they said they'll let him know on Monday. I'm just getting really depressed about it. Is this normal? I've supported him through 6 years of doing a Phd and now his pgce and I was so looking forward to him working and not having to worry about money anymore but now I'm just getting depressed with each rejection. I worry I'll still have to be the main breadwinner and we won't have money to keep my toddler in nursery and I'm 14 weeks pregnant. I really thought it would be easy for him with a PhD and having worked in parliament to maybe teach politics and history. Where is this teacher shortage the government keep going on about?

That’s fabulous opportunity for him . It will give him experience..

thanks for the update wishing him the best of luck 🥳🥳

Great news, this will give him the practical experience he needs.

Yes take your points re PHD, but it isn't practical for us to move right now. Our house comes with my job and I can't move that quickly, so the only option would be to live separately for a while and I'm due a baby in October and we have a two year-old, no way he'd want to live away from us. Plus both our sets of parents live down here and are very helpful, we don't want to leave them. Hopefully now with this maternity cover he will get experience and improve. He's had interviews at very good schools in the area so I hope the experience will help him get a permanent job at one afterwards.

Great news! I echo the above regarding ECT. All the best to him x

It depends entirely where you are. I'm a History HoD in the East Midlands and I had to advertise a History job three times last year before I got any suitable candidates at all.

First two times there was literally no one to interview. I had one application from someone without a History degree and who had never taught History, but had taught Sociology in a school for a year - I was looking for someone to teach History right up to A level. Second application was from someone who had taught Primary (Y3) for 3 years and thought she 'might like it better in Secondary'. Again, no History degree, no ability to teach at the level we wanted. Utterly unsuitable even to interview.

By the time we finally put a third advert out we had two PGCE History students apply and interviewed both, chose one of them. People keep saying 'History isn't a shortage subject' but I've actually struggled to recruit for the past five years, despite being in a nice school.

So pleased to hear your DH got a maternity post OP. Hopefully that will be good experience and lead to other posts.

There are loads of teachers at my school who are started as a maternity cover and gone on to have permanent jobs.