Teaching vs Chartered Librarian

[UnlimitedCake]

I am currently considering two career paths - both of which would require a degree/masters. I am currently working in a library and I have seen a distance learning part time degree which would result in a professional librarian status, this could potentially be funded by my employer.

I am also considering primary teaching. I would need to start from scratch and complete a degree then a PGCE. I would also need to resit my maths and science GCSEs.

Seeking opinions on both careers - teacher vs librarian.

Another option is drama teacher - I have a degree in acting/theatre and could go straight onto the PGCE after passing my Maths/Science GCSEs.

Currently my job is low paid and my degree is not relevant to teaching primary.

Seeking thoughts on which path to take, I am in my mid 40s. Thanks ☺️

Sorry how did I miss this? Doing too many things at once! You can just do a once then.

Teacher here of 28 years in secondary. I wouldn't recommend teaching. It can consume u

I have a suggestion which may well save you a lot of time and trouble. If you are thinking about teaching, I highly recommend going to your local FE college and signing up for a course called City and Guilds Award in Education and Training. It is a ten week course (half a day per week) and effectively a Teaching 101 for people who might be skilled in a trade or area, but who want to train others.

It takes you through the very basics of how to plan and deliver content while providing for all learners, culminating in a session that you teach to the rest of the group. You will find out whether you actually enjoy teaching or not.

You could probably register now and get on a course for the summer term.

If you like it, great, proceed to a full teaching course. If you hate it, you have saved yourself a wasted year or more, a lot of money and heck of a lot of stress!

If you contact a local school and say you are considering training to teach they might let you come in for a week to see what it is like.

If you are considering teaching you really should go and see at least one school.

Many people decide it is not for them on that basis alone.

It isn't an insult, it is the legal situation. Secondary teachers are qualified to teach in primary, you don't need a primary qualification.

And vice versa-anyone with a primary qualification can teach in secondary.

If you have a degree and want to be a primary teacher, you’d be best off doing that. I wouldn’t recommend teaching (primary) at the moment to my worst enemy though, so I’d go and get significant shadowing experience before thinking about doing that.

Talk to lots of teachers, read the news, spend two hours reading the ‘Exit the classroom and thrive’ Facebook group. if you still want to do it after that, then at least you are going into it with your eyes open.

I’m a qualified librarian, I would honestly not recommend it. The pay is poor, the opportunities are decreasing and there is a lot of competition. I think it’s the kind of career that appeals to people who are rigorously academic so you find yourself up against very highly qualified people, for example my last job share colleague had a phd, and is now a university lecturer - we were paid a pittance. I actually work in education now, in a role unconnected to libraries - will not be going back.

I am a qualified librarian and I think I did the masters course you're talking about if it's the distance learning one? This will give you qualified librarian status but then to Charter, it's a whole separate process that you can do while you work. This leads to MCLIP, aka Chartered Librarian status. I think there is a route to Chartered status called ACLIP that you can do without a masters, but lots of employers still ask for the library masters degree.
I don't think it's fair to say there's no jobs. It depends where you are. School librarianship could allow you to combine librarianship and education, but being a solo professional in your field can be isolating, while some teaching staff don't realise how qualified you are and think of you more as their admin support...

Why is it insulting? It's true and I know many primary teachers who were first secondary school teachers. And schools have been very happy to employ them as at the moment there really aren't many people coming into the profession.
But If Op wants to train to be a primary school teacher she doesn't need to do that she can take a primary qualification now either through doing a PGCE or through something like teach first. She doesn't need to take another degree first.

Yes, this.

What library sector are you interested in? They can be vastly different in terms of remit, responsibilities, user base, pay etc. Branch public libraries, for example, rarely have actual librarians in them anymore. There is also academic (uni, FE colleges etc), health/NHS, civil service, private (e.g. law, corporate), specialist subject-specific libraries... Some services are moving more towards online delivery with fewer and fewer physical materials as well.