train as teaching/classroom assistant - how to do?

[cestlamemechose]

I think its as much a question of should I as well as how to? Are there some qualified teachers taking up such positions at the minute if teaching jobs are scarce, or does it not work that way?

I have a degree and a professional qualification in an unrelated field though I do have a fair amount of voluntary experience working with children (and have my own children too!).

I think I would be reasonably good at it but would I have to go to college etc? I work part time at the minute and don't think we could afford for me to go off for full time study, especially if there were no guarantees at the end.

Just thinking aloud really. Thanks for listening!

In my authority you'd need a Level 3 qualification in childcare - could be BTEC, NVQ, or the good old NNEB. Then you'd need a lot of luck, and an excellent application form and references and somehow to be able to offer 'something extra' as last time we advertised a post there were 147 applications.

Our TAs either have the qualifications already or are training in the job. That said, we have never appointed a TA who has not been a parent helper for a year or more, and there are usually a huge number of applicants whenever a job is advertised.
We do have two teachers who are currently TAs as well, easier to balance work/life for them as TAs. They plan on going back to teaching when their children are older.

You need to get into schools and help. A local school near here then runs a course for TAs, but even getting on that is very competitive (and costs).

thanks everyone. I haven't heard of any system where parents volunteer at our primary school, other than PTA. I could ask the Principal for advice I suppose!

Similar position to OP - but did a year of volunteering to see if I liked the environment and that the environment liked me. I am now part way through my NVQ3 equivalent. It is only 2 hours of college per week for 1 year (2 years crammed into 1 - so can get a bit workload heavy)
No job guarantee at the end, but if there is something to apply for I might go for it.

What is your degree in?

What attracts you to being a TA and not a teacher?

I know what didn't attract me to being a teacher - watching in my first year of volunteering how much work the teachers do, and how much they have to take home, and how much support they need from family/friends in arranging childcare so they can go to meetings, training, and just getting things done.
I don't have that level of back-up, so I would have ended up short changing either the job, or my family. I wouldn't do it to either, so a no brainer.

Fair enough.

TAs get paid such little money for the work they do; and with the qualifications needed now, it sometimes pays to train as a teacher instead.

Our TA is paid roughly the same as an NQT and are salaried. I think pay/hours/qualifications varies greatly around the country

mrz - your TA is paid £23k? I've never heard of a TA getting anything like that before. I worked as a TA for a year before getting my PGCE place last year and was paid about £11k and that is standard in my area.

That is great, mrz- in most schools I have worked in, TAs are paid a great deal less than teachers and for term-time only.

Our support staff work the same hours as teachers so longer than most TAs but they also access to high quality CPD

The support staff in your school are very lucky mrz. work in the county in which I do and you get paid term time only. HLTAs gets paid 40p an hour more than me and I get 50p more as I work 1-1. Hardly any are contracted, the vast majority are paid by claim.

I have to agree with everyone else Mrz, I think your school is very unusual, and not just by a little bit, but by £thousands !

Actually it isn't unusual in my LEA that is the pay scale

aunt how does your course work? are you only in college a few hours? are you then required to do a placement/do it alongside?

I know the money will not be great (though everything is relative esp in the current climate) but I feel a bit old to go and retrain as a teacher. I don't think my current qualifications (lengthy as they are) would count towards anything in this field so I would have to start from scratch. This would be financially and practically impossible I feel.

My LSA certainly isn't paid that much. Is it Pro Rata?

This suggests that the pay scales vary quite a bit and LEAs can set their own

www.atl.org.uk/pay/pay-scales/payscales-support-staff.asp

cestla - at our local college there is the apprenticeship scheme (although they have to do 4 hours a week - and extra course work) - some free funded places - where you have to get in when there is funding available, and pay yourself - which cost £750. On that, the college only wanted half up front, the second half after the end of the first term. We are in 3rd term now, and I know of several who still have not paid the second half.
For the course you have to have a work placement for min. 16 hours a week. This can be as a volunteer.
I wouldn't worry about age - mid 40s I thought I was going to be 1 of the oldest. Trust me, I shouldn't have worried
Previous qualifications didn't count at all. What it did do though, is give me an advantage in sitting the 'pre-test'to start at NVQ3 level. I had to sit a maths and english test - apparently equivalent level of a gcse - to check that I would have the wherewithal to manage assignments.
My DS3s teacher is in her NQT year - and is 46. She spent 20 years as a TA and did her PGCE as she felt that as her kids were older, she could give it the time required. She said it was really hard work - but is pleased she had done it (but would never do anything like it again). She is also a really good teacher. Fresh teaching ideas - oodles of experience in handling behaviour.

thanks aunt. I was a lawyer a long time ago but have done quite a lot of voluntary stuff with kids.

Glad to hear of a mixed age group, would be terrified of going into a college class of 18 year olds!

I'm not sure I could do much about this right away but if I did decide to go for it, I would want to be organised. Fees don't sound too bad compared to degree etc. I doubt I'd be able to go straight to PGCE but not sure I want to be a teacher at this stage anyway.

cestlamemechose I volunteered on and off in my children's school and was also a Governor when I saw an advert for another local school looking for 2 TAs. I applied without any formal experience and no TA qualifications (but do have a degree) and got the job (despite a HUGE response to their advert)! So you do not necessarily have to gain specific qualifications, but voluntary experience and the ability to write a bloody good application form help! Also, I practised like mad for the interview, I had really thought about the sort of questions they might ask (and went on a TES forum where people were giving example questions) and to be honest I know I did a really good interview. So with such a lot of competition out there I believe in some cases experience and your ability to 'sell' yourself both on paper and at interview can count for more than a TA-specific qualification. However the pay is absolutely rubbish! It doesn't work out that much more than minimum wage!

It does depend on the authority. As an authority wide position, I know TAs were expected to be qualified to Level 3 as long ago as 10 years, possibly longer, here. But I don't know a TA who was on more than £14K - £15K.

I do know of a school in our LEA (London) that has TA positions at an enhanced salary - such as Mrz said. We only have suspicions as to why - as no-one we know works there.
Most of the schools that can easily fill positions don't have salaries that high, but for FT definitely higher than 14-15k

Grade 3 Spine range 20-25 dependant on qualifications and level of experience (£18,435-£21,519 wage per annum)