I want to teach, but not in schools!

[makemepretty17]

Dear all, hoping this is the best place for my question...
Basically, I love the theory of teaching, I like working with kids on a one-to-one basis and have a hobbyist's interest in educational psychology and child development. I'd love to have a career in this field, but I don't want to become a full-time teacher- for all the reasons that I so often see here; stress, the need to be extrovert, long hours etc.
Ideally, I would like to tutor one-to-one or small groups, mark exams or work in the creation of teaching resources. However, most of these things require you to have been a teacher first. Has anyone come to these kind of careers from a non-teaching route, and if so, how?
Currently, I'm an ex-publishing professional and teach TEFL online. I know I have useful skills to give, but I'm not sure how to translate them into an educational field without having the 'front line' experience of working in a school. Any thoughts would be of real interest, thanks.

The reason that most of those things require you to have been a teacher first is because you are likely to be crap at it if you have no teaching experience.

Why don’t you see if you can get some experience in a local secondary school to see if teaching is actually as bad as you fear? Maybe work as an LSA for a year (don’t know what your job situation is).

I did 1-2-1 before I was a teacher. You really need to train to teach first. It isn’t possible to tutor for an exam, or mark an exam, that you haven’t taught.

Even if you go into teaching with the view that you will do five years and then leave, that would be the best preparation for doing what you want to do.

The right school and teaching is a great career.

*If you find the right school then teaching is a great career.

I really do think you'd need to qualify as a teacher first to do those jobs well. As a qualified teacher you will also be able to charge more for things like private tuition etc.

Why not do a PGCE? You don't have to go on to complete the NQT year if you don't want to.

Interesting your note about extroversion in teaching - there are some interesting articles on this on the TES. I think you can shape your classroom/routines etc to suit your needs/preferences. E.g. I'm an introvert and built an 'introvert's classroom' and style of teaching which was totally different from my extrovert colleague's style. So don't let being an introvert put you off!

You really can't produce teaching resources if you haven't taught.

I teach, but not in a school. I did teach in a school - I taught in schools for 20 years, but now I teach in a theatre. It's still at proper qualification (ie I don't run youth theatre or kids' drama classes - I teach a full time 3 A Level equivalent to 6th formers) it's just that we're based in the theatre rather than a school or college.

I always find it a bit odd that people would think they could do tutoring or marking or the creation of resources if they hadn't taught first.

Have you considered something like teaching in prisons? I knew someone who did that and enjoyed it. You would need a teaching qualification and a bit of experience first, though.

You could maybe do a bit of casual tutoring without a qualification, but for anything serious you'd need a PGCE, I think.

Thank you all for your feedback. I'm going to take this all under consideration. I think my first step will be to take a TA qualification, work in schools for a short while, and work out if it's really for me. Then, if it is, and I think I can do it as a career change, I'll look into some School Direct or SCITT courses where I can learn on the job and get the vital experience. I appreciate all your responses, and will be getting myself into a classroom some way or another!

Have you thought about being an OU tutor? That said I know somebody who is one and they say that the OU now is the shadow of it's former self. I got out from the OU 3 years ago and I think I left at the right time TBH but it's probably OK if you've never known different!

Hardly a ringing endorsement though...

Hospital school. I did a 3 month placement there... wow incredible place.

What's your subject?

I’m not a qualified teacher, yet I’ve managed to establish myself as a private Science tutor . Saying that, I do have a degree, Ph.D and some uni teaching experience. I would disagree with the idea that you need school classroom teaching experience in order to produce teaching materials/successfully mark work. I’ve managed to do so by studying specifications/course materials. I was even accepted as an A-level marker by OCR without having a teaching qualification. Maybe Sciences are different though....

They are often short of qualified teachers for marking on Sciences. That's why I asked about subject.

Have you considered going into teaching in special ed?

I work in alternative provision, and while there are far more unqualified teachers than there are in mainstream, I would strongly recommend training as a teacher. It is still teaching! And it is hard. Professionally and emotionally.

Work life balance is much, much better though.

I do this kind of thing from an academic psych background rather than a teaching background. You could look for some research assistant work in a university education/educational psychology department, or look into doing an MSc in education research.

My son has recently had home tutoring through our community hospital education service. One to one lessons at home. They only teach maths, English and science though so it will depend on what you want to teach. I would have thought you'd need teaching experience though and a good understanding of SEN.

I just thought, given your publishing background, I'd keep a close eye on the nfer website and graduate scheme: www.nfer.ac.uk/about-nfer/careers-at-nfer/research-graduate-programme/