new NCT training - Experience as antenatal teacher

[makemineaginandtonic]

I am considering training as a birth and beyond practitioner through the NCT's new courses linked with the Uni of Worcester. I have a BA already and used to work in the city. I have been a mum at home for nearly 7 years and really fancy the course as I had two very different birth experiences and feel strongly about educating women about birth.

But here's the hitch! It costs £6000. Although we are not broke, we don't have £6K to spare. Will it be worth it?

Does anyone have experience of having done a similar course and gone on to make a good living? Did the actual being a practitioner fit in with family life at all?

I am very keen, but need to be able to sell this idea to DH!!!

Bumping for you as interested!

I recommend getting in touch with the chair of your local branch to find out about local need.

In the area that I live courses used to be very oversubscribed and it was hard to get a place. Recently several new teachers have trained up. The bonus is that it's easy for local parents to find the right course, but some of the teachers are having courses cancelled as unfortunately the extra courses don't have great take up.

If NHS support in your area is poor, need for alternative classes will be higher.

As a former NCT chair I can tell you that the NCT should be able to help you find a source of funding, e.g. a charitable grant, so you don't have to pay for it yourself. When I was involved with the NCT, which was just a couple of years ago, a few people doing training courses self-funded but not many.

Other people will be able to tell you more about building a career afterwards. I think it used to be hard to make a living as a breastfeeding counsellor or antenatal teacher (they are self-employed, for a start), but I've just read that the NCT is part of a pilot running parenting classes on behalf of the government - if that takes off maybe there'll be more work. When I was involved it seemed likely that increasingly specialist workers would work in partnership with Sure Start, but now Sure Start has been seriously undermined by the Coalition government I imagine there's less money in that now.

You should have a chat to the Chair and specialist workers in your area, they'll be able to give you more information.

The changes to funding for courses have just been implemented in the last year or so I believe. Previously, they were covered by the NCT, and even then we didn't exactly have people falling over themselves to sign up to train. Now that they cost 6k, we've literally had no interest in my area, and my branch (not a small one, either) has no specialist workers training at the moment. Which is bad for us.

I digress. I agree with the comment above- speak to the chair about the possibility of grants the branch can apply for and use for your courses. Grants vary by area; my branch can't afford to completely cover fees for a new trainee, but we'd be able to offset the costs a bit.

This doesn't help answer your original question! Sorry. I'm interested in knowing, myself. I am under the impression that the income is okay for a part time job, but when you say 'decent living' I'm not sure what you mean. If you want it to replace a full-time salary, I don't think it does. Just guessing from what I know of the number of courses we run, how much they take home, etc.

What cakewench said - I think very few people get a full-time job out of it.

I am an NCT teacher. It is a very fulfilling, rewarding job but not a well-paid one. We get paid an hourly rate for when we are teaching but there is a) a huge amount of unpaid work to do, admin, support, prep, studying etc and b) in these straitened times courses are being cancelled a lot so you may find that where you thought you were going to teach you now have a hole! Having said all that, the course is fantastic - demanding, challenging and provocative but supportive and so family-friendly. But don't expect a well-paid job at the end - more like an absorbing hobby.

Like you, I've been looking to train as an antenatal teacher and have been struggling to understand the changes to fees which are being implemented. I gather it's down to government proposals to remove funding for people training to become NCT Practitioners, raising the cost of training to £6,000 per annum per person. The NCT recognise that this is prohibitively expensive and are lobbying to keep the funding in place.

Find out more and get involved at www.facebook.com/groups/260734607346814/

I have spoken to someone at the NCT since posting originally. The person sort of suggested that the NCT will have the opportunity to "help people out" with the costs, but because they don't know how many people will apply, they don't know how many people they can help out yet! It was all a bit vague.....

Apparently, in the London area, especially inner city, there is no shortage of work. However, she warned against over committing oneself, as it is too hard to keep track of what stage each group is at etc.

I think the new course Pregnancy and Beyond is in line with previous NHS courses, so that NCT trained people will be able to teach in an NHS environment.

I have decided not to pursue the course at the moment, purely because of the cost. Therefore I would be very interested if anyone hears that funding is available or the situation changes! I will be checking out the facebook group above!

Wow. When I started NCT training it cost 6th of that! I didnt pursue it, mainly because as my own children got older, I got bored and realised it wasn't for me.

Also, none of the NCT teachers in my area make a living from it, and it is a supposedly 'yummy mummy' area of London.

This is very interesting! I've just applied for the course - I looove the thought of using my brain again and writing essays. I'd love to be a self employed person doing things with the nHS etc.

BUT there's no way I'm going to be paying £9000 (its an extra £3000 to get to full AN teacher status). That cost doesn't even include books, transport, childcare etc. I would have to work for about 100 years (literally) in my area to pay it back. Also I can't see how 2 study days a month, Sept to June and not holidays can possibly be worth £6 - each day can't cost £500 odd per person to run.

So if I have an interview I shall simply say that I'll only be doing the course if I get pretty much full funding and take it from there.

As an alternative you could look at The Daisy Foundation www.thedaisyfoundation.com for active birth antenatal teacher training

I've been a teacher for 3 years and love the classes and being part of something bigger - we now have 160+ teachers across the UK

Worth considering as the fees are much more reasonable and affordable