Want to be a Teaching Assistant ( I think) advice, tips, experiences welcome

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I am 42 with a DS who starts school sept 2013. I want and need to work when he starts school and I probably will want to work part time. I want a new career, previously i was a self employed jewellery designer but i want get into a paid profession which works with family life. There are not many options for Mums who don't want to pay a fortune in child care during school holidays to work in any career other than school related, unless you are self- employed and as said this didn't work for me.

I have been thinking about primary level Teaching Assistant with a view to teacher training later on. I think i would be good at teaching and enjoy it. Since having my son i have realised that i really enjoy being with young children and seem to have the right attributes to be a good teacher - so i am told and I can see that. To get the most money i would need to train as a Higher Level Teaching Assistant I am told. My questions are: how i do this, a uni course, correspondence open learning type course? What is the best way of doing it while currently working 2 days a week and looking after my son for the other 3. I will hopefully have another half to 1 day a week for myself after September. Any advice welcome.

Im in the same position and just posted on here.
Why dont you phone you local college as they will be having open days around now. I have one next week.
My friend did it and just had to go once a week. Then you are put on a list and start off with odd days depending on the need for teaching assistants in your area.
Also speak to your lone parent adviser at your job centre she will give you some idea of how many job vacancies are available in your area in this line of work.

The only comment I would make is that these jobs are very, very sought after.
As you said in your post ' There are not many options for Mums who don't want to pay a fortune in child care during school holidays to work in any career other than school related '
I have a friend who works in school admin and for a recent post they had 140 applications!! I also have 4 friends, among my 75 facebook friends, who are doing a teaching assistant course....

Not meaning to be negative, but thought it would be helpful to post 'the other side' !

Good luck :)

My immediate thoughts:

Don't bother training at this stage. Get some voluntary work with children - in a school, children's centre, playgroup etc. If you can get experience of children with SEN or disabilities, all the better. I don't know where you are, but where I am (London) none of the teaching assistants I have ever known have trained pre-entry to the job. All training has been provided once they got a foot in the door. You have a massive advantage in applying for TA jobs if you have got previous experience of working with children, especially children with additional needs, so if I were you, getting that experience would be my goal. Approach the school your child will be going to first, or other local schools, and ask if you can help out once a week or even month. Reading help is a popular, voluntary foot-in-the-door in many schools. Or if you have a skill that you could offer to contribute - say helping out at a sports club or crafts club or whatever?

TA jobs are highly competitive, especially at primary level. That shouldn't put you off but if I were you, I would scout about on your local authority website and download the job description and person spec for a few TA jobs. What are the asking for? How can you meet their criteria, and where are the gaps in your skills and experience that you can fill?

Bear in mind the following:

TA work is incredibly lowly paid. Most schools don't recruit HLTAs, as they cant afford it. They recruit Level 1 or 2 TAs at a lower rate, ad if you stay with the school for a few years and they come to value you highly, they might up your pay scale or give you higher level training (although TA training has been cut massively in my area because of the economic climate).

Not all TA jobs are just school hours. When I was a TA, I worked 8.15-4.15. I couldn't do the school run in the morning (my kids went to a different school), and my kids were in after school club until 5pm every day.

There are great upsides, though, obviously. If you are thinking about a teaching career, there is really no better way to sound it out than to do a stint of 12 mths or so as a TA. The school holidays are great, too. I got so used to the rhythm of having a holiday every 6 weeks that going back to working outside of a school is a shocker!

Good luck.

Thank you for your really helpful comments. ThisaintKansas, i was thinking along this route, I am not going to pay for any expensive training courses at this stage until i get and have done voluntary work for a while. I have an action plan now! Get unpaid experience, approach council for training, apply for jobs and see what happens.

Thank you :)

I have been looking at TA jobs, and agree with some of the above - also TA jobs in primary often seem to be odd/short hours. So for example, 4 mornings a week, so you need to be quite flexible.

The TA courses are usually NVQs - so you need on the job experience to complete them anyway. SO I would agree that voluntary work in schools definitely the way to go!

DEFINATELY volunteer first. I only say this because I originally wanted to be a primary TA. Thought I'd love it. Turns out small children really annoy me. They whine about everything.

I work in secondary now - doing the total opposite of what I originally thought I'd love. Still have the holidays - and drop/off pick up is easy, but without the god-awful whining.

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I've just been offered a part-time Special Support TA job in a primary school, my main experience has actually come through running a Beaver Scout colony - several of my Beavers have had SEN over the years. I also do cooking with Nursery children and road safety training with Yr1s.

Without that experience I wouldn't have made it even to interview.

Good luck!

I was just going to say the same as jambalaya! I work as teaching assistant/behaviour support/cover teacher in a secondary school and I much prefer it. Lots more to get your teeth in to!
Definatly try it out first. Your own child is completely different to other people's. And be prepared for odd hours. Either long hours or v short hours.

Don't do a correspondence course, that would be a waste of money! Employers only value qualifications that have a practical element e.g. NVQs. You will need experience of working with children as everybody else on here has said. HLTA is a status, not a qualification, and you won't be able to attain that until you are working in a school (and once you've got it you will find there aren't many jobs about for people with it. One of my old TA colleagues got it only for the school to turn round and say they couldn't afford to give her any extra money, when she'd been led to believe she would get a pay rise. It didn't stop them giving her additional responsibilities though!). Also you need Level 2 qualifications in English and Maths - not all schools ask for these but you will find the job hard if you don't have them.

Have a look at some of the other posts on here, I've seen loads by people who want to be TAs - just goes to show you how popular and competitive it is.

I was a ta for 3 years and now still work in the same school doing a different role. It's a great job but lowly paid and demanding.
I'd be very wary of just aiming for hlta as there are barely any jobs at all.
In my entire local authority (a major midlands city) there are only 2 employed! Both at specialist schools rather than mainstream too.
Your best bet would be ta level 3, but you will do the course once you actually have a job. So going in as a level 1 and saying you're willing to train may be easiest. Good luck

I've just got a job as a primary TA starting September - it was my first TA interview, I don't have any TA qualifications, and my only experience was volunteering.

Before getting this job I had also looked into qualifications - I found a course to become a level 3 TA which was 1 day a week for a year (you also had to volunteer at least 1 day a week) and cost £600. So not horrendously expensive.

I think enthusiasm and volunteering experience count for a lot at interviews. I was so surprised to get the job, but I'm now very excited (and scared) about having a totally new career!

I've been thinking about doing the same thing, regarding becoming a TA and then teacher training. I'm busy applying to become a reading volunteer. The council in my area, Yorkshire, run a scheme where they match you to a local school. I would have a look online for something similar.

I would suggest trying to do your volunteer work in a special school.

Many of the mainstream TA jobs available are to support children with additional needs so experience in a special school would be highly valued.

I'm currently doing the level 3, Woking in child care settings for 0-19yr olds, I go to college one day a week (10-1pm) and have to do 15hrs voluntary work, which I'm doing at a local sure start, I'm loving my placement and have just been offered a job that will still work around my college and my two children. (only till Xmas though) The course runs at a local library and I started it in feb and will finish at Xmas,

I have been gaining experience in every setting my kids have been involved with with the goal of TA work at some point....voluntary management committees, parent helper in pre school and infant school, did some mentoring with teenagers, all voluntary stuff and now, with my youngest now 5, I just got a job as a TA 1 in a secondary school - I have no qualifications specific to the role, my feedback simply said I had the right attitude.
Having been involved with a local infant school for 5 years, I would say be prepared for the long haul...volunteer (classroom AND parent committee if possible), then go for a lunchtime supervisor role and just hang on in there getting to know the kids and the school and showing the head how fabulous you are until a TA post comes up.....it's the unwritten law of the playground!! Good luck!!

this is kansas speaks sense, take the route she suggests
it is def doable
I started when I was your age, got job as Early Years Educator, then GTP, am just about to start work as a NQT shortly (eek) and loved every moment (well, most of them)

I feel im being messed around by my training provider, i'm 45 and due to start an apprenticeship TA job soon which I got through them. I haven't heard from them for whatevr reason.
Is it possible to find a college to do an NVQ 2 with? Do you have to stick with the same training provider?

Def volunteer first. It helped me to be a lunchtime supervisor too, as this gave me all sorts of behaviour management training, first aid training, safeguarding training. The actual job application process was horrific. I spent a month and a half doing application forms and hearing nothing, then suddenly I was offered six interviews over five days. I attended 4, was offered 3 and have now landed a great job but unfortunately I can't do the school run for my own children so childcare costs will be mounting... But the holidays...