Working in school/college as administrator

[neva]

I previously worked in a professional capacity and am now thinking of a complete career change. School/college admin appeals because working in education seems 'worthwhile' ('giving something back' rather than working in a profit making setting etc) and also because of the term time only hours which would be ideal.

As I have no prior experience of working in education, do I stand a chance of getting into this? Obviously also I have no experience of schools IT systems so presumably lots of training would be required? On the plus side I have years of office experience in a high responsibility job.

Thanks.

School admin I'd say pretty hard, simply because the job market is very small - a primary school will only 1 or 2 admin fold, a secondary maybe half a dozen. And once people are ina TTO post they tend to hold onto them! Colleges and universities however are much larger organisations and so employ much larger quantities of people so I'd say as long as you have recent office experience, and are prepared to do a fairly basic level job, £14-£16k per year to start, then yes you'd stand a very good chance!

Colleges and universities tend to be open all year round so, so not necessarily TTO, although PT posts fairly plentiful.

Thank you titchy, that's encouraging.

agree with titchy. School admin jobs are getting more and more full time these days and many come in to find to their disappointment that it does not fit with the school run, holidays are the best times for housekeeping, stocktaking, placing orders for the new term/school year, updating the databases with the new admissions, getting the files from the predecessor schools etc.

So make sure that the job you go for meets your requirements AND that it the weeks and hours you are looking for. More likely if it's a school secretary or bursar at primary school level. Less likely if the role includes facilities management, PA, HR or payroll responsibilities as someone has to refresh the estate and ensure salaries are paid even during the holidays.

I work in University administration and it's not term time only - there is work all the year round and I don't know of any posts that are not like this. That said, it's a very nice atmosphere to work in, with flexi time, generous holidays and maternity pay etc so definitely family friendly.

Most universities are run like big business nowadays.

Nobody works TTO in a university AFAIK.

University admin is incredibly varied and a wide range of skills can be utilised, so your previous experience could get you much more than the salary suggested. Here's an insight into university life behind the scenes, as it were: postgrad courses run for 12 months; over the summer there are courses delivered in (or for) companies; June and September are peak conference months which require a lot of organisation; lots of marketing activities and prep take place both at home (UK) and abroad these days, meaning lots of travel to organise. Oh and finding funding for research is a year-round activity. It's busy and all very interesting, lots of people work part-time but not TTO, sorry.

Can't speak for colleges, but maybe someone else will be along shortly with experience.