Just a thought - training to be NCT AN teacher, Anyone know about it?

[RanToTheHills]

interested to explore this as poss future career thread. wondering what's involved, cost of course, involvement with NCT, what it pays etc etc.
Appreciate any info from those who've done it. Thanks!

I think harpsichordcarrier is doing this. Keep it bumped for her!

thanks, will shamelessly bump then!
Harpsi, are you there??

oh thanks, are you enjoying it (bar that paperwork!)?
also, how much involvmt do you need to have with the NCT prior to enrolling? Do you have to be approved/sponsored by the local branch or sth?
And how much will you earn? I know I paid roughly £100 to do my antenatal course some yrs ago but no idea how much of that went to the teacher! Not after making a fortune, but wd be useful to help towards the bills.

great help, thanks! quite low starting rate, isn't it? Quite actually, still I guess most people do it out of interest/fits round kids etc? Sorry if i was asking too many questions!

i meant particularly after all that training. Ex-teacher myself and hourly rate was generally higher, still had to cover childcare tho.

oh, well am still a member (i think,), not particularly involved locally as new to area. Is it v competitive to get a place on the course?

£6.13/£8.39 per hour is the official minimum hourly rate that any branch can pay teachers. Currently rates vary by branch. Our branch pays students £8.39, newly qualified £13.98. Our most experienced teacher on the top band gets £25.75/hr. I don't think our branch is unrepresentative (based in the South).
However as SueW mentions it will be changing over the next few months as Head Office will be taking over setting the rates - I don't know exactly how this will affect the rates but can't imagine that many teachers out there will be willing to accept a pay cut.

As an NCT branch committee member, just to add a two-penniworth - all our trainees have had SOME sort of branch invovlement - but in some cases, that's just turning up at a couple of committee meetings and saying they fancy doing it! We do tend to ask them to provide updates for the branch magazine, and they always turn out for fundraising events. The branch has to agree to sponsor you (as we raise money to fund you) - but I've never personally heard of a branch saying no to anyone - think everyone's generally v keen to have more teachers! From my understanding of talking to those training, it is quite hard work - don't think that it's exactly easy money! But hugely, hugely rewarding.

Being an Ex chair of a NCT Branch I can say that Branches are not allowed to turn away pople if they want to train, even if the branch have no money the money will be found from somewhere , says Head Office.

I do agree that in the past there has benne alot of conflict where people out of the blue turn up and want to be trained, as some branches find it quite hard to rasie funds.

I had a trainee in my barcnh who never came to meetings, failed to kepp us updated , failed to trun up at AGM or give written update on progress and never turned up at fiund rasing events, that really got theback up from the branch.

Just be willing to help out a little bit, as atrainee you are not expected to take on a commitee role as you will have enough to do with the training but a little input into the branch never goes a miss even if its just helping out at a good as new sale or updated branch regulary as to how your training is going.

You will never become rich but it is regarding , just think about why you want to do it , if its just for the money as its fits rounds child care please think again.

Good luck with your decision.

Sorry about typos ...very tired .

thx - I understand,hardly seems fair for a complete stranger to turn up expecting to be put thro the course courtesy of a charity. OTOH suppose the relatively low hrly paymt is in part to cover the costs of the training someone's been thro'.
I do need to think about it -whether I have the time and sufficient interest. I've done so many courses post-university, not sure i've got the appetite for yet another but this may change if i decide to give up work.

Rantothehills, as far as the 'career' aspect goes, it's worth remembering that most NCT classes can only happen in the evening. You might have free time during the day, but the clients won't (esp partners), if you are in a reasonably affluent area.

OTOH, if you have a dp at home in the evenings to look after the kids, you won't have to stress about childcare.

We have one teacher who teaches two courses a week, in parallel, and I think you'd be hard pushed to teach more than that. But as you can imagine, she isn't making a huge amount of money out of it.

I bet it is!

She teaches the same sessions to both classes each week iykwim, so she isn't getting ahead of herself.

She is a pretty energetic person though - most of our teachers do one course at a time and often have a few weeks' break in between.

suew i met one of my best friends through my nct ante-natal class.our sons are now 6! andwe see each other every week

i would like to do this too.