Anyone with experience of training with NCT as antenatal teacher?

[SquillosMum]

I am thinking about a career change as I am very unfulfilled by my job since having DS 2 years ago. I changed to p/t work and gave up most of the interesting parts of my job to do this. I thought about training as a midwife, but I think that the working hours would be difficult. My next thought was about training in antenatal teaching and I know that NCT do this.

Does anyone have any experience of this that they could share - eg what was the training like, how long did it take (eg per week and over all), what sort of money does it pay? etc. Presumably working hours are evenings and some weekends, but how many?

Thanks
SqM

I'm an antenatal class booking person for the NCT. There are a couple of NCT teachers on here (giraffeski and harpsi, at least - there may be more!).

I can't talk about the training, but can tell you about the work options, at least as they are now.

Pay varies a lot, and will probably be (officially) raised soon. If you're in an area without many teachers, classes will be held when you want them. I have teachers coming to me from outside the borough, and they teach on weekends, as much as they like really. If I had a local teacher, she could do evening classes, if she wanted.

We have had teachers do classes during the week, during the day, but demand is lower for this, unsurprisingly. I think the classes were 10-4, so not really school-hours friendly.

Thanks NQC - presumably I could ring the booking person where I live to check out demand & whether they have enough teachers in the area. When I took classes (over 2 years ago now) the teacher came from quite a distance - was a weekend class.

Do you have a list of qualified teachers that you use to arrange all the classes?

We get lists from head office of all the teachers willing to teach outside their own area. I send out a lot of emails, every so often, asking if they're willing to come to me. (I'm in East London, by the way.)

You do need to talk to your local branch, anyway, as they generally part-fund the training (all will change soon). And if you're planning to stay in the neighbourhood, it's worth knowing if they're already overrun with teachers, or trainees for that matter.

Training as a breastfeeding counsellor is also an idea, maybe?

bump to see if any NCT trainers are around...

I am training to be an antenatal teacher at the moment. I can give you a few basics!

Basically the course takes as long as it takes you to get through the work. It is probably from 3 years minimum (although my Tutor says it can be done more quickly) and should be no longer than 5 unless you take time out. You are part of a tutor group which meets once a month for 10 months of the year. My tutorial is 4.5 hours.

It is a very academic course. Level 1 is a mixture of essays, presentations, course observations and study days. Level 2 is actual teaching, workshops, study days and essays.

The handbook says that you should be aiming to do 9 hours of work a week. As long as you get through the work they do not really look too closely into how you manage your time really.

The first step is to contact the NCT for more details about how to apply and the course. I would say that although the NCT is child-friendly you are expected to go on two weekend reisdential workshops (one near the beginning.

I hope this is helpful.

so glad you posted this as i too am looking into training as an NCT teacher too! will read with interest! xx

Right well, I've got the info from NCT and I've emailed my NCT branch cos apparently they pay for 75% of the costs. I will only have to pay £1000 - doesn't sound too bad. As long as they are not over-run with teachers in this area I think I will go for it now. I really want to have baby no. 2, but conception is slightly complicated for me so I think if I go for this now then I can start the training & get a long way into it before No.2 is on the horizon. Then I can always take a short break before I finish the training.