Anyone work in an industry that would like to employ a former secondary Maths teacher?

[Roadrunner550]

Hello!

I’m on maternity leave until December and I know I can’t go back to teaching. I didn’t enjoy it anyway and now with a little one I absolutely know it’s not for me.

Does anyone have an employer that they know would welcome applications from a former secondary Maths teacher? Or any job title ideas that would utilise my transferable skills? I am mid-thirties and taught for almost ten years including A Level and IB. I think I was thought quite highly of and good at most aspects of it, but struggled with behaviour management at my last school (state school in a deprived area).

I know there are options around private tuition and stuff but I’m looking for suggestions completely outside of education if possible?

Taking time out to retrain might be tough financially but I am happy to take an entry level job and train on the job/work my way up. I am good with spreadsheets and data and stuff! I’m being deliberately vague about what I would like to do because I have a very open mind and would love to know what sort of employers might give me a chance!

Thanks in hope!

What about Data Science?

How about a project management support type of role? (i.e. managing the data and producing reports for a project manager - if you are very confident with excel that could be good).

Or a training role of some type?

Or retrain as an accountant or actuary?

You could retrain whilst doing tutoring on the side to keep some cash flow. This year of all years I would have thought demand for maths tutors would be high.

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This company is highly recommended by a few friends who have done the course. I would be careful with coding boot camps though, not all of them are good.

I’m not affiliated with Northciders. I’ve just heard good things. Do your research before spending money though.

If you're on Twitter, @penny_ten posts jobs for people leaving education every Sunday.

If you're good with Excel how about looking for school data manager posts? Lots are fairly rubbishly paid but 25k+ is what you should be aiming for at least. At Trust level you're looking at 35k+

Book-keeping or management accounting are the obvious choices.

Book-keeping in particular tends to be good for people who want to be self employed sole traders, and hope to learn "on the job" and do the training etc online or from study books/guides. You can do as much or as little real work as you're comfortable with, and then take on more/harder work as you gain qualifications/experience/confidence.

Trainee accountant jobs are more problematic as firms tend to want school leavers/graduates on a full time basis and train them up in house for 2/3/4 years, during which you'll be pretty poorly paid and also required to do some studying/exams in your own time, so not really ideal with a baby and you're stuck as a wage slave for about 5 years until you can get your practising certificate which allows you to go it alone as sole trader/self employed.

I know a couple of people who have moved from high school teaching to coding and data science respectively. One did a boot camp and one is self taught. I am in silicon valley not the UK though where there are loads of tech jobs.

Government commercial role. You’d need to go in at an administrative level and work up, but the mathematical and spreadsheet skills would be invaluable as well as your presentation skills.
Lots of flexibility usually with working patterns/hours etc and can be very interesting work.
Having said all this, I left a gvt commercial role to go into teaching!

You don't actually use a lot of maths when you do book-keeping or day-to -day accounts, certainly not at the level of a maths teacher. It is only really when you get to things like corporate financial management, cost accounting, budgeting or providing VAT/tax advice that it becomes more useful. Even then it is as much interpretation as it is calculation.

Thanks everyone, have already started looking into these suggestions and I feel a lot more hopeful about being able to pull off a career change!

We usually employ economists and engineers but if you were good at solving problems using mathematical modelling on excel and data analysis, if you have the ability to explain complex systems simply and you were a whizz with presentation skills and powerpoint you could try for a analyst/senior analyst post. You would have to demonstrate your love of change, innovation, restlessness to make things better, can do attitude...rightly or wrongly we would be worried about your mindset after being in the state sector for so long. Look around LinkedIn for these kind of roles, build up your profile and your network.