Retrain as primary teacher or nurse

[Abbylikeswine]

Hi.
I have a very stressful low paid job. I grew up in quite a poor family.

I'm 40, I just got some inheritance money , which is the first time that I've ever had money to spend.

I really want to use it to go back to college and train to get a better career.

These (in my title) were the two careers that interested me. And I have the school grades to get into both as a mature student.

I'm just really trying to figure out which degree to do. I don't want to make a mistake and choose the wrong path for me, when I only have the money to do one choice.

I know both teaching and nursing are hard jobs. But the job I'm in at the moment is extremely hard and low paid. So even though nursing and teaching would be hard, it would be better pay and a better career.

Nursing appeals to me as - I'd have a job for life. There are mursing jobs anywhere. And i like caring for people. But I know it'll be hard.

I like primary teaching and I'd done a little bit of teaching English as a foreign language abroad before so I know what it's like. But it will be an intense degree and also getting a job in teachinf may be harder than nursing.

I wish I could see the future and see which way to go. I don't want to waste money in the wrong area

I just wanted to ask had anyone retrained as either of those careers at an older age. And how was it?

I've done both, trained as a nurse after leaving school and retrained as a teacher when my kids were small. I loved both careers. They are hard work but very rewarding. Here's my take on it...

If you have kids teaching fits in really well with school holidays so childcare isn't really a problem. However there is so much work to do outside of school it consumes your evenings, weekends and holidays.

Nursing is less likely to fit around the school holidays, weekends etc so childcare is more of an issue. However, once you leave work that's it until the next shift. Your evenings and weekends are your own.

Whichever option you choose I'm sure you will enjoy the challenge and the feeling of having done something worthwhile.

Which one did you like more?

I loved actually being with and teaching children but got fed up with the constant mounds of paperwork that had to be tackled outside of school hours. Also, discipline in schools and managing children with a wide range of different and demanding needs is getting harder.
As an example, in one of my daughter's classes 10 children out of 28 have an individual plan stating that they must sit at the front of the class.

With nursing I enjoyed the daily variety and meeting new patients regularly. I also enjoyed working closely with colleagues. Teaching can be quite solitary when you're the only adult in the room for most of the day!

Each one fitted in with my lifestyle at the time. If I had to choose I think I'd choose nursing, but if I had kids teaching definitely works better for childcare.

Thanks for that.

It is good that people can retrain into different careers, that suit them at different stages of their life.

The old thinking of having to stay in one career for life, is definitely changing

Are there nursing jobs anywhere? Trusts near me are on recruitment freezes and there's a lot of unemployed NQs. Guess if you can relocate it might not be an issue.

I can't speak for everywhere. But anyone I know that has recently trained as a nurse, has gotten a job

What part of the country are you in? Even roughly. Like north east

A nurse

It opens more doors afterwards if you decide its not for you ... community nursing , botox clinics etc

Midlands. But south west also affected I believe as saw something on the news about that. Seeing quite a bit of stuff on social media which may be further afield. Might be different in three years time.

It’s just this recent cohort affected, so just finished uni in last month or two

Job freeze announced at Cornwall hospitals amid £3.5m deficit | ITV News West Country

Scotland FM questioned on newly qualified nurse jobs | Nursing Times

'Flood’ of newly registered nurses unable to find jobs | Nursing in Practice

Don't go near teaching. I'd say it takes five very tough years in post, after qualifying, to get established and be able to do the job without maximum-effort, 60-hour weeks.

Avoid, avoid, avoid.

I would say the good thing about nursing is if you don't like ward work you can work in community, GP surgery, out patient clinics, find a specialist role, private work, set yourself up doing botox. Lots of different roles.

Paediatric nursing is the best job! Why not see if there is any work as a support worker. Then you could see what it's like.

No, I have a PGCE with an arts degree. If you have a degree, any degree and GCSEs in Maths & English (which most people with A Levels have) you can apply for a PGCE Primary.

Op, I have been a teacher for 19 years, I have dipped in & out of my career due to focusing on my children, the one thing that annoys me which has been in the news previously about a teacher shortage, but I don’t think there is, also there are hardly any part time roles in my opinion & most headteachers find it impossible to be flexible with job shares, they just prefer full time teachers.

I have friends who are nurses who can easily get part time hours, I find it’s much harder to get part time work in teaching. Additionally, there are many other ways to work in nursing such as in the community doing immunisations etc, there are other options in teaching such as a specialist or hospital teacher, but those roles are very, very few and far between.

That maybe something to consider if you need part time hours now or in the future and might want to develop your career whichever path you choose in the future.

I won't be doing it till September 25 anyway so I've time to think about my options.

I really need to sit down and think about it logically

I think a ‘job for life’ is something that many people now won’t be having.

Certainly with teaching, I don’t know of a single other person still in the classroom from my PGCE in the late 90s.

I think whilst you are thinking about what to do, write a list of why you want to teach (and nurse). If ‘childcare in the holidays’ is your
main reason, don’t do it. That won’t be enough to get you through the 39 weeks of term time.

Do spend an afternoon reading posts on the ‘Life after Teaching’ group on Facebook as well-so that you have your eyes wide open about what those doing the job are saying.

I was thinking about teaching, because I taught English as a second language in spain for a year.

In that school - there was only one qualified UK primary teacher working there. The rest of us were language assistants.

I did some subbing for the primary teacher when she had to go to meetings.

I did arts and crafts classes with her students

I did enjoy it. I liked working with children. I liked helping them learn. I liked helping them to gain skills.

I know primary teaching would be harder, but at least I have a bit of experience of what I'd be getting into

If I were you, I would go and a spend a week or two getting some experience volunteering in a state primary in England.

I was working in a primary school in Spain that followed the UK primary school curriculum, and it had a UK trained primary school teacher,

So I feel like I've already done that.

I would consider radiography or occupational therapy too

Thanks very much for the input. Do you know anything about them or has someone you know done them?

I don't know much about them. I'll have to read up on it

Teaching. No shift work, minimal bodily fluids, no nights, 13 weeks hols.

I think it would be a huge mistake to assume that!

Teaching in another country to England is VERY different. The curriculum is such a tiny part of it.

Ofsted
micromanagement and lack of autonomy
marking/planning requirements
parental expectations
behaviour
learning walks/deep dives/book scrutinies
expectations for SEND
funding
support
class sizes

Hi I do really appreciate your input.

It's not that I'm assuming.

I just think that I won't be able to volunteer for a couple of weeks in a primary school next year

I work full time.

Are you a primary teacher? Do you think the pros outweighs the cons.

Or no?

Thanks for the input