How would you go from university research admin to secondary school management?

[Katz]

I currently work in research administration which is ok but i fancy a change. A non-teaching manager's job has come up in a local school. Whilst i almost have the skill set on the job description required, i have no experience in school type management, i support academics not students at the mo, which leads to the question, preferably without taking a huge pay cut how would i make the change? what sort of job should i be looking at or qualifications should i try to get to enhance my chances?

I may apply for this job regardless but i think i wouldn't even get an interview.

bump = anyone

No advice but I am quite interested how you got into Research admin??

Do you have a degree in the releated field?

by accident! I did a degree then a PhD then a post-doc job, the research went belly up and a research support/admin job came up and i got it. It a good job, permanent (as any at the mo!) and the pay's good. It seems to be a growth field in universities, all of the jobs i've seen ask for a degree and most would like you to have a PhD, but its worth looking on the uni job pages if your interested, a lot are only temp contracts as the funding is often temp. In general the work life balance is good and the annual leave is 6 weeks plus extra for Christmas. Its just not what i want to do for ever.

Sounds Good - although don't have phd

Good luck with your change and hopefully this has bumped it for you.

I do know somebody who is in Senior school management and he was in the commercial world in a previous life.

Hope it works out for you

PhD tends to be a desirable on the job descriptions, basically they want you to have a good understanding of what university research is like and the best way to show that is to have done it, but it by no means essential. I could do my job without. I do like my job and in all honesty its such a 'nice' job that it would have to be something really good/interesting to get me to leave here.

I think i'll try drafting a covering letter for the job i've seen and if i struggle to say how i'd do things then i think its best to leave it.

Hi
I would just go for it, as long as you demonstrate on the application form that you have the required skills then you should be in for a good chance of getting an interview.

I used to work in a secondary school and the Business Manager there came from commerce, as did I as the Data Manager.
Schools often do like people with educational experience but they also like people who aren't institutionalised.

Good Luck

MLx

Have a look at National College.org.uk under their professional development pages also make sure you can talk about, strategy and community relations and current policies and practice within education at their level e.g evry child matters and ive heard about rights , respect, responsibilities?

i think this would probably be below your level but i'm doing Fd Degree in education Administration ( I work ina Uni) there are lots of school people on it but definitely have a look at the national college website and also LA jobs too in Education support.

HTH

thanks for all the advice.

I think i need to do some work experience in a school to see if its for me, DH works in one so should be quite easy to organise plus i only work 4 days so have a free day to build up some experience with which to apply for the next job hopefully.

I think you are likely to get an interview if you can demonstrate that you meet the requirements and you are not just doing this because you feel it's a convenient alternative job which gives you lots of holidays.

I would advice that you find out about safeguarding and child protection as most interviews will ask you certain deselecting questions like

'you have successfully mentored a group of 6th form kids through a project. It's the end of year, they are now over 18 and have invited you out to dinner/pub/concert to celebrate success. They really want you to come especially as you have been instrumental to their success. What would you do?' (decline of course!)

Some schools want evidence that you know what you're getting into with teenagers, that the office is always buzzing (with kids, parents, staff, etc) and that you are prepared to mentor the kids or do lunchtime duties. That's where the exhausting mental and emotional effort comes in.

Good Luck!