Public Sector

Education

Working in education you could find yourself in a variety of settings. Schools, hospitals, prisons, community learning centres and funded community projects require teachers and learning support staff as well as offering roles in technical learning support, advisory and management and educational psychology.

The majority of work in this sector lies within:

• School education
• Further education (FE)
• Higher education (HE)
  

The demand for graduates in teaching is fairly high with highlighted shortages in certain subject areas including science and maths. The majority of positions are available in secondary education, whilst primary teaching is a lot harder to get into.

Common jobs for graduates in this sector include primary and secondary school teachers, special needs co-ordinators, lecturers in a FE colleges, lecturers in a universities, adult education providers, teaching basic skills to adults and teaching in prisons and hospitals.

Many graduates look to work in this sector as its challenging and rewarding, working with people from diverse back grounds and helping to inspire and teach. However, it's not a career choice to be taken lightly as the work is often challenging and stressful - working with difficult pupils, trying to meet government standards and achieve agreed institution targets.

To teach in a primary school or to gain a place on a postgraduate teacher training course, you must have a degree in a relevant subject and a minimum of grades A* to C at GCSE in English, maths and a science subject. Applicants will be expected to show a sound basic knowledge of all subjects in the National Curriculum. To teach in a secondary school, a degree that relates to the National Curriculum and is relevant to the subject you want to teach will also be a prerequisite.

If you haven't studied a bachelors degree in education that you'll need to take a Postgraduate course to become qualified.

There are three main routes at postgraduate level:

• Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) - an academic, one year course that can also be taken part time over two years. A PGCE involves a 12-week course in a University and 18 -24 weeks on school placements.
• School-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) - similar to a PGCE, except the teacher training element is delivered in a school instead of university.
• Graduate or registered teacher programmes (GTP and RTP) - these programmes are delivered in schools and allow you to keep earning. Ideally, you will need some teaching experience before you start this programme.

Even though there is a high demand for graduates in this area, applications to training courses are often high. This means that experience of working with people is essential to make your application stand out from the crowd. If your looking to teach in schools, experience with children is a must. Many Student Unions offer opportunities to get involved with the local community or your local Voluntary Action bureau should be able to put you in touch with a relevant organisation to get involved with in your area. Working in schools is ideal, and can range from a week's work-shadowing to working as a teaching assistant. It's often a good idea to get in touch with your former primary or secondary school, especially if you know an old teacher who may be willing to let you shadow them for a week a two. Working in summer camps or helping to run sports camps in schools also look great on your CV.

Try to get experience of different age groups of learners, so you are confident you know what age group you want to work with. There are government schemes including the open schools programme and taster courses that offer classroom experience for future teachers and asking you University careers services is often a good way to find out about schemes in your area.

As well as plenty of added extras on your CV you'll also need to be a good communicator and possess skills in planning, professionalism and organisation. Most of all you really need to be passionate about teaching and your chosen subject and want to pass your own enthusiasm on to others.

If you fancy working in this sector than the perks are pretty good with teachers benefiting from great levels of pay, structured career progression, excellent holidays and the chance to really make a difference to peoples lives every day.

Useful links:

Department for Education and Skills (DfES)

The DfES Education Gateway

OFSTED

Agency Central

Basic Skills Agency

National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)

Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO)

UCAS

Yorkshire Universities

HERO

PhD Jobs

Connexions Humberside

Connexions York & North Yorkshire

Connexions South Yorkshire

Connexions West Yorkshire

National Association for Teaching English and other community languages to adults

Association of Recognised English Language Services (ARELS)

Learning & Skills Council (LSC)