Hundreds get urge to go back in school as teachers

THE RECESSION has led to a surge in the number of people applying to become teachers in Yorkshire who have spent up to a decade or more working in other professions and industries.

Recruitment bosses believe the increase is down to a lack of job security and people taking stock of their working lives during the economic downturn.

Teacher training course providers in Yorkshire have seen increases in the numbers applying to join the profession.

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The Training and Development Agency (TDA) for Schools, which is responsible for directing funding for teacher training courses, is carrying out a drive to attract new talent to teaching.

Head of recruitment strategy at the TDA Luke Graham said: "What we are not seeing is large numbers of people who have been made redundant who turn to teaching simply because they are out of work.

"What we have is more people who are evaluating their lives and thinking more about their future because of the recession and are asking whether or not they are happy with the job they are in and who see teaching as an alternative.

"The number of people who have spent a decade or more in other professions before coming into teaching was traditionally around 10 per cent, now it is up to around a third both nationally and in Yorkshire." Mr Graham said that one of the challenges for the TDA was overcoming myths which might put people off teaching such as concerns over low pay or the lack of career progression.

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He said: " I think because when people think of their own school days they think of their teachers who always seemed to be there in the same classroom but teachers do move up through the profession and there is support for professional development during their career."

The TDA has held a two-day recruiting exhibition in Manchester in an attempt to attract new teaching talent to the profession from across the North of England. The event included providers of teaching training courses from Yorkshire including, Leeds Trinity and All Saints', Leeds, York and York St John universities.

Figures show that trainee teachers from Yorkshire have a higher employability rating than the national average.

About 99 per cent of students who finished a course in the region in 2008 were employed a year later – compared with a national figure of 90 per cent.

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The biggest increases in teaching applicants in Yorkshire have come in biology, information technology and maths. The TDA said people switching professions to become teachers as a career change is giving students the chance to hear more life stories and be given practical advice on how the subjects they are learning can be applied outside the classroom. Former accountant and salesman Kevin Davies is training to become a science teacher after being made redundant. He said: "Sales was something I'd liked and made good money but it just took up so much of my time driving up and down motorways. My wife has been a teacher all her life, so I knew it was something I was interested in.

"I'm into amateur dramatics and I think being a teacher is like a constant performance. I'm the oldest person on the training course, which was strange to start with, but I'm giving it a go.

"I was expecting lots more people who had come straight from university but most people are probably in their mid-30s."

Katherine Fifield, 28, has swapped her job testing chemicals in an industrial laboratory for the classroom and is studying for a PGCE at Leeds University to become a science teacher. "Both my parents are teachers, so I didn't want to just follow in their footsteps, but now that I've had a few years working in different areas I think I'm ready for the classroom.

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"I was very unsure to begin with, because I was looking to buy a house and teaching meant I had to take a pay cut from 27,000 at my previous job, to 20,000 as a teacher. I am able to tell the pupils about my life experiences, and also about how I had been travelling.

"Also, with science classes the kids sometimes say 'why are we bothering to do this?' but because I'd worked outside of teaching in the chemicals industry I could explain to them what practical use something like knowing what an alkali is might have.

"I think the reason a lot of people are deciding to switch professions and become teachers is the work-life balance."

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