There are a number of reasons for this, but I feel strongly there are still so many good reasons for you to choose a career in teaching. So, let’s explore the stories you may have heard that are putting you off going into teaching and I’ll reveal just some of the many benefits of the career.
Don’t Be Worried About the Workload
One of the issues prospective students often have is concern around workload. This is, undoubtedly, a problem that needs addressing in teaching – and in fairness, it is something high on the priority list of headteachers and education policy makers.
However, irrespective of any changes brought in to reduce workload pressure, teaching is always going to be hard work and those that become teachers are always going to need to be committed to the profession.
That said, there are a couple of pieces of advice we regularly give to trainee teachers at the University of Bedfordshire who are concerned about workload.
First and foremost: organisation, organisation, organisation. The first step to keeping workload under control is knowing how much work you have to do and how and when you’re going to do it. Secondly: experience. The longer you do something, the more efficient you become at doing it. This is particularly pertinent to one of the biggest time consuming tasks for teachers – lesson planning.
What About the Salary?
Again, there is no getting away from the fact that, if you have a first-class degree in economics, you could earn more working as a banker than you would working as a teacher. But while teaching is not the career for somebody solely driven by financial reward, it is still a profession that offers competitive graduate salaries, in addition to generous training bursaries in certain subjects.
Furthermore, as a teacher you will benefit from excellent job security, have a qualification that is valid the world over, and I haven’t even mentioned the school holidays yet!
A Rewarding Role
There is no greater feeling than seeing a young person finally grasp a concept or piece of knowledge they had been struggling to understand. There is no greater feeling than seeing young people develop as individuals, both academically and personally. The classroom is, without doubt, an incredibly rewarding place to be.
if you are passionate about a particular topic, what better career than one that allows you to explore that topic day in and day out, and pass on your knowledge and enthusiasm to the next generation. The prospect of inspiring and educating young people, and using one’s own knowledge and enthusiasm to do so, is in my view, very appealing.
Teaching Is Creative
Teaching is also a very creative profession. This is something that often gets overlooked by prospective and trainee teachers when they are weighing up their options. As a teacher, you have a lot of autonomy around how you deliver your classes and the methods you use to find solutions when children are finding something challenging. This leaves scope for creative thinking – whether that be in the teaching approach, the physical environment, the resources used, or elsewhere.
So yes, a career as a teacher involves hard work and dedication; and yes, you could earn more money working for a hedge fund in Canary Wharf, but the benefits outweigh any potential barrier by 100 to 1. There is nothing more inspiring, nothing more rewarding, than a career as a teacher.
Juliet Fern is Head of Teacher Education at the University of Bedfordshire. The University offers an array of UG and PG teacher education qualifications, including Primary Education with qualified teacher status and Physical Education (Secondary) with qualified teacher status .
