Becoming a teacher

What is teaching and training all about?

The Further Education and Skills sector includes learners from age 14 upwards who will be in many different environments such as schools, colleges, the workplace, prisons, private and voluntary organisations.

The sector often needs skilled people to teach and train learners in various vocational subjects. Perhaps you are a plumber, a hairdresser, or a motor vehicle engineer and you wish to pass on your expertise.

Teaching and training is about helping someone reach their full potential, whether this is for personal or professional reasons. You will do this by facilitating the teaching, learning and assessment process.

As a teacher, you will have the opportunity to help make a difference to someone’s life and career. It can be extremely rewarding to know that you have helped someone perform a new skill, acquire new knowledge, gain a qualification or even a promotion at work.

Check out these for FAQs for new teachers. You can access various free resources from the Education and Training Foundation to help you throughout your career, and find out more about teaching in FE from the DfE.

What to teach

Once you have made the decision that you would like to be a teacher, you will need to have a specialist subject in mind. Perhaps you have a profession, hobby, interest or trade that you feel you are good at.

Depending upon what you are going to teach and where you will teach, you may not need to be qualified in your specialist subject, but just be able to demonstrate appropriate skills and knowledge at a particular level. For example, some subjects require you to have a level above that which you will teach, i.e. holding a level 3 qualification to teach it at level 2. However, this is not always the case as some subjects don't have a higher level qualification.

Others might not require you to hold a subject qualification at all, but just have the necessary skills and knowledge. There are Sector Skills Councils and Standard Setting Bodies who make these decisions for most subjects. If you are teaching towards a particular qualification, the qualification specification from the awarding organisation will state what qualifications and experience you must have. You should be able to search online to find the specification and it will state what qualifications and/or experience is required.

Where to teach

Teaching and training can take place anywhere that someone needs to learn something. It doesn't just have to be in a school, college or a university. For example, you might like to give up your current career and teach full-time in a sixth form college, teach part-time in a prison, train people on the job where you currently work, be employed by an agency to work at different organisations, or volunteer your services for free, perhaps for a charity.

If you are considering taking an online teaching course, check out these tips to help you find a legitimate provider.
You can find lots of advice from the Education and Training Foundation regarding becoming an FE teacher.
The DfE has some useful information about becoming a teacher.

How to teach

If your subject is theoretical, you could use lectures, presentations and discussions. If your subject is practical, you could use demonstrations, physical activities and role plays. What you need to consider is how learning will take place, not just how you will teach your subject.

If you can use a variety of approaches and activities, this will give your learners more chances to be involved, to ask questions and to learn.

You will need to know how to plan your sessions, prepare your materials and resources, assess your learners’ progress and achievement, provide feedback, and evaluate what you have done.

Take a look at the books on this reading list for teachers.

Skills needed to teach

Ideally, you need to have skills that will help you to convey your subject, such as passion, confidence and enthusiasm.

You also need to have patience, and be able to inspire and motivate your learners regarding your specialist subject. This might take some practice depending upon the age range of your learners.

You will have administrative work to carry out, therefore having the ability to be organised will help, as will being dedicated to your role, and acting in a professional manner with honesty and integrity.

Professional standards for teachers and trainers

The Education and Training Foundation have a set of Professional Standards for further education teachers and trainers in England. You might like to take a look at them to see what you can aspire to achieve, or to self-assess your current practice.

It's possible to gain professional teacher status (QTLS) once you are a qualified teacher at level 5 or above. This has parity with QTS status if you wish to teach in a school in the future.

Teaching qualifications

In 2013, the Government removed the requirement for teachers in the FE and Skills sector to be qualified (in England). It’s now the responsibility of the individual employer to make the decision as to what teaching qualifications their staff should hold. However, most people in a teaching or training role will want to be qualified, and organisations will want to give a quality service to their learners by having qualified staff.

You could take the Level 3 Award in Education and Training, a short introductory course which is offered nationwide. The Award is ideal if you are not yet in a teaching role, have just started teaching, or you just want to know what’s involved. It will give you the basics of how to plan, deliver and assess. You can then take a further teaching qualification if required.

The Level 4 Certificate and the Level 5 Diploma (or Cert Ed/PGCE) require you to have teaching practice hours.

There might be grants, loans and bursaries available to help with your teacher training costs, particularly in certain skill shortage areas such as construction, maths and science. It's worth asking at your local college or training organisation, or finding a legitimate provider and asking them.

Teacher training courses and useful information

Do check out these tips for finding a legitimate provider before you sign up for a course.

You could also join relevant Facebook and LinkedIn groups to ask for recommendations of courses in your local area or online.

Please contact me if any of the above links no longer work.

Applying for a teaching position

You could find out what colleges and training organisations there are in your location and politely contact them to ask if they have any positions available for your particular subject. If they do, ask for an application form. If they don’t, ask if you can send them your curriculum vitae for them to keep on file. Don’t be put off by rejection, you need to persevere and stay positive.

If you are attending a training course at the moment, you could talk to your tutor and ask them if they know of any teaching opportunities. You could even ask if you could sit in on a session which is being taught in your subject area. This will help you to see what is involved for your particular subject. You could make some useful contacts this way and perhaps offer to do some voluntary teaching. This would give you some great experience which would help when applying for jobs.

When applying for a job, try and resist the temptation of taking whatever might be offered to you. Sadly, there are some organisations that are more focused upon reaching targets and obtaining funding, than the teaching and learning experience. This might not lead to a happy working environment, and you could feel pressured to do things you know are wrong. Always ask what the quality procedures are in the organisation. If there is a good system for supporting staff and ensuring a quality service, it shows the organisation is committed to learning, and not just focused on funding and outcomes.

Websites advertising teaching jobs

You might find it useful to look at the websites listed below for possible jobs. The sites are not endorsed by me, they are for your information, and I recommend that you check their legitimacy before agreeing to anything.

Most offer a sign-up service for updates when any jobs in your specialist subject and location are advertised.

There will also be relevant forums on social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook which you might like to join.

Please contact me if any of these links no longer work.