The path to teaching

ripcord

Hi all,

I have been working for an IT telecoms company for the last 9 years. I have a bachelors degree in electronics and a masters degree in computer engineering. After 9 years, I've finally realised i've no interest in this career anymore, and I just can't see myself doing this in 20 years time.

I've always thought about being a primary school teacher - one of those things that was in the back of my mind, but I never gave it enough attention. I was wondering if someone could help me with a few questions on what I would need to do to make headway into a career in teaching.

1. First and foremost (it could make the rest of this message irrelavant!) - what could I do to find out if I would actually like the work involved in teaching? I read things about "observation" - is this something thats easy to get into? I may find out that it's not for me, and have to take my career elsewhere.

2. If I was happy with the prospect of teaching, what course would I need to do? I heard mentioned that it takes two years to do it here, but there's a course in london that can be done in 1 year? Is that correct?

3. I only got a C in pass Irish for my leaving cert (14 years ago!). Is this enough? Or is there a seperate exam i would need to do?

4. If for example, I'm qualifed to teach in 3 years time - what are the realistic chances of me getting a job in the midlands then? I heard it's easier for men (i'm male) to get teaching jobs than women - is this nonsense?

Please forgive my ignorance on all of this. As I said I've never taken the initiative on this before. Now that I am actively interested, I thought boards.ie might be a good starting place!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

Oh yeah - on a more personal note. I'm currently 30 years old. I might not be ready to teach until i'm 33/34. Is this too old to start on the bottom-rung of the teaching ladder???? Cheers!

pooch90

ripcord wrote: »

Hi all,

I have been working for an IT telecoms company for the last 9 years. I have a bachelors degree in electronics and a masters degree in computer engineering. After 9 years, I've finally realised i've no interest in this career anymore, and I just can't see myself doing this in 20 years time.

I've always thought about being a primary school teacher - one of those things that was in the back of my mind, but I never gave it enough attention. I was wondering if someone could help me with a few questions on what I would need to do to make headway into a career in teaching.

1. First and foremost (it could make the rest of this message irrelavant!) - what could I do to find out if I would actually like the work involved in teaching? I read things about "observation" - is this something thats easy to get into? I may find out that it's not for me, and have to take my career elsewhere.

2. If I was happy with the prospect of teaching, what course would I need to do? I heard mentioned that it takes two years to do it here, but there's a course in london that can be done in 1 year? Is that correct?

3. I only got a C in pass Irish for my leaving cert (14 years ago!). Is this enough? Or is there a seperate exam i would need to do?

4. If for example, I'm qualifed to teach in 3 years time - what are the realistic chances of me getting a job in the midlands then? I heard it's easier for men (i'm male) to get teaching jobs than women - is this nonsense?

Please forgive my ignorance on all of this. As I said I've never taken the initiative on this before. Now that I am actively interested, I thought boards.ie might be a good starting place!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

1. Ease of observation will depend on the schools you approach. They can take you or leave you. A lot of schools would be delighted to have someone in giving a hand, especially as SNAs have been cut back on.

2.You would need to do a postgrad, this can be done in any of the training colleges. Can take a few years to get into though. There's also the online training college, Hibernia, which can be just as hard to get into. Don't know too much about English training though. If you go this route, you'd have to do an SCG course when you get back, to get your Irish qualification.

3.You would need to repeat Irish and do honours, if you try the Irish postgrad courses.

4.It's pretty hard to get jobs at the minute, but being male (interested in GAA??) is a definite advantage. the key to getting jobs is being flexible in your location but I think it's worse the more south you go.

Anything else you'd like to know?I'll help if I can. it's a rewarding job but I wouldn't make any decisions in the near future as pay and conditions are making it a thankless, open for slating by everybody profession.

whizzer10

hi,

I went the postgrad route straigh after finishing my degree.
London for one year, tough but well worth it.
I think that many teachers are looking into retirement now with budget cuts so I see it being easier than it is now!!

pooch90

whizzer10 wrote: »

hi,

I think that many teachers are looking into retirement now with budget cuts so I see it being easier than it is now!!

With the amount of qualified and unemployed teachers out there now, I don't see it settling down for years to come. There's way more looking for work than retiring but fingers crossed.

TheColl

I would definitely recommend doing as much observation as you can before making any decision. As one reply has already said, you should be able to find plenty of schools willing to let you come in and help out in some capacity and lots of teachers grateful for a bit of help.

As said above I think you'll need to either do honours LC Irish to get into a postgrad here, or else go to Britain (plenty of colleges in Wales and Scotland with lots of Irish students) and then do the SCG when you get back and get a job. That basically involves having an inspector visit and watch you teach Irish and you have one or two exams to sit.

Whether being male is an advantage or not is hard to say and really depends on the school and what they're looking for.

You're certainly not too old to start at the bottom, I know quite a few teachers who have started in their late 20s or early 30s.

Whatever you decide to do, best of luck with it!