Prospects.

niall3r

I reckon that strangers might be willing to offer a frank appraisal:

I have just qualified as a teacher of RE/History and am willing to teach CSPE/SPHE. I got a good result in the PGDE and in my degree/masters.
I have four months subbing experience and the principal of the school this year gave me a ridiculously good letter of reference. . . .

However I know that the job market out there is ridiculously competitive. . . I have nothing tying me to a particular county but would like prefer to stay in Ireland for family reasons . . . .

Do I stand a reasonable chance of finding a job in September or should I just move to England where there seems to be a plethora of jobs?

(as an aside: is RE/history a good or bad combination? I know that English/ Business / history are fairly abundant subjects but does RE stand in my favor or against me?)

Thanks for any input

drusk

Provided you are willing to move anywhere in the country, I reckon you'll be fine and that you'll find something.

You're qualified to Masters level - that gives you an edge over the competition. So does your experience, even though it may be deemed little, it's still something.

Regarding your subjects - to be frank, it's not a good combination. History is not a core subject, and religion doesn't feature heavily in timetables. From what I'm hearing, the subjects most in demand in schools at the moment are Irish and Maths.

However, while we may be in the depths of a recession, graduates to teaching have got good prospects this year and next year, in my opinion. Secondary education became free of charge for all students in 1959, leading to an upsurge in student and teacher numbers in the early sixties. That's 40 years ago. Many, many teachers that got into the profession then are retiring now. Also, the lump sum and pension will be subject to budget cuts in the next year or so. This is well-known and many teachers are retiring this year as a result. This year and next year are definitely good years to be graduating from the dip. Subsequent years will be in trouble, owing to the universities pumping out an enormous amount of teacher-graduates that will not meet the employment needs of schools - the pgde is now a money racket for the Irish universities in my humble opinion.

With regards to your personal situation, there are pros and cons. But I wouldn't be booking my plane ticket to England just yet. I trust that you have been applying to all of the ads in the Independent in the last month or so. Keep an eye on www.educationcareers.ie Most, if not all teaching job advertisements are posted on that website.

Draw up a list of possible interview questions and prepare your answers. In interviews, it is important to come across as assured and confident. Find out any information about a school before attending for interview - ie., discipline policy.

Chin up. I reckon you'll find something. It may not be ideal, but who knows...

Best of luck!

sunflower!

Hi, well done on the work you have done already.

I don’t think anyone can tell you if you'd get a job in September but IMHO I would think it is unlikely. It probably depends on what you want. Would you be ok with subbing and maternity leaves or do you want your own classes and a proper chance to settle into a school?

I was in a very similar situation last year my subjects are History and cspe, you do have RE and I don’t know much about that to be honest but as far as history goes teachers are ten a penny, in Ireland. I hung around until December but couldn’t get more than some extended periods of subbing. I have a good degree, and a masters and lots of excellent references and lots of principles who have told me they would love to keep me if they could but unfortunately if a jobs not there it’s not there!

If you want to give things a try in Ireland you could do what I did and move in the New Year. I started a permanent job in January this year in a really nice school in London (who just hired two new RE teachers!) There are permanent jobs here every term so you don’t really need to make the decision until you have given it a shot at home. You could do supply work over here – there is plenty of it going, until you got something more long term. I can recommend Impact Teachers they don’t fly you over for free like some of the agents but they got me far more opportunities than others.

They seem to really like Irish teachers in the schools over here. There are 12 in my school!

If you have any questions or anything I can help you with let me know.:)

niall3r

Ok cool, thats actually fairly reassuring so thanks