Best ways to maximise employability

alabandical

Hi all

What are the best ways to maximise your employability?

I'm being shipped out of the school in a few weeks so I'm back on the interview circuit! I'm seriously considering doing further study to boost my chances of getting a job but of course I want to do something worthwhile that will benefit my teaching.
Some options are:

• Masters in Education
• Degree in "another" subject
• Or another qualification - perhaps linked with the new Junior Cert (eg Digital Literacy).

Any thoughts?

thefasteriwalk

What are your subjects? How much experience do you have? I have two years post-dip and I've haven't been out of work in that time, thankfully. So to be honest, I'm just hoping that a lot of the really experienced people were snatched up last summer, so that when the newly qualified teachers enter the market this summer I'll have a fair bit of experience over them. As I say - hoping.

I hear what you're saying about courses, but I really don't know if I'd have the energy. I think I'll apply like a mad yolk for the mean time and re-assess in August if nothing has come up.

alabandical

Similar situation, three years out and never been out of work thank God. Subjects are English and History. In our place there are a few being let go this year, some with up to nine years experience - its hard to compete with that!

thefasteriwalk

alabandical wrote: »

Similar situation, three years out and never been out of work thank God. Subjects are English and History. In our place there are a few being let go this year, some with up to nine years experience - its hard to compete with that!

Very hard! Oh I dunno, I've been thinking about maybe re-training - the thoughts of moving all over the country for endless years and spending summer after summer getting no pay and worrying about September is, quite frankly, overwhelming. I just don't know what else I would train for.

Millem

alabandical wrote: »

Hi all

What are the best ways to maximise your employability?

I'm being shipped out of the school in a few weeks so I'm back on the interview circuit! I'm seriously considering doing further study to boost my chances of getting a job but of course I want to do something worthwhile that will benefit my teaching.
Some options are:

• Masters in Education
• Degree in "another" subject
• Or another qualification - perhaps linked with the new Junior Cert (eg Digital Literacy).

Any thoughts?

The job scene is terrible at the moment. There are alot of experienced teachers now looking for work. I have seen people come and go every year and I honestly have to say it is not their qualifications that gain/lose them a job! Everyone is qualified these days, i dont think masters give people an edge anymore! Extra curricular in my school is very important, hockey seems to almost guarantee a job! what about that special needs course online from icep? Are there any courses in literacy and numberacy? Even short courses over summer? My school are obsessed with it at the mo as are the department!

boogle

I came out of my dip registered with one subject only (don't get me started on TC recognition). I was told by a few Principals that I would be very employable if I completed the qualification to become registered as a Maths teacher. My current Principal said the same. So off I went, at great expense and inconvenience, and enrolled in college to become registered for Maths. (I currently teach Maths and my other subject in my school). Happy days?

No. Now I find myself in a situation where I am spread across two subject departments, and I am vital to neither of them. I am dispensable, and being treated as such. This is frustrating as there are permanent staff teaching Maths, who are not registered, and have no intentions of getting the qualification.

So don't assume that a flexible range of subject means you will get a full-time contract. It may mean no one subject department needs you that much.

Seanchai

boogle wrote: »

No. Now I find myself in a situation where I am spread across two subject departments, and I am vital to neither of them. I am dispensable, and being treated as such. This is frustrating as there are permanent staff teaching Maths, who are not registered, and have no intentions of getting the qualification.

The highlighted part disgusts me. Here we have a state declaring that certain qualifications are essential, and it pays people who are too lazy to get the required qualification while plenty of people who have it have no job.

All of these people should have been given ultimatums years ago: get the required qualification within x years or you will have no job. Lazy, lazy, lazy people. There is no excuse for it, none at all.

spurious

Lazy management more like, who required teachers who were employed to teach other subjects to take up a subject they are not qualified in.

boogle

It's a real kick in the teeth to those of us who bothered to get qualified. Had a Maths department meeting this week where attainment was discussed. One permanent teacher (not qualified in Maths, and totally clueless about the subject IMO) passed off her poor results with a wave of the hand saying "sure I'm not a qualified Maths teacher".

Management are totally short-sighted in this regard. They have numbers on a timetabling program to fill in, and can see no further than that. They are throwing comments about our uptake at higher level and attainment our way every now and then, all the while filling our Maths Dept with unqualified teachers. I've pointed this out when my hours were slashed, and was met with indifference. Nobody is enforcing any standards on teacher's qualifications, so school management is often not bothered either.