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Advice on which career path to take?

  • 10-02-2017 05:09AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 137 ✭✭


    Hi could anyone please offer me some advice?
    Ive had my heart set on becoming an art teacher for about 10 years now, I did the 4 years of art college but by the time I got my degree the requirements for the Hdip changed. It was no longer a one year course but a two year masters with increased fees and the grant was much harder to get but at this stage you could get fees paid and grant if you were on social welfare for 12 months. I found it impossible to find work so I decided to go the social welfare route. By the end of the year the financial requirements changed again and id only be entitled to a contribution fee of 2,000 towards fees meaning id have to pay the remaining 8,000 which I can't do.
    I could take out a loan but ive heard so many times that secondary teaching jobs are hard to come by and you might only get 3 hours of work a week if youre lucky, it could take years to land a permanent role especially in art teaching.

    Recently I found another Hdip course in adult education, so id be qualified to teach in PLC colleges, youth reach ect.. Id still just get the contribution fee of 2,000 but the course is much cheaper and only 1 year so I can pay the remaining 3,000 with my savings.

    Over the past 10 years ive been building on my C.V and work experience volunteering in special needs schools working with children through arts and crafts, setting up my own art classes with kids and art teaching in Summer camps.

    So I went to a guidance counsellor for advice, she was lovely and very helpful but on reflection im feeling very confused, she told me that they get people in every other week from these postgrad adult education courses looking for work experience, she said its very unlikely i'll get a job out of it and that the course is very limiting, she said id have more options with the secondary school teaching qualification but I can't afford that one.

    My experience working with kids has only seemed to bite me on the backside as everywhere I go to ask for advice they focus on my work with children and encourage me to do a PLC in childcare. I love working with kids, ideally id be a children's art therapist or art teacher but neither are feasible right now, im not good at being disciplinary with kids, I raised my voice at a child in the Summer camp last Summer and im still feeling awful about it so working with kids in an environment were im required to be a disciplinarian won't work. Ive also worked so hard to get to this point I feel id be giving up if I went and did a PLC course in childcare. So ive had to start convincing the people that suggest childcare that I don't want to work with kids, making me sound like I hate working with them but otherwise they keep pushing so I don't feel ive another option.

    I just don't know what to do. What I really want is out of reach and what I can afford might not secure me employment.

    I just need some others perspective on this, im totally lost.

    Thanks


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭amtc


    Kind of out there solution...I have a cousin who wanted to do something similar and had the same financial issues. What she does now is art therapy in an addiction centre both with adults and families.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 137 ✭✭Teapot30


    My dream job would be art therapy, I hope some day I get to do the masters but I cant afford it, its a two year full time masters and I wont get a grant. Hdips and masters in education training are the only postgrads that can be supplemented with a grant. Im going to do a foundation course in art therapy over the summer, its just a weekend course so that hopefully one day I can use it to help progress to the masters. It just cant happen right now unfortunately


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,290 ✭✭✭alroley


    I was in the exact same situation as you - only a different subject. I finished my undergrad and worked for a year to save up(I was living at home though so easy to save). I'm doing the PME now and so glad I decided to go for it. Yeah job prospects aren't great - but I'll get there in the end :)
    The PME will qualify you to teach in further education colleges too. I wouldn't waste 5 grand on the other course when you can get a much better qualification - the pme is worth the extra 5 grand imo.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 166,006 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    If that's your dream career I think you should go for it, you only get one life. The only thing is you will have to move to the UK or another country to get a permanent job. If you don't mind moving (probably for at least a few years until you get a good bit of experience, or possibly for good), take out the loan, 9 grand or whatever is a drop in the ocean compared to decades of working in your dream job that you have your heart set on.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 137 ✭✭Teapot30


    Thanks for all your replies,

    I wouldn't get a job in Ireland, arts subjects are being cut from schools as it is, I know loads of girls from school who trained as second level teachers in different subjects, only one of them has found a permanent position and only recently too, we've been out of school over 10 years. The rest retrained in something else. Id hate to have to emigrate permanently from Ireland, im such a home bird, i'd be miserable.

    My dream job would be an art therapist, I also really want to teach but after hearing about art therapy a few years ago I felt that maybe it would more suited to me, I love helping people and at the risk of sounding naive and inexperienced what made me want to teach in the first place was the idea that I could help students and encourage them to want to do well, id love to set up anti bullying programs in schools and I felt that my art class could be a place where students come to get away from the pressures of academia and exams, arts is such a practical subject, theyre not confined to a seat, theres more freedom to chat to their peers, relax and be creative.
    I had a horrible time in school and I wanted to be the teacher for other students that I didnt have. Maybe these are the wrong reasons to pursue teaching as the reality of running a class of teenagers could be very different.
    Art therapy isnt feasible right now but I was hoping I could save up through teaching and then do the art therapy masters. its just hard and expensive to get into.

    Apart from the money side of things the PME adds an extra year onto things as its a two year course, the Hdip is just one year and much less expensive.

    Sorry for the rant, I just really don't know what to do, im getting older and have been trying to find a way into a fulfilling job since finishing school but every year it gets pushed further away as fees increase, grants become harder to obtain and jobs are few and far between...


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 166,006 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Why not try to get into the art therapy masters then? Take out a loan, if that's what you want to do, and get a part time job. It's tough but it's what everyone has to do now unfortunately. Sorry if I missed something, but is the only issue with applying for art therapy masters money? The reality is is that you will have to just scrape by for the two years, paying off the loan etc, but it is doable.

    If you don't get into it this time, keep doing what you're doing ie volunteering in that area, and maybe try and get some relevant work experience. It doesn't sound like teaching is really right for you, due to the difficulty of getting a job in Ireland, and the fact that you don't really like being authoritative. But go after your dream, whatever it takes. You're really lucky that you have such a clear idea of what you want to do! Most of us are pretty much in the dark.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,132 ✭✭✭✭pwurple


    The art therapy route is so popular... I have two cousins with art therapy masters. One works in a call center, and the other in dunnes. Couldn't break into it at all, they gave up because they have families to raise and feed. 
    I'd be slow to advise anyone to pay for a course which might not pay them back long term. Colleges are businesses remember. They sell academia, and are generally not concerned what you do with yourself afterwards.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 137 ✭✭Teapot30


    gcc89 wrote: »
    Why not try to get into the art therapy masters then? Take out a loan, if that's what you want to do, and get a part time job. It's tough but it's what everyone has to do now unfortunately. Sorry if I missed something, but is the only issue with applying for art therapy masters money? The reality is is that you will have to just scrape by for the two years, paying off the loan etc, but it is doable.

    If you don't get into it this time, keep doing what you're doing ie volunteering in that area, and maybe try and get some relevant work experience. It doesn't sound like teaching is really right for you, due to the difficulty of getting a job in Ireland, and the fact that you don't really like being authoritative. But go after your dream, whatever it takes. You're really lucky that you have such a clear idea of what you want to do! Most of us are pretty much in the dark.

    Its not that easy to get into, you need to have a years full time experience working with vulnerable people before you can apply to it which seems really unnecessary to me as you do work experience placements 4 days a week 9 -5 over the course of the 2 years. You also need to have personal psychotherapy sessions while doing the course which youve to pay for yourself, thats about 40 euro a week. The course is 9 - 5. I really want it though so im going to keep aiming for it, it just wont happen as soon as id like. If it comes to it ill just take out a loan, ill do the teaching anyway so ill have something to fall back on to pay the bills.


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