I'm a 24 year old ex-teacher and I feel I have no prospects

skint_chick · 14 March 2017 at 9:18AM

Also if you're unemployed you should consider some volunteering, check out local charities and organisations in the area you're considering to see if you can get some volunteer work to see if that would be a career path for you. It will get you something else on your CV as well to show that the sick leave was only relevant to teaching.

I changed career 3 years ago in my late thirties and it's going very well and I still have almost 30 years to achieve all my goals! You've achieved a lot in a few years so I think you are being overly critical of yourself in a very difficult job market when you're trying to change direction. You just need to think how you can maximise your chances by seeking out other routes to the type of position you want.

marlot · 14 March 2017 at 9:46AM

Where are you based in the country? If West Midlands you'd be welcome to come into our office (Civil Service, Coventry) and you can speak with a number of my graduates and apprentices about what they do.

invisibility · 14 March 2017 at 3:36PM

Can't seem to get multi-quote to work so apologies for this being a general reply rather than to each individual.

Thanks for the interesting and helpful replies. Much appreciated.

Graduate schemes - I have indeed looked at them but a lot of them closed before I left my job, so I may have to rely on next year's intake.

CVs - I've hardly had to use my CV at all, actually. Hardly any applications have asked for it and most have stated that they don't accept it. Good point about spelling out the amount of admin in teaching though - I could do with clarifying that.

Career change - I know I'm at a good age to consider a career change, I suppose I just don't know what I would retrain as! I can't think of many things I want to do which would require an additional qualification or something like that. I would like to give career's advice and there is a qualification I can do but I'd have to pay out of my own money and jobs are so sparse.

Pastoral jobs - I thought my youth would be an advantage too! But on the TES forums (for teachers) I posted a similar thread to this and got told I was far too young and inexperienced to be considering pastoral roles...

Upwork - I sadly don't know what freelance skills I could offer! Politics A-Level tutoring isn't in high supply

Volunteering - I am really keen to do this. I have registered my interested with several on the Do It website, but I think I'll give them a direct call as I haven't heard back. I've applied for ones with admin experience! I have far too much charity shop experience for that to help me in anyway.

Marlot - Thanks so much for the kind offer but unfortunately I don't live near Coventry - I'm up near Manchester. Do you deal with recruitment? I refresh the Civil Service jobs website every day. The application process seems very rigorous! I've seen jobs on there in the past that I've been interested in (but still employed so more looking speculatively) and I'm hoping they will come around again. Executive Officer posts with the Department of Education in Manchester are of great interest to me. I feel I would be well qualified.

dcouponzzzz · 14 March 2017 at 3:43PM

My advice is always to follow further education up with an industry recognised certification in the field you'd like to pursue a career. I figured this out 2 years in to uni, dropped out and spent 2 years in night school getting 5 or 6 IT/Networking related certifications and the response was immediate.

mummyyum · 15 March 2017 at 9:31PM

Have you considered Special Needs teaching? It is very different to mainstream...lots more pastoral care and involvement with the childrens wellbeing. You could register with an agency such as Sugarman to try out special needs and see what you think. I'm sure you would get a placement virtually straight away. Good luck.

Cirias · 20 March 2017 at 4:41PM

Can you not go back into teaching but maybe at a different school or different subject? It seems to me that you should utilise what experience you already have and plug away at it to build up your work history. While you're teaching you could then put the feelers out for what else might be around, or you may even find an opportunity at the school and be able to apply internally.

I'm a 24 year old ex-teacher and I feel I have no prospects

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