Is it time for a career change? Transition to Teach, a Department for Education-funded programme for career changers, could help you bring your skills to the classroom. Transition to Teach offers bespoke support to help you make the career change, offering guidance throughout your training year and first year of teaching in the classroom.

One of the people supported by Transition to Teach is Susanne Patel, who previously worked within the chemical industry:

“My previous role focused on understanding particulate systems. I worked with a range of companies, from water treatment to personal care and pharmaceuticals to understand the physical properties of their materials.”

Susanne says that her career reached a point where teaching felt like a natural next step and that she realised she had lots of transferable skills to take into the classroom.

“Thanks to my previous role, I have excellent people skills; I can listen and communicate clearly with others. Time management is another key skill I learned in my previous role and knowing how to plan my time has really helped during my teacher training year. I am now training to teach science with a chemistry specialism via the school-centred initial teacher training route, which means that most of my training is delivered directly in the classroom.”

Susanne contacted Transition to Teach and received advice and practical support with applying to a teaching course; Susanne will continue to receive support right through to the end of her first year as a newly qualified teacher.

Ken Boyle is another Transition to Teach participant, who previously worked in sales and operations within the steel industry. Ken is currently training as a secondary chemistry teacher.

“I had talked about teaching since university, but I wanted some life experience first. My most influential teachers at school had ‘real’ jobs before teaching and it meant that they could talk about life after school.

“Transition to Teach was an important part of my support network as I entered teaching. My Guidance and Development Adviser has always been there to listen to me talk and signpost helpful resources – she’s been a rock!”

To discover how Transition to Teach may be able to support you as you train to teach, attend one of our free webinars where we’ll cover eligibility, routes into teaching, financial assistance, subject knowledge and more. Book your place at our next webinar now at https://bit.ly/3elPQYr.

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