No Grad Job and No Experience? Try a Year of Paid Work

If you’ve now hit the halfway point of your third year of university, your thoughts will no doubt be turning to launching your career. Yet if the career fairs have come and gone without an offer from that coveted consultancy graduate scheme, it’s not hard to feel a little disheartened. If, like most undergraduates, you don’t have much in the way of professional experience to burnish your CV, that disappointment can develop into anxiety as the weeks tick by without a job offer.

Well, don’t panic – while the graduate job market can be tough, your working life over the next year can involve a lot more than just pulling pints. If you’re looking for a route into a respected profession, the world of education offers a range of graduate jobs with no experience required.

At Teaching Personnel, we place hundreds of recent graduates each year in paid, year-long, full-time roles at schools near them through our Future Teachers Programme. These positions give graduates a first-hand view of life as an educator while earning a weekly wage.

Before signing up, our Future Teachers tend to ask some common questions about the scheme. We’ve tried to answer them in this article. Read on to find out why any graduate without a job offer for September should consider trying out a placement in a local school. 

Education is one of the most consistently popular career paths for university leavers, employing 13.5% of all new graduates in one recent year. Grads are drawn to teaching by its job security, intellectual stimulation and the chance to do something of genuine social value every single day.

Teaching is more than just a job; it’s a vocation that many new teachers will stick with for the rest of their working lives. While working with young people isn’t for everyone, many new and aspiring educators flock to the profession for the chance to escape the desk job and do something hands-on. 

There’s no single ideal for what makes a great teacher. Schools benefit most when they have a whole range of talents across their workforce. If you feel attracted to the idea of teaching, it’s highly likely you can find a niche, whether you’re a natural extrovert or more of a bookish soul.  

Of course, communication skills and organisational skills are useful for any would-be educator, but all such competencies can be learned on the job. The most important trait is a burning desire to make a positive difference in other people’s lives. Everything else springs from there.

If you feel that sense of duty and service, then our Future Teachers programme allows you to put it to practice and see how truly compatible you’d be with teaching life.    

Of course – there’s no way to start teaching lessons without gaining a qualification by passing an accredited pathway like a PGCE.

The Future Teachers programme won’t put you to work as a bona fide teacher. Instead, you’ll play a support role in a real classroom, working closely alongside the teacher to make sure lessons run smoothly and that the children are being given the attention they need.

This experience will provide you with a meaningful, first-hand insight into the daily duties of a teacher and the normal rhythms of classroom life. By the end of the year, you’ll have all the information you need to decide whether teaching is the career choice for you. 

The Future Teachers Programme is a natural bridge to Initial Teacher Training. By observing and assisting a real teacher every day, you’ll absorb many of the theoretical aspects of pedagogy you’d learn on an ITT course, not to mention a few handy tricks of the trade.

You’ll also have access to a whole raft of professional development materials and CPD training courses, plus guidance and advice whenever you need it.  

You can hear more about how work experience as a classroom support assistant prepares you for teacher training by reading our interview with Rohnan, a teaching assistant who has used his experience to find a place on a PGCE course.  

The Future Teachers Programme is envisioned as a taster for the teaching profession. While the rate of Future Teachers who then go on to Initial Teacher Training is high, some people each year will find that their heart just isn’t in it.

There is absolutely no obligation to proceed any further with education after completing the Future Teachers Programme, nor is there any shame in realising that the job isn’t what you’re looking for.

Whatever you decide, you will come away from the programme with a year of gainful employment and a set of transferable skills to show for it. 

Our Future Teachers Programme is completely free to sign up to. No hidden fees, no extra premiums or upselling.

What’s more, you’ll get paid a competitive rate for every week of your placement. 

You can join the Future Teachers Programme by filling out a short form here. All we will need by way of a job application are a few basic details about you and your university degree.

Once you’ve sent us this information, one of our specialist educational consultants will be in touch. They’ll get a sense of you as a person and select the school you’d be most suited to. Then you’ll be ready to get to work when the new academic year starts in September.

If you're dreading an endless job search, this is the way to find a graduate role quickly and easily.

We can’t wait to help you test the waters of an infinitely rewarding career path and build up valuable skills after graduation.