How do I know I want to be a teacher?

Teaching can be an enriching and fulfilling profession. If you want to make a difference in someone's life, there is no better job than to teach. Like doctors, nurses and vets, teaching is more than just a job. It's a vocation. With so many options open to graduates, it can be daunting to decide on your graduate career.

How do I know if I’m cut out for teaching?

So far, your teaching experience has most likely been as a school and university student. It is difficult to understand education and what teaching entails from the other side! Will you like it? How will you control a class? What is the day-to-day life of a teacher like? What about marking? And pupil behaviour?

That’s where the Future Teacher Programme from Teaching Personnel comes in. It is a flexible route into a teaching career. And it enables you to explore a career in education before committing to Initial Teacher Training. We provide paid placements in schools so you can start a journey that can lead to qualified teacher status. Full and part-time options are available that fit your life.

Warren, who completed the Future Teachers Programme four years ago and is now a qualified PE teacher, says, “I think having that year where you cover lessons as a future teacher made me feel like a teacher and also understand a lot of the skills needed.”

Teaching, a career that changes lives

Amy, an English teacher trainee who completed the Future Teachers programme one year ago, explains, "I would say that education is literally the most rewarding job I have ever had. I had a lot of vocations before this, but I feel education is my purpose. I’m really happy to have a career and be qualified."

How can I start my career as a teacher?

If the Future Teachers Programme sounds right for you, register your interest. The application is quick and easy.

Once you’ve registered your interest in the Future Teachers Programme, your local consultant will call to provide more information and answer any questions. You’ll complete some Safeguarding checks before being introduced to your partner schools. 

Before a formal interview for a place on the programme, most schools will meet with you online or invite you for a getting-to-know-you session. You’ll learn more about how the school and the programme work.

If you’re successful at the interview stage, you’ll start a placement for up to one year. You’ll work as a  Teaching Assistant (TA) and Cover Manager before starting your own lesson planning.

You’ll get support, and plenty of it

Placements are for up to one year. During this time, you will typically spend time working as a Teaching Assistant and Cover Manager before having the opportunity to plan your own lessons. You will be provided with support, training and the opportunity to reflect on your experiences. There is ongoing support from Teaching Personnel and your in-school mentor.

Fouad, a Future Teacher trainee, explains, "Talking in front of a classroom can be daunting, and it was daunting at the start, but now I look at myself, and I am way more comfortable.”

Becoming a fully qualified teacher

A Future Teachers placement is the perfect preparation for an Initial Teaching Training course. Some of Teaching Personnel’s partner schools offer fully- funded places on PGCE courses for successful Future Teachers. Other schools will assist you in finding a place on a course and look to keep you in the school when you qualify. 

How Future Teachers works

Once you’ve registered your interest in the Future Teachers Programme, your local consultant will call you. We then complete some Safeguarding checks before introducing you to our partner schools. 

Before a formal interview for a place on the programme, most schools will meet you online or at a getting-to-know-you session. This enables you to learn more about the school and how the programme works. After a successful interview, you will be ready to start your placement.

The benefits of the Future Teacher Programme

• In addition to making a positive impact on children and young people's lives from day one, you’ll:
• Build teaching skills and gain confidence before committing to Initial Teacher Training. 
• Have the possibility to get a funded Initial Teacher Training place.
• Work with schools that are invested in your development.
• Benefit from exclusive professional development
• Weekly pay, which helps with the current cost of living!

Rupert, a Future Teachers trainee, says: “It’s brilliant as it teaches you how to be a teacher. It helps you develop your skills while you are in the class and use different strategies with the children to help them learn.”

Your future

You’ll come away with a first-hand insight into the world of teaching that gives you the confidence to decide whether it’s the right career path. If you decide that it isn’t right for you, then you have built up valuable experience for your CV.

A Future Teachers placement is the perfect preparation for an Initial Teaching Training course. Some of Teaching Personnel’s partner schools offer fully- funded places on PGCE courses for successful Future Teachers. Other schools will assist you in finding a place on a course and look to keep you in the school when you qualify. 

Lauryn is a current Future Teachers trainee in the Swindon and Wiltshire Teaching School Hub. She describes how the programme is helping her prepare for teacher training.  She says: "You get to know the students; you get to implement that behaviour policy, and I think that makes it more effective when you do your teacher training."

As a qualified teacher, you’ll find paid work immediately. As Rupert, Future Teacher, Glenmoor and Winton Academy, says: “If it wasn’t for this programme, I wouldn’t be sat here now, or have even considered a career in education”

Find out more: https://www.teachingpersonnel.com/future-teachers