is anyone on here a teacher

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Originally Posted by EchiDna

Can I ask a question of those mature age students - I come with an engineering and environmental science background with nearly 20 years in industry and will admit to being tempted to go back to school to get a dipEd - I would could be qualified to teach maths, physics, chemistry, environmental sciences, outdoor education... but I must admit that the "attractive" packages for retraining are to be blunt, very unattractive to support my family while I study and the starting salary being the same as a fresh graduate downright insulting (circa 55k a year)... am I misunderstanding the system? I don't expect to get rich being a teacher, but I would like to think that my industry experience would count for something!

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I'm a Boilermaker by trade and have 20 odd years experience in dangerous goods warehousing and distribution. I received a reasonable payout that has allowed me to pay off the house and become debt free whilst I get my degree. For the next couple of years we'll have to tighten the belt a bit until I get a job. I'm lucky I suppose as the girls are off our hands now and teaching is the career of choice to see me out so I'm not to worried about a sub 80k income.

I've always mouthed off about kids and education, so I reckon it's time to put up or shut up.

woody

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Originally Posted by woody

I'm a Boilermaker by trade and have 20 odd years experience in dangerous goods warehousing and distribution. I received a reasonable payout that has allowed me to pay off the house and become debt free whilst I get my degree. For the next couple of years we'll have to tighten the belt a bit until I get a job. I'm lucky I suppose as the girls are off our hands now and teaching is the career of choice to see me out so I'm not to worried about a sub 80k income.

I've always mouthed off about kids and education, so I reckon it's time to put up or shut up.

woody

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I wish! I've still got two in primary school and part of me like the idea of getting cheaper independent school education for my kids given the chance. Yours sounds like a great and enviable situation to me ;-)

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Originally Posted by EchiDna

Can I ask a question of those mature age students - I come with an engineering and environmental science background with nearly 20 years in industry and will admit to being tempted to go back to school to get a dipEd - I would could be qualified to teach maths, physics, chemistry, environmental sciences, outdoor education... but I must admit that the "attractive" packages for retraining are to be blunt, very unattractive to support my family while I study and the starting salary being the same as a fresh graduate downright insulting (circa 55k a year)... am I misunderstanding the system? I don't expect to get rich being a teacher, but I would like to think that my industry experience would count for something!

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It is hard enough to be able to get good engineers to stay in tertiary education, let alone secondary education.

With your qualifications though you could probably rapidly progress to/through the private school system.

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Originally Posted by Slunnie

Yup, I am.

I'm Industrial Technology wood/metal etc, Design & Technology, Technical Dwg, Technology, Power mechanics, electronics, Engineering etc etc etc.

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Ditto here in Tassie :)

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Originally Posted by isuzurover

It is hard enough to be able to get good engineers to stay in tertiary education, let alone secondary education.

With your qualifications though you could probably rapidly progress to/through the private school system.

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Cheers mate, I figure the private system would probably reward me better than the public for my past experience, but that's hard to quantify! more research needed ;-)

Some private colleges might, but I wouldn't count on it. I doubt the 'systems', would ie Catholic and so on, they're generally as much as a bureaucracy as the state system. There might be some of the wealthier independents that will, but competition would be tight. Your background will only interest them if it makes you a better teacher (which it may well), but don't assume that they will be overly impressed just because you're an engineer. You would have to sell how that makes you more valuable to them.

Best way to increase pay is go up through the ranks to management, but then you lose the contact with the kids that you're probably after anyway. Be prepared to move around.

BTW, I've got a similar background - Electrical Engineer, now teaching. Best move I made. Big pay cut, but love the job.

We had quite a lot of former teachers (and nurses) working as clerks in Social Security. Many said they left because of management and the bureaucracy, not because of children and teaching. Some said they would go back to their profession if there was radical reform of the Department. Others said they would flat out never return.

Maybe you should find a few former teachers to talk to and find out what they didn't like that made them leave.

Forget thinking about TAFE; all sides of govt are out to screw it up royally; used to be a good job 20 odd years ago but every lurk and perk has been taken and even to get CPI increases in wages means some sort of trade off or working more hours, which doesn't equate to a CPI increase - it just means you work more. Our last increase in wage equated to a $5/ hr wage cut. And for the people who like to bag teachers banging on about he extra holidays we get, think about the fact that its only an extra 5 weeks per year we get and the wage isn't commensurate with that 5 weeks. I'd say 90% of TAFE teachers would be earning well over their wage +5 weeks TAFE pay if they were in private enterprise.
So, the life style in TAFE and schools was good years ago, but is constantly being eroded to the point where I'm surprised anyone would even consider it these days.
:)

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Originally Posted by woody

I'll put my hand up as I'm currently doing my uni at USQ Springfield. I'm a mature age student in my second year with reasonable grades, and already I've had two job offers in schools around the area. The opportunity to go over the range to teach in rural and remote schools appeals to my wife and I. We feel that spending the next 20 years on a working holiday in the outback, changing schools/communities every 5 years would be a good way to see out our working lives.

woody

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That's a great attitude and it's people like that who have been a real pleasure to know when they've come through here. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting life, (unlike the complainers who just sulk through their four years up here and then shoot back off to their shopping centres!).

It's great to here some of you people with some 'real life' experience thinking about joining the teaching profession. Too many students these days end up choosing teaching because they couldn't get into anything else at uni. There's no passion for the job, and in some cases not enough intellect to really challenge the students in their thinking. A real shame. You guys will be highly valued in your school communities.

Good to see governments starting to talk about limiting placements in teaching to 70+ ATARs and so on, which is the supply side. So far nothing about actually making teaching more desirable! I really understand people's reluctance to move to teaching as far as salaries are concerned. I certainly struggle to think of many of my top students who have gone on to teaching -it just doesn't pay enough.