The truth about teaching (with Get into Teaching)

On this episode we speak to Freya Hemming, a brand ambassador for Get Into Teaching and Zaid Khaliq, a former teacher and now an Explore Teaching adviser

Participants

In order of first appearance:

• Dan Mason - editorial manager, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ
• Freya Hemming - brand ambassador for Get Into Teaching
• Zaid Khalik - former teacher and now an Explore Teaching adviser

Transcript

Dan Mason: You may think you know all there is to know about what it's like to be a teacher. But how true are your perceptions about salaries, workload, dealing with bad behaviour? Let's bust some myths about teaching in this episode of Future You.

Dan Mason: Hello and welcome to Future You the podcast from graduate careers experts Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ, we're here to help you achieve your career goals. My name is Dan Mason and in this episode we're going to take a deep dive into what it's really like to be a teacher. My guests are Freya Hemming, who is looking forward to starting her teaching career. And Zaid Khalik who has been a teacher and is now an Explore Teaching adviser talks through the big questions around salaries, workload, dealing with bad behaviour in the classroom, the rewards of being a teacher, and much more. And I think this is a really helpful discussion for those of you who are considering this career path and perhaps even some of you who haven't thought of teaching as an option for you until now.

Don't forget to subscribe to Future You in your podcast app, and head to prospects.ac.uk for more careers advice, but for now, let's get straight into my conversation with Freya and Zaid.

Dan Mason: I'm joined for this episode by Freya Hemming a brand ambassador for Get into Teaching and also by Zaid Khalik who is a former teacher himself and an Explore Teaching adviser. Welcome to you both.

Both: Thank you for having us.

Dan Mason: Great to speak to you both. Before we get into the main part of this conversation which is going to be about careers in teaching and busting a few myths about that. If we start with a bit of context about both of your backgrounds, starting with you Zaid if we can, tell us a little bit about your own career in teaching how you got into teaching, what subjects you taught what age group, that kind of thing?

Zaid Klalik: Sure. Hi, everyone. So my name is Zaid Khalik. I've been a teacher for about 10 years, just over 10 years. So my route into teaching was a bit atypical I'd say in that I went into teaching after graduating from university, because I didn't know what else to do at the time. So I had a friend who was a teacher, and he kind of suggested that I consider teaching, you know just for the year, I think at the time, there was a bit of a bursary going on and you know, it was I think it's £7,000. And when I looked at prospects at the time, I thought, you know, it's not such a bad idea. So I kind of decided to go ahead, I applied, I was successful in my application. And then, you know, I completed the training year, it was a very kind of interesting experience for me, not least because the two placements that I had, were very, very different. So one of the placements I did was in a further education college, I was in a situation where I was teaching students that were older than me, I taught the foundation degree course there. And you know, somebody who just left university that was a bit of a unique experience. But one thing I would say the challenges at that time were obviously, you know, things like the academic side, because you're teaching quite a high level. But it was a very interesting way to kind of experience the profession because there weren't any real behavioral challenges, so to speak, because I was dealing with obviously, more able kind of mature students. The second placement was the complete opposite. It was an inner city school, the students really didn't want to learn there and so behavioral challenges are very, very high. So it's a very, you know, end to end spectrum kind of, you know, different kind of challenges in both of those kind of placements. Fast forward, started my first teaching job. And I think by the end of my first year, it was something that I couldn't see myself do anything other than I really enjoyed my first year of teaching. I built some very great relationship with the students I taught. And from that point onwards, it was something that I wanted to continue on with. I taught in the UK I continued for about three years I taught in an inner city school in Birmingham, again, there was a lot of challenges around behaviour because the area that where I taught was a bit deprived. So students came from, you know, challenging kind of backgrounds. But that experience was, you know, very rewarding in that when I was able to work with those students and help them achieve academic success. It was a very rewarding experience.

Fast forward, I then applied to go to teach overseas. I ended up teaching in Dubai for about seven years. All the while it was science, but obviously different disciplines in science. But yeah, that kind of sums up my career.

Dan Mason: Excellent. Thanks very much for that. And how about yourself Freya, what inspired you to become a brand ambassador for Get into Teaching? And is teaching something that you're considering for your career?

Freya Hemming: Yes. So, at this time, when I got approached by Get into Teaching, I was currently doing my application. So I'm currently a student in Nottingham. But next year, I'm hoping to move back home. And I've got a provisional place at Newman University in Birmingham to study I want to teach geography at secondary schools. So it's always been something in the back of my mind, always considered teaching, I was like, you know, what, I'm just gonna submit the application, see how it goes. And then I was actually on campus one day, and in the students’ union, they had like the Get into Teaching stall. And you know, you always get approached at these events. And it was like are you considering teaching? And for once, I was like, actually, yeah, I am. And so I actually spoke to another Get into Teaching adviser at the event, and he gave me some other advice, and obviously got my freebies as well from the event. And yeah and then one of the girls at the end approached me and said ‘oh, we haven't got a brand ambassador for the University of Nottingham yet, and would you consider it?’ And I was a bit like, sure like what does it entail as such? And it's basically just spreading the word on campus about teaching, you know, doing social media engagement, and, you know, hosting two events per time. So yeah, that's basically how I got into it and it's been the perfect student job really been, you know, I've been able to balance my studies and everything and learn more about teaching, and, yeah, it's been really good. So that's great.

Dan Mason: Thanks very much for that. So we've got a bit of an introduction to both of you there. Let's move into the main part of this, which is, so we're going to try and tackle a few of the myths that surround careers in teaching maybe. So if we start by going to you again Freya maybe if you want to sort of introduce us to some of the common myths that people may have about teaching and what they might be.

Freya Hemming: I think that's probably quite a big worry that the salary isn't amazing. And maybe you're working a lot more than a typical job. I think that's probably the main thing yeah. And then apart from that, maybe other myths about teachers only work 8am to 3pm. Right, the school day, like that's all teachers do. I think that's quite a big myth. And obviously, they do nothing in the summer holidays and have really long breaks. I think that's quite a big myth. And maybe a myth like teaching is easy. You know, why can't everyone be a teacher? I think that's quite a big one as well.

Dan Mason: Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? There's the kind of dual aspect where it sort of does a perception of the huge workload on the one hand, but then also, oh, it's sort of an easy ride and lots of holidays on the other so it's kind of you hear both sides of that. So Zaid do you want to tackle a few of those and tell us what the reality is?

Zaid Khalik: Sure. So I mean, I try to go through one at a time. I start with the one about workload. I think it's quite accepted now anybody who's considering teaching that, you know, there is a need for you to put in some time outside your contact with students. Obviously, there's a lot of duties, a lot of responsibilities that teachers have, you know, in terms of preparing lessons, preparing resources, making sure assessment is kind of offered to students and marking books, etc. So there definitely is a need for you to spend time doing work outside the contact that you have with students. The question is, how do you accommodate that? How does that work? So in my career, I can I can talk about my own kind of experiences with that. What I used to do is I would allocate at least two hours per day, outside contact with students. And I found what worked best for me was early mornings. So I used to tend to get into work about at least two hours before the students would arrive, because obviously, I'm full of energy in the morning, I'm not exhausted by a full day of teaching. And generally, you'll find that the mornings school day is quite quiet. There's not a lot of students around and not a lot of staff members around so I was able to use that time to do any planning that I needed to do, any photocopying that I need to do any emails, any urgent requests that I needed to respond to, any pastoral issues that were raised in the day before that I needed to kind of action, any printing that needed to be done and more importantly, any marking that needs to be done. And what I found was if I allocated that to them, two hours typically and every working day, I never felt the need to spend time in the afternoons or the evenings doing additional work. And I never kind of felt overwhelmed. Now the reality is, there's going to be times in the academic year where you're probably going to have more to do than at other times. You know, there's times where there's coursework that needs to be submitted, or you'll have your students going for examinations. And there might be a requirement to do extra classes, so revision opportunities for students. But typically speaking, I found that if I spent that time and maybe a few hours on a Sunday morning, any requirements I need to do the job effectively, I was able to fit into them times. I think the issue with workload when it becomes a problem is when that do resources, not kind of afforded so people don't allocate that set amount of time you're not organised in that way. And then things get to pile up, and then you find that you're pretty overwhelmed. Probably the biggest demand of my time outside of teaching would have been marking books. And that's why I made it a habit at least an hour a day, I will be sitting marking books. And if you cycle through your books, every week, every two weeks, you generally find that when you do come to mark on this actually not a lot of marking that needs to be done. But if you leave them same books for say, a month, six weeks, then it becomes quite, quite demanding. The last point I'll make about workload is when you start teaching, your first year is probably going to be the first time that you will have an opportunity to go through the entire years’ work with each year group, the training year, it doesn't really allow you that because when you train to become a teacher, you have to do two placements as a minimum. And they tend to be at two different schools. So you don't really get an opportunity to go through the entire year's curriculum with students. But when you start working, obviously, the opportunities afforded to you. The first time you teach something, you're really conscious about what you're teaching, what resources are available, what activities you will include in your lessons. But once you get your first year through, when you teach the same material, the second year, a lot of the things that you need to prepare are already prepared. So you save a lot of time as you develop experience. So definitely the initial part of your career is going to probably have a greater demand on you. But as you get more and more experienced, you will find that the things that you were spending a lot of time in, say your early career, you're no longer having to spend that time because firstly become more efficient. And secondly, you've developed a good resource bank. So that's been my experience, I'd say on workload. And I think for the other point that you mentioned was overworked and underpaid.  

Freya Hemming: Yeah, yeah. You kind of hear that when teachers are striking on the news. And that's the one thing that everyone keeps saying in the news and stuff. So yeah.

Zaid Khalik: So I mean that there's been some changes that have been introduced around pay. So last year was the first year that teachers that started teaching, as newly qualified teachers, the start salary was introduced at £28,000, which is a significant increase to previous years. Now, obviously, that's different if you were working in London, because obviously, the cost of living is higher there. So the starting salary, there is £34,000. Now, just to give you some figures, I mean, that can increase for a normal teacher, you can go from £28,000 to about, you know, just around the £50,000 mark just for being a normal classroom teacher, that's somebody who has no additional responsibilities. They're just working, you know, with the students that they teach. The other thing that I'll probably mention around teaching is there's a lot of promotional opportunities that kind of are afforded. So if you just take a moment to think about how many schools there might be where you live, in each of those schools, you need to have heads of department, heads of yours. You know you'll have members of leadership. And in all of these positions, what you find is there's additional kind of pay that's offered. So there's a lot of promotional opportunities. If you look at teaching as a career, I think it's quite competitive now. So certainly the pay I think has improved quite healthy. And there's probably, you know, more opportunities for progression in teaching than say most similar kinds of professions. So, in terms of being underpaid, I think that's, you know, not true when you compare it to a lot of other graduate kind of careers that people can go into.

The last thing that I'll probably say on the on the underpaid part is teaching I don't think is a career that most people consider solely for pay. I think it's not something that a lot of people will go into thinking, oh, you know, I'm gonna go into teaching because I want to make a lot of money. I think there's a lot more behind that decision. This, you know, there's a passion, there's a kind of commitment, there's a desire for me making a difference that kind of is associated with choosing a career in teaching.

So, you know, just to summarise, I think it is a competitively paid profession, and there's probably something more that will attract people to teaching other than that.

Dan Mason: Oh, that's a great insight thanks. Is there any particular aspects of that Freya that you wanted to come back on?

Freya Hemming: No, it's very reassuring. If anything, you know, I think for me you know, the passion is at the forefront of everything, especially within teaching as well. So yeah, it's definitely busted that myth for sure. Yeah.

Dan Mason: Excellent.

Zaid Khalik: I just wanted to comment on the holidays as well. So my first holiday experience, worked about I think it was seven weeks, eight weeks is going from my first half term holiday, I had a book had a box of books that was so kind of high that I was barely able to see the top of them. I remember the look on the science technicians face like what on earth are you doing taking that home with you. And I was like well when else was aiming to get it done. And again, I'll come back to my initial kind of points. Look, when you're when you're in your first year, you learning how to do things. So you're probably going to find yourselves in situation where there is a lot to get done. But I was able to mark them books. I know it sounds like a lot. But I was able to do it in two days, we have a total of nine days if you include the weekend. So we're still able to have a holiday. But the truth around the summer holidays is I don't think there's been a summer holiday that would have ever worked part of my holidays I might have useful bit of marking, but at most it might be to two days. Beyond that you do get to rest in the holidays.

Dan Mason: Good to know. So shall we move on to the next issue and this is something that's actually come up in our surveys that we've done at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ»ÆƬ when we ask people about their perceptions of careers in teaching, which is perhaps being put off a little bit by being unsure as to how they would deal with bad behaviour and those kinds of issues in the classroom. Freya, what's your perception of that part of the role?

Freya Hemming: Yeah, I definitely think it's a quite a big worry for someone who's you know, looking to get into teaching, you know, one day, you're just going to be in charge of like 30 plus students, and you have to control them all. And I kind of got a little bit of an insight into it. So in Nottingham, I've had a job in two schools and just gaining like work experience and stuff. And like Zaid said, like working in some like deprived areas, you know, that the students can be very challenging sometimes. So I have experienced it firsthand but me sitting at the back of the classroom, being an observer, that was intimidating, let alone being the teacher at the front having to control all the students. And I think it's really hard to like, obviously, keep that consistency for all the teachers across the school, you know, looking at behaviour policies and stuff, I do think that there is quite a big taboo around you know not controlling a class and, you know, wanting to keep it professional and stuff. So yeah, I think if anything, is quite daunting to someone like myself at the moment.

Dan Mason: Yeah, Zaid what would be your response to that? How have you managed bad behaviour in the class? And how do you approach that as part of the job.

Zaid Khalik: So I think it's a very kind of valid concern that a lot of people have, I can relate to my own experiences going into teaching. You know, if anything, it was a concern that I had, if there's anything that I've learned in my career around behavior is, you know, it's a skill set. It's a skill set that you develop through your training year, and something that you will obviously continue to develop in your career. So, you know, there's a number of different aspects of this that I hope to try to cover and please bear with me on this because I want to try to cover them all.

The first is, when it comes to looking at behavior there's quite a number of terms that are used. One of them is called behavior for learning it's about creating opportunities where behavior is not an issue. One of the biggest things that I'll say is most behavior management or behavior for learning is about preventing instances when negative behavior can occur. And there's a whole kind of, you know, a number of skills or a number of qualities that you will kind of bring into that. So, as an example, if lessons are planned where students are engaged, that are an appropriate level, students are enjoying the learning and they're able to access that learning and if they're engaged with that learning, then the likelihood of them being idle and disengaged, which generally then tends to lead on negative behavior would be minimal. So you know, once you develop that relationship with students, once you're able to kind of plan lessons and capture their interest and get them motivated around your subject, you'll find that they'll probably come into your lessons eager to learn wanting to learn, and that idle negative behavior doesn't really happen. Every school that you might choose to work in will have a policy, that policy is there to obviously keep students focused and to keep staff safe. As a teacher, you will be encouraged to follow that policy. It's about creating awareness of that policy and then to continually go refer back to that policy when, you know, students are probably not doing as you know the policy suggests. And it's also about, you know, not being confrontational with students, not challenging students, but giving them options. And this is where I think it's key where students understand what is expected of them. And if they, you know, if they deviate from the expectation is a case of just reminding them of what is expected of them and then giving them a choice, you can either choose to do this. Or if you don't, then you know, what the consequences. So it's not a confrontation between, say, the staff member and the students, it's more just a reminder of what is expected and what needs to be done in order to kind of avoid sanctions that might be in place.

But the most significant thing that I think I can mention here is look, behavior for learning is a skill set that you have to give yourself time to develop. And to give you an example, when I first started teaching, I think my first lesson took me about six hours to plan and that's not because it was something that was very difficult for me, it was something that I felt at the time, that wasn't sufficient and I kept on racing in my head thinking oh well, what if somebody asked me this way, if somebody asked me the other, and I was adding and adding to this lesson plan, and when I showed it to my mentor he was just, you know, he just started chuckling, saying, you've got enough here for two months, what do you mean, you've not planned enough? You know, and you just overdo it, because you're thinking so much. Fast forward a few weeks, that six hours became maybe 20 minutes, 30 minutes, fast forward a little, you know, a little more, and then maybe that 20/30 minutes became five to 10 minutes. The point I'm making is I developed the capacity, and then an ability to plan quickly, I understood what was required of me and I was able to, you know, I had resources that I was able to go to, to get that planning done. And I think the same applies for behavior for learning. It's a skill set. It's something that you learn, and it's something that you have to give yourself an opportunity to kind of develop. I also think, you know, and certainly from my experiences is probably the one aspect of teaching where you probably are less forgiving of yourself. So if you had a lesson where you know, things didn't go to plan and students were misbehaving, you probably take it hard on yourself oh, I can't do this. It's too hard. They just don't listen to me. But I think it's about being reflective. I think it's about going back to the drawing board thinking about, you know, why the lesson, perhaps didn't go according to what you wanted to go as. What you could have done differently? How would you tackle that negative behavior in hindsight, you know, refer to colleagues, go back to the policies, go back to the drawing board, and try again. And just remember, with practice, and with, you know, opportunities you will develop your skills to become an effective behavior practitioner as well.

The most important bit of advice I can give to anybody listening who's concerned about this is be easy on yourself. Don't be hard on yourself when things don't go right when it comes to behavior for learning. Just as if you over plan the lesson, you probably chuckle it off and say, look I'll have another go and I know not to plan as much.

And the last thing I can add is, I think when you're an experienced teacher in a school setting, students tend to understand a lot more about the limitations around when they're in your class, so they know what you're about. They know that if they were to do x, y and z what the consequences will be. And you have a bit of a reputation, don't you as teachers and if you think back to your own experiences when you might have been in school, there were some teachers that you wouldn't want to mess around with as much say as others right. When I took my last teaching job, I taught in the previous school for about four years, I had absolutely no behavioral issues at all you know nothing at all. But when I took my the last job that I was in, you know, I had year elevens walk out of my room run down the corridor, I had year nines that will come in and start throwing things at each other. I had year nines that wouldn't sit down, and I'm like what on earth has happened. And I realised that is nothing to do with me could have been me could have been any other teacher. The fact is, the students don't know and they're testing the water and you know, it's just a case of applying the behavior policies, I had to phone a few parents, had a few meetings, and then once the students understood that look they can't get away with that kind of behavior. Everything fell back into place, as I was you know accustomed to in my previous employment.

So again, I'll go over the point, sometimes you have to establish a positive learning environment and that takes a bit of time when students get to know you. And there's always a policy to follow, in which you're going to be safe. And it's just a case of practice and experience that will make it better as time goes by.

Dan Mason: That's all really interesting. And I think that also just emphasises Freya doesn't the importance of speaking to people who have the experience to sort of really reassure you about these aspects of the career.

Freya Hemming: Oh, yes, definitely you know getting those insights from the people that have got those years of experience, definitely, you know, yeah, it's really good.

Dan Mason: And turning sort of away from myths and perceptions, and more into now what really attracts you to teaching Freya? What is it that has made you want to pursue this career? And what do you expect the most rewarding parts of the job to be for you?

Freya Hemming: And so for me as I said before, I'm hoping to become a geography teacher. And it's a bit ironic because I actually hated geography in school. And I don't know what it was and then I did it at A-level because it was one of my decent GCSE grades, and I was like, I'm just gonna do it. And then suddenly, something I don't know what it was, it just clicked and I just fell in love with the subject. And for me, the main reason was because of my teacher, I think, at A-level, you know, you're in a smaller classroom, you're getting to know your teachers one on one, I just absolutely loved it. And then I'd never ever thought that I'd be studying it at university, you know, I'm in my third year now, literally graduate this summer. And, you know, for me, that was because of my teachers. You know, my teacher was the first one at results day to come up to me and be Freya you know, you've got into uni like, and it was just that moment where it was like that I know how much value like teachers give to students like myself. And I've, you know, said before, I've had two jobs in a school in Nottingham, and even me being on a placement there for 10 weeks, seeing that lightbulb moment for one of those students, even though I've known them for less, you know, less than a month, and it's like, seeing them how happy they are, when they understand something rewarding to think I was, I was part of that. And he just had, like, a glimpse into what the teaching profession is like, but it's made me so excited to start next year. So definitely think the most rewarding part is, you know, giving back to the students and seeing them have that light bulb moment like I did myself, so yeah,

Dan Mason: Fantastic. And how about you Zaid how does that compare with what you found most rewarding as a teacher?

Zaid Khalik: I think a lot of what Freya has said there is very, very true for my own experiences as well. I think one of the things that I really enjoyed about teaching, just on the day to day thing is I found it to be very kind of exciting and non repetitive. And I know you're teaching lessons, and you know, you're teaching through a curriculum, but I think children and students generally are very uninhibited, how they're feeling and what they're feeling. And they're very authentic in that regard. So I always found, you know, the day to be quite enjoyable, you know, quite fun, quite engaging, quite lively with the students. And I really enjoyed that back and forth and, you know when students get something that they struggle to understand or when they realise that you actually do care, and that you don't think they're just going to fail you because in the bottom set, and you actually do, you know, put in quite a lot of effort to see them kind of have opportunities within your subject. One particular example that stands out for me is I once worked in a school where I inherited a year nine class and their behavior was, you know, very poor to begin with and it was a big class and when I started teaching them, one of the things they will constantly remind me of was the fact that in year eight, they had supply teachers throughout the year and each supply teacher that they had told them that you know, they're not going to leave and they're going to be their teacher and that they're going to be different. But every single one of them left within six to eight weeks. And so when I came along, and I said no I'm going to be your teacher for year nine, they had this belief that I wasn't going to last until, you know, past two months. So my approach with them was very similar to any other class I taught I planned lessons for them as if they were my top set, I gave them lots of opportunities in practical science. And if they failed to understand something, I always went back and explained again, I didn't just give worksheets, I tried to make the lessons meaningful. And I think it was one afternoon, I was just you know dreading the fact that, oh God, I've got year nine and it's the afternoon and it's after lunch and it's like a Monday and it's a long day. And I just, and they just came in, and I was expecting a lot of racket and a lot of messing around and a lot of banter. But I had none of it. They just came in, they sat down, they got the books out. I was so surprised but I didn't want to just say something in case they reverted back to how they've been the past two weeks. And then, you know, the teaching assistants said that because she's been with them the year before and she basically said that they've never experienced what you've done for them, and that you've planning lessons where they actually are able to do practicals. And when they tell you they don't understand you don't you don't say well, I've explained it before you go through the trouble of explaining it again. And, you know, I think it got to a point where they appreciated that and they realised that, you know, maybe I did care about them, and their behavior changed completely. And it became one of the classes that I look forward to, because they were so engaged after that point. So I think it's, you know it's that excitement it's the fact that you know you're able to make a difference to young people, you can give them opportunities, and you get them to kind of take you in a certain direction. So I still live close to the school that I taught in when I first became a teacher, and I see some of my students now and they all grown up, and they married most of them, and they've got their children, and some of them are earning far more money than I ever earned. But, you know, it's good to see that and they come and they tell us all, you know how meaningful that was and they still refer to me as the best science teacher. And it's really nice to see. So it's very rewarding. You know, it's very fulfilling in that regard and you'll never feel bored on the job there's always something happening. And it tends to be very unique.

Dan Mason: So it's great to hear those stories as well. Let's move on to talk a little bit about your current roles. We'll start with you Freya. Tell us about being an ambassador for Get into Teaching and what you've learned about the profession by carrying out that role.

Freya Hemming: Well, yeah, so as part of the being a brand ambassador, you know, we have to do social media engagement. So we've got content every week to post to our followers and stuff, and even just the posts that they make, and like the links they give to like stories about teachers and stuff and reading all that it's just so inspiring to hear everyone's individual story, I think that's really important to help share that as well. You know, as part of the brand ambassador role, you know, we've attended webinars and stuff to learn a bit more, because obviously when we host these event, we're having to inform students, you know, we want to make sure we answer all their questions as well as you can. And so, you know, I've learned a lot about the different routes into teaching. So I myself, I'm taking the university route and I just think that was best for me. But I did look into like the school centred initial teacher training. So balancing those like options was really interesting to learn about what worked for me, what didn't work for me. And obviously, a big one is the funding. So the bursaries for next year, that's really important. I think a lot of people don't realise the funding that's out there for certain subjects. So yeah, it's really important. And I think the best thing I probably learned, was probably, you know, how learning how progressive the role of being a teacher is, like Zaid before it's not just about teaching classroom, you know, you can reach those targets of becoming a head of year, head of subjects. And I think that's really quite cool to like, keep me motivated. And yeah, I'm really excited to just get started really, but yeah, the role has been really good to learn more, meet people, like say it and talk to like, you know, like minded people. So yeah, it's been really good.

Dan Mason: Fantastic. And Zaid how about you you're an explore teaching adviser. So tell us a bit about what an adviser does and how you support people on their journey into teaching.

Zaid Khalik: Firstly Freya thank you for your kind words. It's really nice to you to mention that. So as an explore teaching adviser essentially what my role is to help anybody who's considering teaching with any aspect that's related to getting onto a teacher training course. So it doesn't really matter what stage of the journey they might be, some people might be quite advanced, and they've done quite a lot of stuff, you know, in terms of preparing for that, and other people might be just at the point of considering teaching as a career, but anything that that might entail, we are at hand to offer advice and support. So if somebody just joins us, you know, one of the first conversations we will have is, you know, why they're considering teaching what their motivations might be. The reason for that is it's something that's quite you know, heavily looked at when you make your teacher training application, your motivation, so going to teaching, so just to have a conversation around that, looking at eligibility, you know, trying to understand what the profession involves, if you know, there's somebody who might be interested in securing some experience in a school so they can learn more about the profession that way, then that's something that we can offer them opportunities and help them secure.

There's a lot of information around you know, how you can train to become a teacher, because, you know, some of the differences are quite subtle. We are at hand of you know, going through the different ways and helping people find training providers that might offer a style of training that they might be interested in. And we also have other advisory services that then go further to help with the application process. So things like looking at the personal statement, preparing for interviews, doing a mock interview, preparing for any tasks that might be asked at an interview, etc. So, you know, just to summarise, any stage of you know, considering teacher training, we are there at hand to help, we are a free service. You know, we don't charge for any of what we do. And every adviser on our team is an experienced teacher. The experience ranges from being classroom teachers all the way to being head teachers. So we have a lot of, you know, experience there. And of course, within that different subjects have been taught as well. So, you know, it's essentially having one to one consultancy is not costing you anything, and anything that is applicable to you, even if you're unaware of it, we are there to help to give example, you know, some people might have a degree in one subject area, but they're considering to teach a different subject. Can I do it? How can I get help with you know, upskilling or updating my subject knowledge etc? These are opportunities, obviously, we are there to help with and to offer people advice on what opportunities that they can pursue.

Dan Mason: Sounds comprehensive so and what's the best way for someone to get in touch with an advisor, if that's what they want to do?

Zaid Khalik: Search Get into Teaching. So if you were to put it into, say, Google as an example, it will be your first hit, there'll be Get into Teaching and when you go on to the website, and the very first page, there'll be some information about the adviser registration. There's actually three advisory services. Once you fill in the initial questions, I think there's about five questions that you have to fill in. When you fill in the questions, the appropriate advisory service will be allocated to you, you will then get an email from your adviser will look to set up an initial call just to go through where you're at and what you want to do. And then obviously, from that point, they'll suggest a bit of an action plan. And then the relationship continues, you'll probably get in contact every 4,6,8 weeks, depending on when you're looking to train. And they will offer you kind of advice of steps. And obviously, if you've been successful in looking at some of them steps, then they'll suggest other steps for you to consider as well. So yeah, just go Get into Teaching, you'll be able to register for an adviser through the links there.

Dan Mason: Brilliant. Well that's been an amazing overview. I just want to finish by asking you both If you can sum up your feelings about teaching or what you believe teaching to be in a word or two Freya do you want to go first.

Freya Hemming: And obviously we've touched on the word rewarding quite a lot throughout this podcast, but yeah, definitely rewarding. And I'm just so excited to get started really. So Yeah.

Dan Mason: Brilliant and Zaid how about you, one word.

Zaid Khalik: A bit of an interesting one, Dan, I think, for me, it will be inspiring, because, you know, my experience has been I've gone into this profession just because I had no real other option at the time. But it's inspired me to do a lot more. It's taught me a lot about myself. And it's humbled me in many ways. So yeah, it's a career that inspired me to do other things. And it's been very rewarding, not just for the students that I think I've taught but also for myself. And it's helped me learn a lot about young people. Well, because you forget as you grow, don't you?

Dan Mason: Absolutely. And I'm sure many listeners to this will have been inspired as well by hearing both of your perspectives on careers in teaching. So thanks. Thanks very much, both of you for your time.

Freya Hemming: Thank you very much.

Zaid Khalik: Thank you for having us.

Dan Mason: Thanks once more to Zaid and Freya for that really illuminating discussion. And as Zaid mentioned a little bit earlier, if you do want to find out more, just search for Get into Teaching and you'll see the website there. Alternatively, there's a link in the episode description as well. For more careers advice, including lots of resources on getting into teaching, head over to prospects.ac.uk. You can find and follow Future You on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and get in touch with comments, feedback or suggestions by emailing podcast@prospects.ac.uk. That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you soon.

Note on transcripts

This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.

Find out more

• Take a look at Get into Teaching.
• Read all about teaching and education.