Are You Thinking of a Career Change into Teaching?

We know that a career change can be a daunting experience,
especially retraining to become a Qualified Teacher, however this can be done.
In a survey performed last year results showed that 40% of workers were
confident they would change their career within the next 2 years. With this in
mind we spoke to our candidate Ms Bostrom to share why and how she had a change
in career to become a Qualified Teacher later on in life.  

My Life Before Teaching…

My journey into teaching was by chance, and as a late bloomer, one
of the better decisions in my life. After a difficult decision to leave my
husband, with three children under the age of eight. I started a part-time job
in retail, to try and make ends meet. Previously, we had run our own businesses
together including, managing several retail stores, so this seemed the most
obvious answer to employment. However, after several fraught months of after
school care problems, disrupted shared access and the boys saying they just
wanted to come home, I relented, handed in my notice and declared,

I’ll get a job in school,
so when you’re at school I’m at work and when you’re at home, I’ll be there.

Shortly, afterwards I enrolled on a computer course at the local
college and gained employment at the boys’ local school, as a teaching
assistant. 

My Journey to Becoming a Teacher

This is where my educational journey truly began, in September 2000
at Dunchurch Infant School, in Warwickshire. Fortunately, I worked in
environment alongside many admirable, professional women under excellent
headship of Mrs Mrowicki, and soon came to realise my own inefficiencies’
educationally wise. So, I enrolled onto a part-time access course at
Warwickshire College to get my basic knowledge back up to scratch. As you can
imagine, working full-time with two evenings a week at college, plus a young
family, kept me very busy and luckily with the regular support of my mum, our
life settled down into a good routine. In addition, staff training at Dunchurch
was paramount, with everyone having the opportunity to excel in their naturally
abilities and attend many twilight sessions, across the educational training
spectrum. Camaraderie was high and we worked well together. In fact, we had a
reunion recently and reminisced about times gone by.

Furthermore, during this emersion of raising a young family and
assisting in an infant school, I realised my true passion and knew I wanted to
study childhood further. At the time, there were very few early childhood
degree courses and the only one locally was at Warwick University, which I
needed extra CATS points to get in! 
Consequently, I took an extra subject at college of English literature
and found I had a passion for this too. I thoroughly enjoyed the months of
Hardy, Shakespeare and even wrapped my head around Tony Harrison’s poetry, Gaze
of the Gorgons. Hasten to say, I began a part-time Early Childhood Studies
Degree at Warwick in the following autumn.

The degree was over six years, and during that time I worked four
days a week with one day and two evenings at Warwick Uni. Fortunately, Mrs
Mrowicki was very accommodating to the various changes needed in school days,
in order to complete core modules. Continuously, I related to my experiences at
work and gained support from fellow colleagues and teachers. Moreover, I had
the opportunity to teach small groups as a TA & HLTA including Early
Literacy Skills (ELS) with the puppet Pip! Finally, after ten years working at
Dunchurch, I graduated with an Early Childhood Studies Degree BA Hons. In
autumn, I embarked on a full time PGCE at Warwick University, where I met up
with fellow teaching assistant friend, Sarah. During the last week of the PGCE
course, Aspire People supply agency came to promote for business and we’ve both
worked for them on and off ever since.

The rest is history as they say. My sons have grown up, gone on to
further education and good careers. Eight teaching years later, I am still as
passionate about child development and rights as ever. Moreover, I am often
scanning current research, enjoying new training and debating current issues
with fellow colleagues. Throughout that time, I’ve taught my own classes in
Reception, Year 1 and 2 and consolidated my teaching skills in KS2, through
supply work from Aspire People. Finally, I’ve had two journal articles
published and presented science at Teach and meets for ASE.

How to Start Your Career Change

To join Carol in her experience of becoming a Qualified Teacher
with Aspire People register with us today to start your very own teaching career. We also
offer many jobs and can guide and support you in your career, take a look at the different
routes into teaching with Aspire People.