Electrical Revision

get that teaching job

So, you decide that you want to come off the tools or out of the office and go for a job in teaching. It is a rewarding, if tumultuous at times, job and gives plenty of satisfaction when it goes right.

Number 1 - The qualifications

What do you need to get started? Well the answer is reasonable simple, you need to be a qualified electrician or engineer. Having a level 3 qualification is about the minimum you need (236 part 2, 2351 level3, 2330 level 3, ONC/HNC Electrical Engineering). Of course on top of the qualifications is the experience. Generally accepted is between 3 and 5 years post qualifed experience.

Number 2 - The interview

There are plenty of sites telling you about techniques so specifically, think about the following:

Why do you want to teach?

Now someone looking to come off the tools as they start winding down their career is fine, but do you think that a progressive employer is looking for someone like that? Of course not, they want to see someone with a passion to enter teaching, someone who enjoys working with trainees, young and old alike. They want someone who wants to put something back into the system, to impart their years of experience onto the next generation of apprentices and electricians. Think hard about why you want to teach, it is an important question.

Any experience? Worked as a team?

Have you previously had apprentices? Working with mates or improvers? Do you work as part of a team at the moment? Have you run any jobs? Ok, none of these are directly relevant to teaching but then again, it's unlikely you will have had any direct experience.

Key Skills, Basic Skills, Functional Skills, what are they?

Every modern apprenticeship now requires Key Skills and the electrical game is no different. An apprentice now needs Application of Number (Maths), Comms (English) and IT. There are many sites dedicated to these, be sure to glance through them and get a rudimentary knowledge. An ever changing requirement in basic Maths and English means an ever changing need to change the qualifications (the cynical may say rename but...) so be aware of what is current.

How would you deal with "x" situation?

Remember that you are there to work with the students, not against them. Simply saying you would kick out a disruptive student will not get you the job. Perhaps they are disruptive for a reason, find out? Talk to them, the essence of this job is communication, you cannot communicate with a student by proxy, you need to be there with them. Find out why "x" situation is occuring and deal with it appropriately, a quiet word, a warning or using the college's procedure are good starts.

Number 3 - The microteach

More frequently, potential applicants are being asked to perform a microteach. In short, this is a 10-15 minute presentation on a subject usually given with the invitation to attend an interview. This for many is difficult, as has been said before, few have any teaching experience. The biggest point to note, and more importantly what you will be actually judged on, is have the students learned anything?

Here is a checklist to start you off:

Introduce yourself
Have some paper available, get the students or panel to write their names on it and display it so you can read them. Names are very important, always use them.
State your aims and objectives, write them on the board (aims? What are you going to cover in the next 10 minutes? What do you expect them to learn by the end of the presentation?)
Produce a simple handout that is easy to follow. There is ample information available in books, the internet, learning environments et al, don't copy and paste 10 000 words and give it to a student, they more than likely won't read it.
Powerpoints work as a prompt and an easy way to display images/photos/diagrams, don't be tempted to put War and Peace on every slide and don't rely on it. Don't read from the board, be rehearsed or have notes or prompts in front of you. There is a tendency to spend a lot of time producing excellent presentations rather than on the actual content of the lesson.
Engage every student if possible, always use their names, use a lot of question and answering techniques and move round the class while doing it. Don't automatically accept the answer off the most boisterou student, try to involve the quiet ones too.
Determine what they know or where they are at with the training. Quizzes, questioning, short answer sheets are all good.
Teaching is less important these days than learning. If the students have learned, then the teaching methods are less important. Get the students to do the work, gone are the days of being lectured to for an hour and a half, force them to think, get them to do the work.
Can you do a physical demonstration instead of a talk? Most of the students we get today learn from watching and doing rather than instruction alone.
Sum up at the end, have a very short question sheet for the students to complete. This can be part of the handout.
Thank everyone involved and invite questions.

Number 4 - The work involved

Don't be fooled into thinking that it is an easy option to working on the tools, it is not.

Holidays are pretty much in line with upper industry, we don't get 12 weeks off a year and haven't since about 1992. Also, holiday is taken outside term time, ideal if you have kids but be prepared to be ripped off by the travel companies. An average is 35 days a year, not bad, but not great either. Despite being constantly harrassed by friends and family about the easy life and the 51 weeks holiday a year you inevitably have, you will find that end of term dates and half term dates are strategically placed to stop you from going mad and give you the opportunity to recharge your batteries.

The pension scheme is currently good in so much as it is currently not index linked. It is a final salary scheme and pretty solid (if a little unimpressive at the end, especially with limited service). For good lengths of service, expect a reasonable retirement fund.

There is a lot of training involved, especially in the first 2-3 years. You will have to get qualified teacher status, assessor status and possibly upskill your technical qualifications. The first couple of years are hard work trying to balance everything, the teaching, the training, the assignments, the preparation and your home life will see you do far more than the 37 hours you get paid for. You will also start on pretty poor pay, although this does get better the more qualified you are.

Number 5 - The payoff