What is teaching?

You may think this career sector is only about working as a teacher, but there are a number of different professions you could pursue in the teaching and education industry.

To work in most positions in most schools, you need to meet a set of official standards to qualify and hold a degree.

However, there are also many other roles in the education sector that don’t require higher-education qualifications. For example, you could work in childcare, youthwork or as a teaching assistant.

Areas in Teaching

There are many areas of teaching and education that you could pursue a career in.

Here are the main areas with examples of jobs that are contained within those areas:

• Early Years: This involves working with young children from birth to five years of age. Professions in early years education include nursery worker, early years teacher and Ofsted inspector.
• Primary Education: This level of education involves working with children up to the age of twelve. Available careers in this area include primary school teacher, special educational needs teacher and primary school head teacher.
• Secondary Education: This involves working with children between the ages of eleven and sixteen. Within secondary education, you could work as a secondary school teacher, a learning mentor or an educational psychologist.
• Further Education: This involves working with pupils who are typically between sixteen and eighteen years of age, at college level. In further education you could work in a position like further education teacher, careers advisor or education administrator.
• Higher Education: This generally involves working at a university with pupils who are over eighteen years of age. Roles in further education include higher education lecturer, academic librarian and student admission officer.
• Adult and Community Education: This area includes a wide range of education jobs, such as teaching, activities management and sports coaching. You could work as a community education officer, English as a foreign language teacher or a museum education officer.
• Supply Teaching: Working as a supply teacher, you would fill temporary teaching vacancies.
• Private Tuition: You could work as a private tutor in your home, a child’s home or in another venue.

Why study a teaching course?

To work in most of the above career roles, you’ll need to obtain the relevant qualifications.

You’ll sometimes need to undergo additional training too.

Although it’s not necessary to have higher education qualifications to begin work in some roles, such as a teaching assistant or a nursery worker, there are still courses you can enrol with to gain formal qualifications that will allow you to stand a better chance of being accepted to such roles.

Career Outcomes from a Teaching or Education Course

In addition to the careers mentioned above, there are a number of other teaching and education professions available to graduates.

These include:

• Teaching Laboratory Technician.
• School Librarian.
• Education Welfare Officer.
• Counsellor.
• Disability Advisor.
• Education Support Worker.
• Education Consultant.
• Environmental Education Officer.
• Outdoor Activities Manager.
• Training and Development Officer.