teacher in need of a career change

[pinstripe pete]

Good morning. I'm 46, ex-Army, married, in excellent health, new to this forum, and have taught chemistry and physics for nearly 20 years. I could rant for NATO about the state of the teaching profession, but I'm more or less through with putting up with the intimidation and sheer incompetence I see (and get) every day from managers who I wouldn't trust to sit the right way on a toilet and who couldn't inspire me to follow them to the latrine if I had amoebic dysentery. I'm getting too old to find employment in other schools (experience costs money, and schools - even rich ones - now prefer to employ new inexperienced, often-unqualified graduates to whom they pay diddly-squat rather than an honest wage to someone who knows their stuff). Don't get me started ...!

In short, I'm considering a career-change. I considered plumber or electrician or gas fitter when I left the Army at 29, but got into teaching first. I'm a university graduate but have always preferred honest graft to sedentary work, not to say eventually being able to work for myself. I'm very seriously considering it again. At this rate, if I stay in teaching I'm not going to live to see retirement.

I'm sort of doing this on the spur of the moment after another diabolical week at school where things are going downhill faster than a Greek bank, and am still getting rejected from UK schools (I'm teaching at a school in Europe) - not even being shortlisted for interview, in some cases being over-qualified apparently, if such a thing were possible.

So, in your opinions what would you recommend? Plumber, electrician or gas fitter? How do you get trained; college, night school? What are the qualifications you can get? Is there any sort of distance learning I could do by way of preparation? I don't know to where in the UK we'll return (considering North Wales, North Yorkshire) when we do, but are there providers in most towns and cities? How long does it take to become competent?

Please no jokes about going down the 'Breaking Bad' route for ex-chemistry teachers. If I had a pound for every time someone had asked me that ... yacht in the south of France, Lamborghini on the driveway, retired at 40 etc.!

In all seriousness, thank you for your advice. I just need a bit more of a push to make this move.

 

[Tom Watson]

Good morning. I'm 46, ex-Army, married, in excellent health, new to this forum, and have taught chemistry and physics for nearly 20 years. I could rant for NATO about the state of the teaching profession, but I'm more or less through with putting up with the intimidation and sheer incompetence I see (and get) every day from managers who I wouldn't trust to sit the right way on a toilet and who couldn't inspire me to follow them to the latrine if I had amoebic dysentery. I'm getting too old to find employment in other schools (experience costs money, and schools - even rich ones - now prefer to employ new inexperienced, often-unqualified graduates to whom they pay diddly-squat rather than an honest wage to someone who knows their stuff). Don't get me started .!

In short, I'm considering a career-change. I considered plumber or electrician or gas fitter when I left the Army at 29, but got into teaching first. I'm a university graduate but have always preferred honest graft to sedentary work, not to say eventually being able to work for myself. I'm very seriously considering it again. At this rate, if I stay in teaching I'm not going to live to see retirement.

I'm sort of doing this on the spur of the moment after another diabolical week at school where things are going downhill faster than a Greek bank, and am still getting rejected from UK schools (I'm teaching at a school in Europe) - not even being shortlisted for interview, in some cases being over-qualified apparently, if such a thing were possible.

So, in your opinions what would you recommend? Plumber, electrician or gas fitter? How do you get trained; college, night school? What are the qualifications you can get? Is there any sort of distance learning I could do by way of preparation? I don't know to where in the UK we'll return (considering North Wales, North Yorkshire) when we do, but are there providers in most towns and cities? How long does it take to become competent?

Please no jokes about going down the 'Breaking Bad' route for ex-chemistry teachers. If I had a pound for every time someone had asked me that . yacht in the south of France, Lamborghini on the driveway, retired at 40 etc.!

In all seriousness, thank you for your advice. I just need a bit more of a push to make this move.

Hi Pete,
Have you thought about going into management, as you think you could do better than your current managers? It might be easier than you think, especially with your experience. You can learn alongside work through online learning websites such as Sussex Business School (dot com) and then add these new qualifications to your CV to apply to higher roles. Just a thought! Good luck in your future.

 

[jtsplumbing]

Pete , we get no number of people on here asking the same question's about becoming a plumber, gas fitter, You need to do the plumbing training first as you need a good knowledge of systems B4 you think about doing anything with gas, then you come to problem N0 2, after doing the training getting someone to employ you so you can gain experience and consider gas training that's if you take to plumbing not always everyone's cup of tea ! if you progress that far you will be into your 50s again having problem getting employed due to lack of experience and age, so you then think about being self employed, not a good move , because the way things are progressing the days of the independent Plumber are numbered, best to find something outside of this industry and put you experience & qualifications to better use.

 

[Scott_D]

Why plumbing/electrics?

 

[jtsplumbing]

Why plumbing/electrics?

Because every one thinks its the way to get rich, you know we are all earning over 150K for a 30hr week, (I had to do 35 this week) but then I had to put fuel in the Bentley, cant use the open top Lamborghini because of the weather , roll-on summer

 

[Scott_D]

If you have time to learn and take a low wage while getting experience then go for it.
If you need money straight away then look at other trades: painting, plastering, tiling, gardening, silicon sealer, window cleaner etc

 

[bacon_sandwich]

I left employment at 48 (was "manager" for large corporate). I have a background in Electrical Eng so started as a sparkie, then added air conditioning and finally to complete the picture natural gas. This means i can basically cover all forms of HVAC. If you have a relevant degree and at least get you head around thermodynamics then why not consider working in the Fgas field. It has a high upfront cost on equipment, but the "fitting" is at the easier end of plumbing, the hard bit is the engineering side, design, commissioning and fault finding.