Unemployed teachers

I got the equivilent of outstanding too and am still unemployed. Admittedly I did not start applying for jobs til mid June, as I found out then that my partner's job was relocating. However to date I have filled in over 20 application forms and have recieved 1 rejection and 2 interviews, the other 17+ have just ignored me. All my teachers on placement were like "Oh you'll get a job, don't worry", so I didn't. Until last week, when I got talking to other NQTs in the area and found out most of them graduated LAST year and have been looking for over a year already!

The government needs to stop training so many teachers....there just aren't enough jobs for them all, esp in primary. Also, they need to stop cover supervisors and TAs teaching classes when it's a distinctly grey area in terms of the law and there are thousands of unemployed teachers.


EDIT:
Probably shouldn't have quoted you oxymoronic as you know my situation already! I was adding weight to your argument.

To be honest Oxymoronic, I'd want to know WHY you're not finding a job over someone who you claim has less experience, worse feedback on their placements. It's all well and good saying 'you have to be lucky', but do you think employers draw people out of a hat?!

To be honest Oxymoronic, I'd want to know WHY you're not finding a job over someone who you claim has less experience, worse feedback on their placements. It's all well and good saying 'you have to be lucky', but do you think employers draw people out of a hat?!

Yes they do actually, and I'm not joking on that one. Ditto to what modgepodge has said.





So yes, I do think I've been unlucky but I know that I'm not the only person who has had a similar experience which is why I am really trying to stress that doing well will not guarantee you a job although all I've had is stick for it so I don't know why I bother with honesty on TSR at times! I should just make out I have a job, its all brilliant and fantastic as then it seems people would be more inclined to listen to what I'm saying. Interestingly, the only people in this thread who have agreed with me are other teachers rather than trainees/prospective teachers. I do honestly want to tell you guys that its all fine as I love teaching, I love my job and I couldn't imagine doing anything else in my life right now. A lot of people do get jobs. They are doing their NQT year now and their facebook status' are constantly about how amazing it has all been. However, this isn't everyone or in some subjects, even the majority as I know teachers from loads of specialisms who trained all over the UK. Doing supply at the moment is making me crave my own class so badly so it'll certainly happen. I can't say that its all fine as it isn't for a lot of people so I'm telling the truth which I believe is pretty important given I'm the teaching forum mod... but I can just lie if that's what users would prefer!



Do not worry, I am not giving up. However, I do feel that if I were chasing a normal graduate job I'd expect to have been applying for the best part of a year. However, with teaching, we keep being told that teachers are in demand. We keep being told that the government desperately want to get top graduates into teaching and they keep throwing money at us to train. Yet people go off and train then find that actually, there's loads and loads of teachers who don't have jobs. This varies by specialism and region I know, but in some areas of the UK right now there are 100+ applicants for every single primary teaching job. Why do we need to train this many new teachers if there's so many already qualified people looking for jobs?

When you apply for a PGCE course and then start it, you don't consider the fact you might be unemployed come the September. In fact, this was never mentioned once during my PGCE - we went through the entire course being told how in demand we were as teachers yet by the end of it I'd say about 20-25% of the cohort didn't have a job through one reason or another. Maybe that's my naivety, I don't know, but it wasn't something I considered as a possibility until June time.

As I said though, hopefully the government in England will do something to stop this in the next few years. In Scotland, there is an even greater problem (hence the reason I now live in England) and ITT places on Primary PGDE courses were cut by about 80% two years ago as the government suddenly realised there were thousands of unemployed teachers. If something like that happens in England, I think it'd be good. This is especially acute given the fact the retirement age is going to be increased meaning older teachers will be teaching for longer.

Yea fair enough. I do appreciate your honesty as a PGCE student myself. I don't think it's right to lie on a public forum, and I wasn't asking you to; sorry if my post came across that way. I really don't have the experience to come on a forum and tell it how it is because I honestly don't know, so you're in a much better position to say.

But then you've got to think about those 75-80% of students (as you say) that DID secure a job by the end of their course. I would say 20% is actually quite low, and really it doesn't match up when people say 100+ per job yet 80% PGCE students manage to get one, unless I'm really not clued up on employment figures. Those 75-80% must have been pretty impressive teachers to secure a job over so many applicants, despite how many interviews they may have had. Of course this depends on where you are to some extent so that figure may differ.

We actually haven't been told anything about employment so far. We were maybe told 'good employment prospects' on a slide on one of our induction days but that's about it. A couple of friends on my course are already a bit anxious about finding a job. I'm keeping an open mind myself. Right now I'm just focused on actually getting over the hump of standing up to teach - I'm not even at that stage yet never mind conducting an interview lesson!

If you would like to vent, you might be interested to know that BBC Radio Five Live are trying to put together a piece about how hard NQTs are finding it to find a permanent position. Email linda dot debrah at bbc dot co dot uk

I'm sorry but, as someone who is involved in the recruitment of teaching staff, I find it absolutely impossible to believe that any school would operate crass procedures such as selecting people out of a hat or only reading the first 10 applications. I will invite a Primary Head to explain how recruitment really works.

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But then you've got to think about those 75-80% of students (as you say) that DID secure a job by the end of their course. I would say 20% is actually quite low, and really it doesn't match up when people say 100+ per job yet 80% PGCE students manage to get one, unless I'm really not clued up on employment figures. Those 75-80% must have been pretty impressive teachers to secure a job over so many applicants, despite how many interviews they may have had. Of course this depends on where you are to some extent so that figure may differ.

Perhaps we should have a thread from people who have gained employment to give hints/tips and general advice to those who are still training? Or even those who havent gained employment, what do you wish you would have done during training to give you an edge?

What could we be doing now to help gain employment? What will help us stand out from the 100+ people we're competing against? I've just applied to do a Forest School Level 3 course, are these the sorts of things we need?

Re: Neg Rep.

I was merely suggesting a more positive approach to discussing this! There is no denying that the job market is ridiculously competitive so what is the advice from those who are currently in the position that I, and many others could be in next year?

Thanks Mr M.
I have been involved in primary recruitment for many years and this is, frankly, a ridiculous idea. Any head (and GB) who did this would be out of their minds!
We want the best candidates for our pupils. Sometimes that means reading 200+ applications, so that's what we do!
Of course if there are errors in an application we discard it (we can afford to be picky) and if you don't meet the person spec you're not likely to get an interview if 30+ other candidates do.
No application gets binned, we have to keep them all for audit purposes.
Write your application to the person spec, visit the school prior to applying if you can, and accept that it's a buyers Market.
Years ago when I started teaching there were 150+ applications per job. I was lucky enough to get one, hopefully you will too.

Hello, I am seriously considering doing a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics. Do you think that there would be much difficulty in getting a job as a maths teacher after finishing? I read there was a shortage of mathematics teachers. However reading about some of the experiences of contributors in this thread is sobering, I have to admit.

Employment statistics give the percent of students who get any kind of employment not the percent who get teaching jobs (you should be able to find the percent in teaching jobs though but it's not the percentage the Unis like to advertise as they are obviously much lower). So people who have taken jobs in supermarkets or pubs will be included in that 75-80%.