unemployed NQT- what do I do now?

4 - 5 thousand less jobs advertised and that was a few months ago so who knows what it is now...

Hello lovely people.

I wanted to start a thread that did three things:
A) To see if there were a load of people in the same position as me.
B) To see if I could learn from any of your experiences
C) to generate discussion to help me through being unemployed.

I am an NQT who went via the schools direct pathway. I have a PGCE and QTS. I have applied to 10-15 teaching positions around an inner-city location. I have not been successful yet at being shortlisted.

I am currently applying for jobs and seeking out volunteer opportunities locally as I am terrified that being out of the classroom will hinder my employment options. I have been using some Open Uni free courses to try and keep my head in the game. I am financially secure because of my partner so my issues with unemployment is more focused on the delay to my NQT year and falling out of practice and confidence with the classroom.

How is Covid affecting your plans in terms of teaching??

Most of the people I trained with have teaching jobs so feels a bit lonely being without one! Not sure what I will do if I don’t get any supply work, I will be okay for a bit.

What age/stage do you teach? And whcih subject?

I would strongly recommend registering with a supply agency. Doing supply will get you back in the classroom, and it will help you build up contacts to find your job.

If you haven't yet been invited to interview, I'd suggest there's something glaringly wrong with your application (sorry!). For secondary at least, doing 15 applications without getting an interview is pretty rare! You should keep track of your applications though.

Primary
KS1 or KS2 with a prefrence for KS2.

I am currently signing up to a agency i have worked with before- but do not want to do supply as I would preffer to be in a school more than one day. As I said before I am lucky in that I am supported by my partner so I have organised to volunteer with a local school- this alows me to be there in the classroom more than a day or two. While also being able to network at the same time.

I have had more than a few techers from my previous placments read and criteque my written sections of the applications, so I dont think that "there's something glaringly wrong with your application". I have also been in conversations with other succesful applicants from my course and have read their statments- and mine are similar in construct- but obviously focussing on my personal experiance.

"doing 15 applications without getting an interview is pretty rare"
I feel like I am doing all the things that I could- I think that this situation is extremely effected by the pandemic.

I do agree that the situation is affected by the pandemic- that would definitely account for you not getting a job. But if schools are interviewing then I still think that 15 applications and no interview suggests a problem, especially in an inner city area. Primary is more competitive than secondary but not that competitive IMO.

I am not convinced that volunteering in a school is going to give you the same benefits as doing supply- you could say you will only accept longer placements, there will be plenty of teachers off self isolating for 2 weeks, for example.

However, clearly you are financially comfortable and there's no imperative on you to get a job, so if you are happy with what you are doing then just keep on going with that.

I do agree that the situation is affected by the pandemic- that would definitely account for you not getting a job. But if schools are interviewing then I still think that 15 applications and no interview suggests a problem, especially in an inner city area. Primary is more competitive than secondary but not that competitive IMO.

I am not convinced that volunteering in a school is going to give you the same benefits as doing supply- you could say you will only accept longer placements, there will be plenty of teachers off self isolating for 2 weeks, for example.

However, clearly you are financially comfortable and there's no imperative on you to get a job, so if you are happy with what you are doing then just keep on going with that.

I agree it can be quite lonely with 80-90% of my peers getting jobs. I've been trying to chat with them to learn from their experiences with the different schools. Like seeing how they are being introduced to the planning and classroom prep.

Olives&chocolate- have you had any help from your training provider since graduating?

How about yours?

God that is a tone of jobs that are not being advertised.

Are you based rurally or in a city/town? Most of my fellow NQT's from my training providers who live out of the city have been able to get jobs.
I wonder if the government will step in at any point?

Have you registered with a supply agency? TES still has jobs advertised ... look out for maternity cover as well.

Have you registered with a supply agency? TES still has jobs advertised ... look out for maternity cover as well.

I am in the process of signing up with an agency that I was with before my training.

I have been looking for anything and applying to all that I can, including part-time and maternity cover and what I think of as Covid-cover where it is either morning or afternoon work to allow the teacher to work in smaller groups with students that will need help stemming from the time away from school.

I will be going around a school tomorrow that I will be applying to this week.

My experience is that schools are not recruiting much this year because (1) hardly any teachers resigned in the Spring due to the lockdown and (2) schools are trying cut back on as many people going into schools at this time.

Just find any work you can during this exceptional period. Personally I couldn't do a job offered to me in February because the country in question closed their borders, I got fired from the next one offered before I started (due to covid) and I'm now doing a PGCE...

Hello lovely people.

I wanted to start a thread that did three things:
A) To see if there were a load of people in the same position as me.
B) To see if I could learn from any of your experiences
C) to generate discussion to help me through being unemployed.

I am an NQT who went via the schools direct pathway. I have a PGCE and QTS. I have applied to 10-15 teaching positions around an inner-city location. I have not been successful yet at being shortlisted.

I am currently applying for jobs and seeking out volunteer opportunities locally as I am terrified that being out of the classroom will hinder my employment options. I have been using some Open Uni free courses to try and keep my head in the game. I am financially secure because of my partner so my issues with unemployment is more focused on the delay to my NQT year and falling out of practice and confidence with the classroom.

How is Covid affecting your plans in terms of teaching??