clarky666 Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 On a bit of a bummer here today as my girlfriend has just been told that she's losing her job as of Christmas and won't be kept on at the school after the holidays. She graduated in 2007 with a first class hons degree in primary teaching from Glasgow Uni and since then has not been able to get one single bit of full-time work; teachers up here are guaranteed one year in a school which is called their 'probation' and then after they are punted. Last job(s) that she applied for she was in the region of 450-600 going for a SINGLE position which is f'n ludicrous. She's been lucky enough to get on the interview shortlist of six on a couple of occassions but more often than not you get an 'application unsuccessful' at the first stage of the process; if you do get through this then it's an absolute shoe-in that there is an internal candidate who has already been covering the post in the short term whilst it was advertised by the local education authority and such is life "jobs for the boys girls mentality" prevails and they it regardless of the quality of interview the other applicants give. Folks know that their will be an internal candidate and, inevitably, they are going into interviews knowing it'll all be in vain anyway. What makes it worse is the fact that the government have buried their head in the sand and are still allowing uni's to roll out a full compliment of teaching courses each year meaning that the amount of people they are training up is still going to outweigh the amount of jobs on offer. There was an alleged figure going around that 6,000+ teachers were due to retire this past summer in Scotland but that doesn't seem to have made any difference - Glasgow local authority haven't advertised a position in over 18 months according to another teacher i was speaking to. She has applied for jobs all around the country but it's the same situation everywhere and one of the first filters they are doing when sizing down the amount of applications is binning people who didn't train or do their degree in that authority so for example her applying for jobs in Alloa / Stirling are pointless as she server her time in North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire authorities. Pretty gutting for her with all that work put in to get a cracking degree and something she is both good at and enjoys and now little, if any, chance of getting a job in the imediate future Is anyone else in the same position ? Not sure if it's just in Scotland ? I know nobody has a divine right to a job just because they went to Uni but you'd think an area whey you are training for such a specific area would get a job especially in the public sector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supra_aero Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 One of my ex-girlfriends had similar issues. Seems teaching is heavily oversubscribed. What's most annoying is there are tons of teachers out there who don't do their job properly with a cant be bothered attitude who'll probably get another teaching role far easier than your mrs because of the "more experience" factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewOW Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Sorry to hear this. Maybe she might have to apply for positions overseas if it gets that bad? I do hope she finds work soon though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarky666 Posted December 10, 2009 Author Share Posted December 10, 2009 Yeah thats true mate. Another problem is people can retire and then still come back to do supply days to fill in for absences so even that is working against younger teachers. My parents were both teachers and retired in the summer and have been phoned countless times to go back in as cover and decline out of principal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradleyh_15 Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 sorry to hear that mate! might it be worth your partner going back to uni and getting qualified to be a secondary school teaches? there might be more call for them!? hope everything turns out ok in the end! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supra_aero Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Yeah thats true mate. Another problem is people can retire and then still come back to do supply days to fill in for absences so even that is working against younger teachers. My parents were both teachers and retired in the summer and have been phoned countless times to go back in as cover and decline out of principal. Yeh that too. Annoying.... if you are a young teacher. No idea how you'd get into that industry to be honest. Maybe abroad is a good start but its obviously far from ideal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarky666 Posted December 10, 2009 Author Share Posted December 10, 2009 Yeah she was looking into schools in Dubai and mainland Spain a few weeks ago but the old chesnut of 2 years experience in UK schools minimum requirement so thats it snookered. Post grad in social services and child welfare is next on the list of avenues to investigate. Bradley - same problem in secondary schools apparently though not quite as bad as primary but all depends on what subject you've specialised in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARTIN R Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 work seems hard to come by in general in Scotland. I am fortunate that work is fine at the moment. I do feel that if I lost my job we would need to relocate as opportunites are very limited. I am sure decent employment is in very limited supply everywhere but compared to other areas I feel Scotland is taking a bit of a hammering:( I am not in teaching but my wife is unable to work in her profession due to little or none opportunities Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 work seems hard to come by in general in Scotland. I am fortunate that work is fine at the moment. I do feel that if I lost my job we would need to relocate as opportunites are very limited. I am sure decent employment is in very limited supply everywhere but compared to other areas I feel Scotland is taking a bit of a hammering:( I am not in teaching but my wife is unable to work in her profession due to little or none opportunities I think you will find that Wales is in a very similar situation. Very few opportunities and masses of unemployed people. My sons ex left uni with a teaching degree and is curently working at Asda on a part time basis. At least in Scotland they guarantee employment for 12 months. That doesn't happen elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewie Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 This is amazing. It was only recently there was a campaign to recruit more teachers. I know of several ex-colleagues who have swapped from the engineering industry to become physics, maths, science teachers. Could be the issue is the subject matter being taught and not teaching in general. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 This is amazing. It was only recently there was a campaign to recruit more teachers. I know of several ex-colleagues who have swapped from the engineering industry to become physics, maths, science teachers. Could be the issue is the subject matter being taught and not teaching in general. My sons ex was trained to be a primary school teacher and therefore subject matter would not be relevant in her case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewie Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 My sons ex was trained to be a primary school teacher and therefore subject matter would not be relevant in her case. Et voila! That is exactly my point. If she specialised in a specific subject in secondary education school for 12+yr olds she may not be working in Asda. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 She probably needs to look further a field I would say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tannhauser Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 if you do get through this then it's an absolute shoe-in that there is an internal candidate who has already been covering the post in the short term whilst it was advertised by the local education authority and such is life "jobs for the boys girls mentality" prevails and they it regardless of the quality of interview the other applicants give. Folks know that their will be an internal candidate and, inevitably, they are going into interviews knowing it'll all be in vain anyway. It's not necessarily a 'jobs for the boys' mentality. Appointing internal candidates could be seen as a risk-management strategy. In all fields, including education, a proportion of people interview much better than they actually perform. In education, I would say the risks of a type I error (appointing someone who you think is going to be good, but actually turns out to be crap) are much worse than a type II error (missing a real diamond by rejecting them). If a school appoints an idiot, they are going to be stuck with them for at least a term and probably for longer. If the appointee cannot cope, or they go off on long term sick leave, the knock-on consequences for all the other staff can be severe. Compare that risk to sticking with a maybe less stellar internal candidate, who at least is a known quantity. And even if he isn't brilliant at the moment, if the fundamentals are there, there's scope for him to improve as time goes on. It takes a lot to overcome the home game advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.