It’s that time of year when I see so many wonderful teachers find out that their contract isn’t being renewed. I can’t imagine the feeling of the worry leading up to this moment for you all. To many of us, teaching is the thing that we want to do the most, to have this taken away must be devastating. Recently, I’ve noticed a lot of teachers enquiring about changing careers and wondering how they can transfer their skills to different jobs. So, I’ve put together this post for different ways you can make money and what skills you have that are transferrable to other careers to help you.
1) Tutoring
Every parent wants the best for their child, and to help them excel, so many of them turn to private tutoring to help their students. Tutoring is a great way for you to continue to use your teaching skills, knowledge and experience while being able to earn yourself some extra money. You could do this full time or even part time to boost your income.
2) Writing a book
Teachers are well known for having excellent creativity and grammar skills, this makes you perfect for writing a book! Whether you’re interested in writing a children’s book, teenage book or adult’s book, your skills and creativity will help towards writing a wonderful story. There are lots of forums available on the internet for you to find out more about writing and publishing your own book.
3) Online Classes
Do you specialise in something? Or have skills that other teachers – or professionals – will be interested in learning? Consider putting your speciality skills to the test by creating online courses and offering these to others for sale. Teachers love to learn new things and by providing exciting courses that will help them in the staff room, you’ll become one of their favourite go-tos.
4) Summer School
Consider signing up to do summer school – either in your own school or other schools. You might also find that local churches or community centres provide holiday clubs which you could also apply to work for – or even run. Everyone loves to have a teacher on board during their holiday clubs because of the educational and creative side that you can bring to the job.
5) Sell Your Resources
Are you great at making resources to use with your students? Do you get compliments on how amazing the resources are that you make? Or how creative you are? Then consider signing up to a website and selling your resources. There are some great websites available now where you can create and sell your resources, check out Teachers Pay Teachers or TES to find out how you can sign up to become a seller, start creating and selling resources.
6) Local Museums
Local museums are often looking for professionals with educational backgrounds to run tours in their venues, helping to work with the public and school visitors to provide educational information on their exhibits.
7) Education Suppliers
You know those companies who you see selling the most amazing resources that you would love to have in your classroom and use with your students? Then, why not try working for one of these companies? You’ll be able to still visit schools and work closely with other educational professionals while advertising and selling a range of different resources that teachers can use in their classrooms with their students.
But, what happens if you want to change career? What can you put on your CV? How can you transfer skills to another job when your experience is mainly in teaching/education? Below are a list of skills that I have put together that I feel teachers tend to have experience with. If you think of any other skills, feel free to add a comment on this blog post to share with everyone else.
Transferrable skills
- computer skills
- grammer
- communication skills
- leadership abilities
- creative
- motivating
- positive
- able to train others in a range of skills
- designing curriculum
- setting targets and finding ways to help students achieve these targets
- track and interpret test results
- multi agency communication and being able to communicate effectively with a range of different professionals.
- identifying areas of improvements
- able to delegate work to others
- research skills
- working to deadlines
- able to work well under pressure
- monitor individual and overall progress
- able to work well as a team
- monitor individual and overall progress
- inspiring and motivating
- identifying concerns
- warm and caring natures
- able to resolve conflict
- administration skills
- arranging and leading meetings
- able to work in small or large groups
- researching different sources of funding
- able to create eye caching activities
- mentoring
Are there any other skills that you feel you have gained/mastered through your teaching experience? How do you think they can be transitioned to other careers? Leave a comment below.
