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Currently looking for jobs before relocating, nothing suitable has come up yet for secondary, but an FE job caught my eye.
It is a middle leadership role, however their pay scale is only paying the equivalent of UPS3, so I would be taking a pay cut from my current ML role.
The negatives are weighing on my mind, less holiday, lower pay etc.
Has anyone got any experience of moving from secondary teaching to FE? what would be the positives and negatives of such a move?
never been in school education but knew some teachers who were. I did work in FE for a while and the big difference (from what i was told by school teachers) was that fe students mostly wanted to be there, many school pupils were there because they had to be. That means more enthusiastic students so easier to teach. It's also easier to remove disruptive elements from the class as there's no legal compunction for them to be in education. i also think (but have nothing to back this up) that fe\he targets and syllabuses (syllabii?) have been ****ed about with far less than schools.
Hmmm. FE is less well funded than secondary education - believe me I know. Since the compulsory age was raised to 18, there are many many students who don't really want to be there. Added to this, many of them are at college because schools have recommended that they go to college rather than staying at the school sixth form - generally because the schools don't really want them. Due to the new condition of funding all students must be taught English and Maths up to GCSE level, which is definitely having an impact since, despite the importance of English and Maths, most of the students don't want to study English / Maths because they don't like it and they don't think they need it - and crucially their parents don't think it's important either.
Unfortunately these days FE is just as achievement driven as schools.
However - on the bright side, you get a lot more diversity in FE, and there are still plenty of students who are there for specific courses and who are genuinely motivated. I'm sure I saw one once when I was at work.... 🙂
PS - sorry about the slightly disjointed rambling post.
I have three thousand students sitting GCSE Maths and English in three weeks time. It has been a rather busy week at work this week....
Ahhhhh..... Just saw your other posts..... Still looking at Yeovil/Taunton?
Hi Simon, yes I am! Still looking. Unfortunately Head of Humanities jobs do not come up that often. So been looking at FE potentially.
Are you down that way?
The OH enjoyed it, although technically it was a 6th form college as opposed to a true FE college. She found A level teaching enjoyable. BTEC became a living hell after Easter with the students just throwing all their last minute coursework at her to be assessed, then remarked. The BTEC students were largely (but not all) the ones who were doing the course because they couldn't think what to do for their last two years in education.
I did work in FE for a while and the big difference (from what i was told by school teachers) was that fe students mostly wanted to be there, many school pupils were there because they had to be. That means more enthusiastic students so easier to teach. It's also easier to remove disruptive elements from the class as there's no legal compunction for them to be in education.
I'm sorry but that's the biggest pile of smelly stuff posted today.
Alot are there as they have no idea what to do, and remeber the ones school want to keep end up at 6th form.
You try removing disruptive elements, you best be able go justify not meeting/ exceeding your national bench marks and have put together a very good case for removing them along with detailed records of targets.
Having said that the enthusiastic 5% can make all the other crap worth it. Just learn to say no and accept you cant do everthing the self assessment report says you do.
Edit: Just saw post from mighthmule, +1 on English and maths Gcse issues.
FE is a business. Students earn the business money, they don't want to lose studentsIt's also easier to remove disruptive elements from the class
I've been in FE for almost a decade. It's strange beast.
The senior leadership team, the financial status of the college and your local area priorities will have a massive impact on the type and quality of student enrolement and their motivations.
The quality of the senior leaders is the biggest influence in my experience. Do your research thoroughly and try and speak to a few people who work there. If they are good it's a great sector to work in.
FE is a business. Students earn the business money, they don't want to lose students[img]http://
I've worked for long periods at the sharp end of the disciplinary process and this is only a partial picture. Given that for many learners FE represents the last opportunity, there is a degree of latitude for disruptive behaviour/poor attendance etc. But only a degree of it. Again, it's down to the motivations of the leadership.