From business to education

November 3, 2008

A while back I wrote about a scheme called Transition to Teaching, which looks to unite the business and education communities to hopefully increase the numbers of new teachers by helping business managers and employees make the transition from their existing roles into teaching positions through training and qualifications.

Today brings news that many people who are facing redundancy or have already lost their jobs in the economic downturn are looking to move into the teaching profession. Lifelong Learning UK, the sector skills council has seen a staggering 41% increase in enquiries about teacher training courses.

With the ever present threat of job losses, many people are now thinking about career changes, and it seems that education is one of the popular choices for a fresh start. Lifelong Learning UK has a scheme called Make a Difference, which encourages business managers to look at alternative management roles in the education sector. I think this is a really good scheme, as it’s good to mix management experience from different sector backgrounds, so employing people experienced in varied business environments will add value to the education sector through different perspectives, ideas and skills. The scheme also allows people to have a change in career and move to an organisation in which they feel they can ‘make a difference’ without having to radically re-train, which might put some people off a career change.

I really believe that education should be at least partly delivered by people who have had experience in the ‘real’ business world, especially in further and higher education, as it adds a more realistic dimension to the learning that takes place. So if the recession means that more business people make the move from business to education, then providing those people have a genuine desire to be there and to make that difference, this is perhaps one positive outcome of the economic mess we’re in.

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Posted by hrgirl | Filed Under Learning and Development, News/General