I've been teaching English Language in FE for 6 years, working in hospitals, airports, prisons, colleges and in the general community. I have a good English degree, a PGCE in the lifelong learning sector and a masters degree in modern and historical language studies. During this time I've seen many staff leave owing to cuts in funding, resulting in redundancies and the gradual erosion of terms and conditions for lecturers in the FE sector.

I've complained for long enough about recent school-leavers who can't even construct a sentence or even know what an apostrophe is, so I've decided to become pro-active and to see for myself what is going on! I've already turned down one offer to work in an academy status secondary school this year but still hope to make the transition to another in the near future.

Therefore, I have decided to try and make the transition from FE to secondary schools as I feel my subject qualifications are much more in tune with their requirements and the terms and conditions are much more favorable. FE lecturers may be concerned about the challenges of working with kids of this age but it's just a case of getting into a decent school with an efficient and disciplined management structure.

Thank you for your response Georgia99. I agree that this will be a major culture shock and behaviour management will be an issue. If I sounded naive or blase about working in a secondary school then I'm probably belying my determination and enthusiasm to succeed at what I consider to be a massive challenge for me.

I've had to deal with challenging behaviour from students who have recently left education and have barely been able to read. Surely not all students in secondary schools are like this! A close friend has just moved from school to another and claims the difference is unbelievable in the way she is supported with the school having a strict ethos.  

Yes, I think this is a very pressured environment but I think these lie chiefly with achieving specific targets more than behavioural issues.   

Hi Rovermarc

First of all I would like to congratulate you for making this decision and wish you the very best of luck in your endevours. 

I am an FE lecturer. I passed my PGCE FE years ago and would like to do the same transition as yourself. However, I would need to do an other PGCE SE or a QTS. Any help at all on this i.e. how to obtain one or how to become a QTS and will it be Governement funded.

Any help would be very much apprecited

Kind regards

Olasma

Hi, at my secondary school there are three teachers who are PGCE FE trained who teach on the Construction, Hairdressing and Dance courses. They are all paid on the main teaching scale.

I know quite a lot of people who have made the move and the school may support you to gain QTS, this includes collecting evidence for Q standards and completing Maths, ICT and English tests. You would not need to do another PGCE though.

The PGCE in both compulsory and lifelong learning are equal qualifications. The difference with the compulsory PGCE is that you have to achieve QTS alongside this in order to work in secondary schools. (Although as noted above, schools are increasingly taking non QTS candidates particularly for vocational courses). One key issue is that there is a surplus of secondary school teachers competing for jobs and this makes it difficult for a FE qualified candidate to even be shortlisted for a non vocational subject. But I believe that FE qualified teachers more commonly have a better knowledge and experience of their field as they are often ex professionals in these sectors and I think schools are starting to acknowledge this.

The main areas that FE teachers seem to need support is behaviour management and afl. In my experience most FE teachers seem to know very little about afl and this is really important to understand in schools.

I would love to gain a lecturing post in FE, I personally find it far less stressful. But everyone is different. Sorry if my last post sounded harsh, I didn't intend it to. I don't want people to make the same mistake as me and leave a FE job to go to a secondary school because of the better contract, conditions etc before really understanding the challenges of independently leading a class of compulsory school age kids!! It is tough and stressful and I work in one of the better schools in my area.

Firstly, since when was secondary school teaching ever made out to be a bed of roses! I know enough teachers to have discovered that the opposite is true. Secondly, if I need to develop my Assessment for Learning skills I don't see it as a huge problem. We are all encouraged to have a flexible 'can-do' approach in the modern world.

Our FE college relies on funding and we are simply not getting the classes like we used to when we were funded by the LSC. I took a class last week which consisted of students from the employment exchange and their only motivation to attend was that they didn't get their money if they failed to show. I always treat my students with respect and as adults and some were fine but the younger ones were totally disruptive and refused to work and insulted the ones who did and I now have a racist incident to deal with! I never had this trouble when I worked at a prison!

We often deal with students who have just left school and came away with next to nothing and are forced into English and maths courses, just as they are in prisons. Their attitude is no different post compulsory as to what it was at school. In fact it's worse because they know they can get away with more. When I refuse to sign their EMA forms for their money I get irate parents complaining and a management that are pressured into supporting the parents instead of the teacher. Certainly no bed of roses either! At least in schools you get some kids who actually want to learn!

Teaching is tough today whatever you do. But if we don't face up to challenges then we should be doing something else!