I’ve talked about the reasons why teaching is a pretty sweet gig. I know I’m not the only one to see this because right across Canada, Faculties of Education are flooded with applicants right now. In fact, because the primary goal of a university is to make money, there are WAY too many people graduating with B. Ed degrees considering the already saturated teaching market (at least in urban centers). Now there is a certainly a separate debate to be had about whether it is right for university to knowingly flood the market with graduates, but ultimately the choice and the consequences of that choice rest with the individual. There is probably also a larger debate about the obvious fact that teachers must get compensated too highly for what they do given the obvious disconnect between the supply and demand in the market, but I’ll digress. With so many of my fellow graduates failing to get jobs in a market that is absolutely dominated by nepotism and “who you know” to an unbelievable degree, I have found it interesting to look into the “secondary market” for people who have a pair of degrees (most schools now require a 3 year degree before applying into the B. Ed program) and no obvious job prospects.
No Classroom Doesn’t Equal No Paycheque
The interesting thing about the world of education is that there is a whole sort of periphery industry that revolves around relations between primary, secondary, and post-secondary schooling, and their connections with the outside world. For example, last week I contacted the Manitoba Securities Commission in order to get some resources for an equities unit I’m preparing for my grade 12 business course next year. The person who responded to me had a B. Ed degree and hadn’t been able to land a job out of school, so she followed her business interests as they lead her into her current position. Another place to look would be the recruitment office of post-secondary institutions. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that someone who has spent some time in high schools, and has a degree in how to communicate with students (in theory anyway) would be a great fit as a spokesperson to promote a post-secondary institution. Several government programs that are connected with secondary schools are also excellent places to look for these sort of “periphery” education jobs.
Alternative Options
If you want to keep your teaching cap on in some capacity I recommend exploring alternative options to finding a full-time teaching job within Canada. There is a huge demand in all over the world right now (especially in Asian private schools) for schooling in English. Not just in teaching English, but in taking their whole school experience from a teacher who is a native English speaker. When the goal is to send a student on to post-secondary study in Canada and/or the USA, then B. Ed degrees from a country like Canada are very attractive, and have begun to command a premium on the open market in the form of some pretty cool and creative perks. The other option that can be a great side gig and used in combination with the other options I’ve talked about is tutoring. Many teachers who are “curriculum-driven” and just couldn’t find a place in today’s “self-esteem-based” classroom have built quite a nice little income for themselves by filling in the considerable amount of blanks our current public education model leaves out. While I haven’t done a whole lot of tutoring myself, I am friends with several people who did it throughout their B. Ed program and they claimed the one-on-one or small group experience was very rewarding and almost stress-free. It was worlds removed from the reality of most schools, and much closer to what they hand in mind when they got into the field.
The Skillz that Pay The Bills… Hopefully
Whether you are applying to be a post-secondary student advisor (one of the good ones, not one of the ones that J.B. had problems with) or for an HR position in the public or private sectors, the key is to emphasize the diverse skill set that you developed throughout the course of your studies. Student teaching and the smorgasbord of classes you take throughout your B. Ed degree can be creatively spun to fit a lot of job descriptions. Think about presenting yourself using certain keywords and examples to back them up:
- Experience and extensive instruction in multiple form of communication including public speaking
- Thorough planning skills
- Comfortable working in a team environment (teaching staff), or in more individual circumstances
- Interacted with the public in many difference capacities, and with a wide variety of people
- Great volunteer record (most people within education have a fairly solid resume here)
- Very competent with commercial software programs and their applications
The list can go on and on, but the idea is that while you thought you were building a skill set that would enable you to be a teacher, that toolbox doesn’t suddenly disappear just because the title of the job you are applying for does. It is all about being creative and presenting yourself in a positive light (as most things are in life). Well that and WHO YOU KNOW anyway.
While I still believe the best idea for most teachers that are having trouble finding work is to check rural listings (it honestly isn’t that scary guys/gals), it is important to know what options are out there and available to the growing number of teachers who have “nowhere” to teach. Some people just aren’t cut out to be teachers and/or the job is much different than the one they believed they were getting into. The key is not to disregard your education (although this might be tempting on several levels) but instead learn to creatively market it, and use it to get to a place you want to be and where you can excel at.
Do you know anyone that is trying to navigate the muddy waters of the teaching profession? Any advice for them?
Yeah, probably a good idea to have a backup when it hits the fan. If I were a teacher, I’d definitely see the OECTA agreement as writing on the wall that the party won’t last forever.
With the BEd being such an easy degree, I’d say the #1 most important, without question consideration is: what’s the undergrad in? If you’ve got a useful undergrad then obviously the job search is going to be a lot easier than if you don’t.
Great point Joe, the undergrad degree does make a ton of difference in terms of marketability. In my situation, I followed everyone’s feel good advice and went into something I was passionate about: History and English. I’m not sure I would advise the 17-year old me to do that now, but it has worked out alright. I’m constantly looking for ways to boost my resume and marketability though being that my field of expertise is ultra-common.
And really, I mean is a two-year wage freeze really that bad after a decade of above-inflation level raises? Besides that, in Manitoba I’m pretty sure the party won’t end any time soon, half of the current NDP government are ex-teachers and ex-teacher’s union representatives, so guess where their bread is buttered?
The Speaker of Ontario’s House is a former teacher, and I’m sure there are many others in Ontario’s ruling party. Now that the “education” Premier Dad has completely turned against teachers, I wouldn’t count on any government.
Here’s the scary part for teachers: the OECTA agreement did NOT merely stipulate 0% for 2 years. They’re taking 3 unpaid days, so that’s an actual CUT of 1.5%. Factor in inflation and compounding and teachers are getting a pay cut of about 7%.
And it gets worse. They can no longer bank sick days. Their entitlement got cut in HALF. AND the gratuity is gone. When my Dad died, his estate received a one-time gratuity to reward him for not abusing the generous sick leave system. This gratuity can be upwards of $40 grand at retirement or death. It sounds like a lot, but probably saves the education system money since they’d need to pay supply teachers (possibly a lot of them) today (and more often because it might get abused more with a perverse incentive), rather than a one-time payment in 30 years.
And now, the Premier has called the house back into session to PREEMPTIVELY legislate teachers back to work and impose a contract.
The OECTA negotiators should be ashamed for screwing their membership. OECTA teachers who are complicit in approving the deal should be ashamed for scabbing and betraying the labour movement.
The province shouldn’t be ashamed of the OECTA deal because they did what an employer SHOULD do: they negotiated hard and they got concessions. BUT they should NOW be ashamed of union bashing, for making threats of back-to-work legislation to bully teachers into a terrible settlement, and for literally crushing the union rights that people have fought/suffered for.
How long until the government decides MY agreement is too plum? Oh, actually they have (see my post yesterday), even though we don’t have nearly as good a deal as teachers. I don’t think workers’ rights should be a race-to-the-bottom, so I support teachers in their fight.
Great points Joe, I absolutely had failed to take into account the fact that the 3 unpaid days were actually a pay cut. I’m usually not a big union guy, but it does seem like they took some major lumps in that negotiation without getting a lot in return. Why wouldn’t they stay with the regular union and use their collective leverage? I hear where you are coming from as far as a race to the bottom, but I think teachers make a pretty decent wage currently considering the rest of the perks that we get. Also, from what I understood, the teachers were still allowed to bank sick days, they just didn’t get paid out for them at the end, am I mistaken on that? I know how it worked and I understand both sides of that equation. I’ve been in classrooms where teachers developed stress leave for a whole year before leaving, or got their doctor to write them a note for back pain just to soak up their sick days. This is terrible for everyone involved and should be avoided at almost all costs. On the other hand I can see how taxpayers get mad for effectively giving teachers a 40K bonus upon entering into a great pension at retirement. It has to be balance right?
Are we going to go back to the Mike Harris era in Ontario? Quite a rapid change from the “education premier” like you say. I still think there are just too many former union boys and girls in the NDP ranks right now in MB. If the Conservatives ever got in, it would probably be a situation similar to the one in Ontario I think.
Students piled into teachers’ college expecting the high pay, job for life and rich pension at the end that previous generations received. However, demographic trends lineup up perfectly for previous teachers. Provincial budgets had ample room to pay teachers the nice wages and pensions and demographic trends created a huge need for teachers. Times of course have changed, likely for many years. As already noted, undergrad majors in History and English with a B.Ed or not are far less appealing than that in Science or Mathematics.