Teaching Career Choices (Outside Of Schools)

Most of us consider the possibility of being a teacher when we’re younger. It’s one of the established career paths; the paths that the government literally described as “key skills” occupations. It’s up there with nurse, firefighter, and banker–the careers we’re trained to think about and consider.

The idea of being a teacher is a nice one; imparting knowledge, enriching lives. However, there’s one part of teaching that tends to cause most of us to pause; we don’t want to have to work with children, especially if we didn’t have the most pleasant experience at school ourselves.

The Assumption
We all jump to assuming that “teaching” translates to “teaching children”. That’s the immediate mental leap we all make; if it’s someone’s job to educate people, then they are probably doing that in a classroom of a school, with an eager class of young students before them.

However, there are thousands of other ways you could explore all the benefits of teaching without having to enter a conventional school setting. There are many different types of teachers in the modern world, and if you have always liked the idea of sharing knowledge and improving the lives of others, these various teaching roles might be worth considering.

The Reality
First and foremost, you could consider teaching adults. Most university lecturers don’t require a formal teaching qualification; they do need a strong educational background, but there’s no specific requirement for them to have had to teach children in a school. If you’re passionate about a subject and have a history in academia, then this might be a route you want to explore.

Secondly, you can use the knowledge that you already have about your chosen career and teach other people how to perform the same role. There are a huge number of jobs that require adult training for specific work. If you’re a nurse, then you could consider undertaking an online Masters in nursing education, and help to educate the next generation of nurses. If you’re a software programmer, you could teach adults to code via online courses or night school classes. Both of these examples, and more besides, are perfect if you are already experienced in a job, don’t want to change your career entirely, but still think you would enjoy educating others. You can capitalize on the skills you already have and help to encourage others to follow your path.

Finally, you could look to educate people in the basic skills of life. If you’re a dab hand at DIY, then you could run night school classes for homeowners who want to learn how to manage their homes for themselves. If you’re a great baker, then you can share that skill online with webinars and online courses. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg; as a general rule, if there’s something you do particularly well, then there’s probably someone out there who’s going to want to know how to do it– you could teach them, and you could earn a lucrative career from it, too.

As the above show, “teaching” doesn’t have to mean sitting in a classroom with a group of children every day. If you have always had a passion for sharing knowledge, then one of the ideas above may be able to help you pursue a career you will find rewarding and engaging– without ever having to step foot across a school threshold.