Career Profiles
Teaching & TESOL
Introduction
- Teaching is not simply standing in front of a class and talking, or handing out discipline and assignments. It is a complex, sophisticated task requiring a high level of skill and training, and offers financial and professional rewards on a par with many other professional careers.
- Teaching offers a creative, stimulating and rewarding career, with the opportunity, within guidelines, to work autonomously in the classroom.
- Demand for teachers is increasing, as was predicted for the years leading up to 2000 and beyond, and job opportunities for new graduates are improving rapidly.
- Starting salaries are above those for many new graduates, and employment conditions are generally good, although there has been an increase in short term and contract work in some states.
- Schools are changing and the work that teachers do is also changing to include new roles in collaborative teaching, tailoring curriculum to local school needs, using information technology to teach, and taking on a variety of administrative, management and planning roles within increasingly self-managing schools.
- Teaching graduates have the skills to practice in a range of educational settings, and to take on a variety of roles in the wider employment market.
- Almost regardless of employment trends, there are always opportunities for good graduates who are energetic, enthusiastic and creative, and who want to make a difference, to help shape the future of our community.
Why Choose Teaching?
Teaching is the largest profession in Australia. Over two hundred thousand teachers work in ten thousand schools teaching over three million students. Most teachers work in state or independent primary and secondary schools teaching children and teenagers. Many others work in pre-schools or childcare centres with very young children, in special education with people of all ages, or with older teenagers and adults in institutes of Technical and Further Education (TAFE)/Vocational Education and Training (VET), community education centres, private colleges, universities and workplaces.
Unlike other professions, everybody has some knowledge and experience of schools, and the roles teachers play in them, because everybody has been to school. Most of us think we know what the job of teaching involves, but often we are not aware of all the things a teacher does as well as teach in the classroom. For many of us, our own experience as a student influences how we see teaching as a possible career.
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