Graduate glut puts trainee teachers on the scrapheap, Anna Pat

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Reader's comment, Graduate glut puts trainee teachers on the scrapheap, Anna Patty, The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 October 2014

Casual teaching work is the absolute pits.

During my course I was repeatedly told I would walk into a teaching job.

Completely and totally untrue.

Even with an IT degree and 15 years' experience I haven't been able to get interviews for computer teaching jobs.

I can get casual work but casual work is the absolute pits.

Drive 45-60 minutes through heavy traffic each way to walk into an often unfriendly or unhelpful staffroom in a tough school and the best thing you get is to start all over again the next day at a different school.

To be at school on time I have to put my kids in care from 7.30am to 5.00pm (or even later) and I have to be ready to do that on the basis of a phone call that might come at 7.00am.

It's just not worth it.

As a new teacher starting as a casual you get zero feedback or support.

Some schools call you back regularly, others never do - and you never know why.

Get a call from a school and knock it back for some reason (like you're booked elsewhere) and they never call you again.

Your chance of getting a job without going through the casual mill is virtually nill.

I would love to present a talk to the incoming students telling them the facts rather than the pie in the sky stuff they told me about walking into a job or that many older teachers are retiring.

No, they're not. They're hanging on for grim death.

I know several teachers who haven't been able to gain work anywhere near home and they are constantly begging friends who have work (although not permanent jobs) to keep them in mind if anything comes up.

Seano