moving away from teaching

We have had a query from a secondary modern languages teacher who is finding teaching her subject more and more difficult. She enjoys working with students, but finds that their motivation is not very strong. She is considering teaching in another sector or something completely different.

It is essential to identify clear reasons for wanting to move job: is it the school or is it the job itself? Often people change job when it wasn't the job itself that was the problem, but the organisation. A good start is to make a list of what would need to change in the current job in order to stay in post. For example, less marking, a wider range of ability to teach or maybe a new building.

Then divide this list into two headings: those factors that are likely to change or that you can change, and those that are unlikely to change. The unlikely to change list might contain areas that on closer examination can be rectified: perhaps teaching A level - is it right to assume that this can't happen?

If, however, you are left with a huge and daunting selection of unlikelies, then a change in job might be worth exploring. If this is the case, the next step is to evaluate your skills.

Most teachers who consider moving job assume they can't do anything except teach as if that was one skill that no employer in their right mind would be interested in.

Again make a list, this time of skills that employers are interested in, which, according to a recent survey of graduate employers, include working with others, time management, initiative, teamwork, communication, self-motivation and flexibility. For each of these, write an example of how you've used each skill.

The next step is to match your skills with the jobs that are out there. This can be done electronically by using the kind of self-analysis programme available on www.prospects.csu.ac.uk. Go to Career Planning, then Think About Yourself.

Additionally, you can contact your local careers service for an interview. There are also a number of private career consultants, which you can find in yellow pages. A good one will be very clear about their charges, give you a detailed initial interview to assess your needs and give you some indication of strategies they can offer you.

There are some good paper activities around, but if they offer you these, double-check they have been trained to administer them and analyse the results. If you graduated less than three ago, your university careers service may be able to help you and you will also be able to use the helpline Graduate Careerline, again details of which you can find in www.prospects.csu.ac.uk.