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Changing career from teacher / union rep... to HR

Ed

Dear All

I am considering a career change from teaching and am very interested in HR.  Throughout my teaching career I have been actively involved in personnel matters and school management consultations as a union workplace representative and as a trained caseworker.

From the forums I understand the various options/routes to better my general qualifications for a move to HR, but would like to hear your thoughts and advice of which options would be more apt to consider. 

All suggestions will be greatly appreciated and any recommendations of credible and preferable training providers, other than the Open University, welcomed.

Thanking you in advance.

Ed

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  • Hi Ed,

    I actually made this transition myself and have now been working in HR since August 2015. Obviously I don't know how long you've been teaching, your reasons for wanting to leave or whether you have any other work experience outside of teaching but undoubtedly you will have a lot of transferable skills. The main thing to bear in mind is that having changed career, I have had to start right at the bottom again so you need to be aware you will be earning significantly less. Obviously that depends on your individual situation. However I can only see benefits of starting as an HR Administrator as you learn all the procedures and types of queries that come up. Plus it took me a good couple of years to adjust to standard holiday entitlement after 11 years of school holidays. I am not trying to put you off as I don't regret my decision but these are all things to take into account.

    What I will say is there is a lot of competition to get HR jobs so gaining a qualification would be helpful. However in saying that I have found it more useful to start a qualification after working in HR for a while as I am able to put theory into practice and have a general understanding of HR processes and policies.

    I am currently studying a Level 5 CIPD course with ICS Learn through distance learning. Having never studied this way before I am finding it harder than a more traditional learning route. However it does offer a lot of flexibility as to when and where you can study and the ability to work at your own pace.

    Hope this helps!
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  • Hi Ed,

    I actually made this transition myself and have now been working in HR since August 2015. Obviously I don't know how long you've been teaching, your reasons for wanting to leave or whether you have any other work experience outside of teaching but undoubtedly you will have a lot of transferable skills. The main thing to bear in mind is that having changed career, I have had to start right at the bottom again so you need to be aware you will be earning significantly less. Obviously that depends on your individual situation. However I can only see benefits of starting as an HR Administrator as you learn all the procedures and types of queries that come up. Plus it took me a good couple of years to adjust to standard holiday entitlement after 11 years of school holidays. I am not trying to put you off as I don't regret my decision but these are all things to take into account.

    What I will say is there is a lot of competition to get HR jobs so gaining a qualification would be helpful. However in saying that I have found it more useful to start a qualification after working in HR for a while as I am able to put theory into practice and have a general understanding of HR processes and policies.

    I am currently studying a Level 5 CIPD course with ICS Learn through distance learning. Having never studied this way before I am finding it harder than a more traditional learning route. However it does offer a lot of flexibility as to when and where you can study and the ability to work at your own pace.

    Hope this helps!
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