Teaching new hope for out of work

Here are excerpts from an interesting article in the Beaumont Enterprise. It discusses career-changing professionals turning towards teaching in Texas:

Thomas Riley always thought he would become an educator after retiring from his position with the Jefferson Park and Recreation Center-but not this soon. After 17 years, Riley was let go in December and now he’s looking at becoming a certified teacher.

“I’ve been looking through the job market looking for other employment, but every position seemed to be closed and everything kept going back to being certified,” Riley said.

With unemployment rates rising and people needing a steady income, Riley is one of many who are turning to what some consider the “old standby” – teaching.

“A lot of people are out here with degrees who just don’t know what to do and have been laid off from different jobs,” said Robert Foster with Texas Workforce Solutions. “Their job skills can be related over to teaching.”

And teaching jobs are hardly in short supply. The greatest need is for teachers of math, science, foreign language, and special education, according to the Teacher Education Agency Web site.

“It’s just very difficult to find good qualified math teachers because it’s competitive,” said Diane Daniels, superintendent of Kountze school district in Texas. “You don’t find universities putting out good certified math teachers.”

But area schools see new hope in the throngs of unemployed professionals showing up in teacher certification programs. The districts are not only getting more teaching candidates, but ones with more real-world experience that can reshape the classroom environment.

“We get a lot of career changers,” said Judy Williams, program coordinator for the Accelerated Certification for Educators Program at Lamar State College – Orange. “Lately we’ve seen a lot of engineers who have lost their jobs and want to teach now.”

With so many professionals from the workforce entering the teaching field, the quality of education is evolving into something different from what students received previous years.

“A lot of districts enjoy getting the person who has that (workforce) experience,” said Williams. “A lot of people look at it in the sense that they have a lot to offer in the classroom.”

Interested in becoming a teacher in Texas? Check out our page on Texas teacher certification for more information.