After building a business career, some professionals decide to transition into a teaching position. With their acquired experience and credentials, they often prove to be assets to the education field. In moving from business to teaching, the following steps may be helpful as you make the move from the business world to the academic classroom.
Volunteer Teach
Many community organizations welcome volunteer instructors for a number of roles that can benefit their members. English language teachers are often in demand to help immigrants learn conversational English. Math tutors are welcome in many learning centers and can often be hired into paid tutoring positions. Volunteers are wanted in literacy programs to teach people of all ages, often those born in this country, how to read and write. Volunteers can help teachers in public and private schools by grading assignments, leading classroom activities, and supervising playground time. Volunteerism is a plus on your resume when it comes time to apply for a teaching job.
Apply Your Experience
Business experts are often hired to teach a number of skills to local people by using their acquired experience and credentials. Sales training, safety guidelines, and the communication skills associated with leadership are areas of expertise where professionals are eagerly sought to share their experience and knowledge with others. You can teach basic business topics on social media, using youtube tutorials or Instagram posts that can be added to your teaching portfolio to become part of your eventual application for a regular full-time teaching job. Organizing a community workshop on personal safety or diversity appreciation can also add valuable experience to your resume.
Earn Teaching Credits
It will be helpful to take college coursework to earn a certificate, a license, or a degree to teach the level of students of interest to you. From preschool through grad school, teachers are needed online or on campus to provide education and academic guidance to students from around the globe. With an increasing number of students with special learning needs or disabilities, you may want to consider a special education credential for teachers, as this is a growing field. You can specialize in a discipline of choice, such as language arts or English writing and literature, physical science, math, and social sciences, among others.
Seek State Licensure
Private schools might require just a bachelor’s degree in some cases. Most public schools require the teachers they hire to be licensed by the state department of education. To become licensed, a teacher might need a certain number of college credits, evidence of successful student teaching, and some aforementioned volunteer or community teaching experience that would indicate their readiness to teach a classroom of students. Sometimes a bachelor’s degree in any field can become the foundation for teaching when a person takes a certain number of graduate credits in the discipline to be taught.
Teaching is a profession that benefits instructors as well as students. It can be a deeply meaningful career based on helping others learn to succeed for the rest of their lives. Use your business credentials and success to build a new platform of supporting student learning so that they, too, can get the jobs they want as they learn how to navigate the world.