Education & Early Years careers

The honest route into teaching and childcare — training routes that work, published pay scales, real workload, and the jobs AI can't take. Degree usually needed to teach; not always.

Primary Teacher
You teach one class everything from phonics to fractions — planning, marking, parents, displays and 30 small humans. Published pay scales, decent pension, real workload.
Secondary Teacher
You teach your subject to five year-groups a day, through exam season and adolescence. Published pay scales, shortage-subject bursaries, and a real workload problem.
Teaching Assistant
You support learning in the classroom — interventions, SEN support, behaviour backup — for term-time hours and modest pro-rated pay. No degree needed; the advert salary is never the take-home.
Early Years Educator / Nursery Worker
You do the most important education job in the system — and get paid close to the National Living Wage for it. Huge demand, real progression into room leadership and management.
SEN Teacher / SENCO
You teach children whose needs mainstream classrooms can't meet — special schools, resource bases, PRUs. Same pay scales plus a mandatory SEN allowance, and demand that outstrips supply.
Further Education Lecturer
You teach your trade or subject in a college — no QTS needed, industry experience counts, train on the job. The trade-off: pay runs roughly £10K behind school teachers.
School Careers Adviser
You run the careers programme a school is legally required to deliver — one-to-one guidance, employer links, Gatsby benchmarks. Modest pay, growing statutory demand, surprisingly satisfying.