Giving grads the opportunity to inspire

This is not another piece of writing about how difficult it is to get a job after university. Everybody, whether they are in higher education, just out of it, or just about to start, knows that the chances of coming out with employment guaranteed are slim. So what are your options when options are limited? There is difficulty in finding employment to begin with, let alone alternatives that may appeal to those whose career aspirations are leaning toward charity.

For many, the simplest path to employment might seems to be accessing a decent graduate scheme, and it would be a fair comment to make that we are not lacking in these; from Tesco to Deloitte, graduates are faced with options that perhaps they have not and would not have thought about. One such example, however, takes a step away from the rigmarole of signing up to a scheme half-heartedly as a last resort. Teach First is a reasonably new opportunity for graduates – founded in 2002, the charity seeks to employ top graduates, and train them to become teachers in the schools that face some of the most challenging circumstances in Britain.

Paired with the fact that one in six young people leave school unable to read, write or add up properly (Leitch Review on Skills, 2008, UKCES), the number of graduates who see Teach First as an option that will open up doors which other graduate schemes don’t has risen steadily since its creation in 2002.; it’s now ranked 7^th in The Times Top 100 graduate employers list.

The scheme seeks to recruit graduates who, after a six week intensive training are placed in schools that are facing the highest educational disadvantage around the country. Encouraged to immerse themselves completely in a teaching environment, shortly after the school term commences, Teach First participants experience taking their own lessons – something that many teachers must wait months to do. The immediate connection teachers feel with their classes has been described as overwhelming, and it is with a great sense of achievement that they leave the classroom at the end of the school day.

Within the first initial year of teaching, Teach First participants work towards a PGCE; a qualification enabling those who receive it the ability to return to teaching at any time. After their two years are complete, teachers will be certified as NQT (Newly Qualified Teachers), and are able to continue to further their opportunities in schools. They also receive the status of ‘Teach First Ambassadors’. Manyambassadors go on to higher positions within schools; Max Haimendorf is one such example. An ambassador from Teach First’s group of 2003, Haimendorf is now the Head Teacher of King Solomon Academy in London. Haimendorf says of Teach First: “The Teach First experience was absolutely vital to my role as Head Teacher. It gave me the experience, both inside and outside the classroom, of changing pupil’s lives.”

Teach First participants go into the schools they are assigned to work in, not with an outlook that is simply to ‘get children through’ education, but to encourage them to pursue options that many feel are not available. It’s not only the children who encouraged to go onto pursue options that may not have otherwise been available – Teach First Ambassadors also have the opportunity to take a masters following their two year teaching period.

And of those who become Teach First ambassadors, 55% stay in the teaching profession. For a charity that is not wholly government funded, Teach First has overcome any initial problems that any independent charity faces in their creation. Driven by inspirational coordinators and leaders, Teach First now has over 2,500 graduates who have gone through its training and have subsequently become teachers and great sources of inspiration in themselves.

RISE: "bringing hope to the horizon"

Haimendorf is only one example of many who have used his experience with Teach First to further his career as well as inspiring others. However, for those who choose to pursue careers away from the classroom after two years, Teach First always proves itself a solid platform for those seeking to make a change elsewhere. Sanju Pal left Teach First to set up her own charity, RISE (Rural India School Enterprise), which under the same principles of Teach First, seeks to address educational disadvantage in India.

On paper, Teach First might seem like an ideal solution; top class teaching for the most educationally disadvantaged, whilst providing those who become the people at the front of the classroom with a vocation they will really gain something from, and then have the ability to take on further as they wish.  However, it is only in practice that its effects really be seen; or all of those who go through Teach First, whether they stay on as teachers or not, it is the feeling of achievement that is realised at the end of a school day, knowing that they have proved influential to a child, that sets Teach First aside from all other charities and graduate schemes.