BRADFORDIANS are being invited to apply for a programme which aims to help them move into new teaching careers.

Transition to Teach is a Department for Education funded service, delivered by Cognition Education.

It is designed to help people transfer existing skills into a new career, particularly those who have been made redundant or are at risk of redundancy, people taking early retirement or career changers.

One of the people who has taken advantage is Dan Storer, 37, who said "the pandemic was the turning point for me to decide to train as a teacher."

Dan, who was working as a flight attendant for a major airline this time last year, added: "The skills I will take from my old career into teaching include the ability to build relationships, being willing to work hard and, for the future, the understanding of how to create happy teams. I have lots of stories to tell, which helps me to engage my pupils.

“I’ve been teaching four classes now since September as part of my School Direct programme, and actually, seeing the progress the children have made is a million times more satisfying than anything I have done before.”

Pandemic-related redundancy was also the catalyst for fashion merchandiser Alexandra Heynes, 31, to make the move to teaching.

“In my old career in fashion retail, I was working across Europe, attending buyers’ meetings and liaising with retail teams", she said.

"Customer behaviour generally has been moving towards online, but during the pandemic lots of the stores closed, which meant my position, with its focus on physical stores, was no longer required.

“As a fashion merchandiser, I’ve worked for three companies in the last two years. Restructures were starting to happen more frequently. It made me begin to question what else I could do as a career. I looked at the skills I used in my job, such as maths, and how they could be transferred."

Jo Holland, Employer Engagement Manager at Transition to Teach, said: “The pandemic has made us question big life decisions more than ever, like where we live and our career. For some, the catalyst to change careers has been the pandemic, for others it has been redundancy or the threat of redundancy.

"Teaching isn’t for everyone, it’s our job to help people to explore whether teaching will suit them. If it does, we’ll be there to support eligible individuals on every step of their journey into a whole new career.”