22 Jobs After Teaching That Pay Well & Bring Back Joy

Have you ever questioned what jobs after teaching you could do? Then you are not alone and all teachers have an abundance of transferable skills, it is up to you how you best want to use them! You still have choices that will work alongside your teaching degree and teaching experience.

Leaving a career path can be an incredibly daunting move, and it is not a decision to take lightly – particularly for teachers. Being a teacher has many wonderful perks, with a six-week summer holiday at the top of the list. Although of course, the reality is different and many teachers use the summer holidays to prepare for the academic year ahead.

Teaching jobs are tremendously demanding and it is easy to feel unsupported and overwhelmed with workloads. You might just feel that you’re better suited to a different kind of work, that teaching is not allowing you to fulfil your needs or talents. When you started you probably thought it was a job for life and did not expect to find yourself Googling careers and jobs after teaching but it happens and more often than you think.

It’s clear that teachers all over the country are constantly exploring the options of a career change or are thinking of and preparing for alternative jobs after teaching, but often high school teachers don’t know what vacancies are available and what roles might be suited to their particular qualifications. In this post, we will explore the jobs after teaching that are available to you. Grab a notebook and be ready to start brainstorming activities that could help you find a whole new career.

Before you quit take some time to check out that you really are ready to leave teaching, as your could be at burnout and exhausted but want to continue in the classroom. Make sure that you are looking after yourself – read these 63 Supportive Self Care Quotes for Teachers who are Exhausted in 2022 first.

Well, let me tell you there are so many worthwhile options after leaving the teaching profession and I know because I have done it and what’s more I now help others do the same.

What is stopping you from leaving teaching?

One of the biggest reasons many stay in teaching is the salary. Yet in reality, when we consider the hourly rate we may be surprised. If you are working 50-plus weeks like most that I know then the pay isn’t as attractive. Work out what you need to survive because it may not be the figure you think you need.

Secondly, many stay in teaching because they feel that teaching is a vocation and they have a real desire to work and support young people, well that can be achieved in other career options too! Additionally, many stay because they have a true passion for their subject, however, there will be other ways to use your knowledge, maybe in another education sector or in the public sector. Sometimes it is the fear of change that stops us from following our dreams but remember that you are not alone in this fear – there are many factors to consider when thinking about a career change or careers and jobs after teaching.

If you are considering leaving your teaching job for a new career track, there are many questions you might be asking yourself. For example, you might be wondering:

• What are some possible careers after teaching?
• How can I retrain for new jobs, what training programs are available?
• What different roles are available between the public and the private sector or corporate world?

Before you leave teaching though you may want to take advantage of these discounts for teachers in the UK! 

Jobs After Teaching

When I started teaching I never imagined that I would shut the classroom door behind me 12 years later. I thought teaching would be my only career as working in the educational sector was all I ever wanted to do. 

Yet family life and the changing school environment put paid to that. I left teaching demoralised and tired, I knew teaching would be hard work and expected that but the profession changed too much for me. 

Exhausted from the pressure of trying to do it all, trying to please everyone and it seems I am not the only one, The Guardian reported last year that almost a quarter of teachers who have qualified since 2011 have left profession. That’s a dreadfully sad statistic of what can be a rewarding job, I love teaching and working with teenagers but that wasn’t enough and I started considering jobs after teaching.

Careers After Teaching

Transfer Skills From The Classroom

Before you pack away your pencil case for good make sure you have done all the right research, as it might bring you a whole new perspective. If you are a secondary school teacher, you might realise that college or sixth-form level teaching would suit you better. Check out higher education too maybe you’d get a refresher from working with a different age group rather than leaving teaching.

If you are working in a state school and finding it a tough environment, you might find that you could be happier in private schools as public school teachers. have a different work-life balance. We are not saying one is easier than the other but it might just give you the change that you need without leaving the profession. They often say change is as good as a rest so don’t rush into leaving education altogether.

How To Get Into Supply Teaching

Many former teachers enjoy supply teaching. The rate of pay is good and if you still love teaching and working with young people this could be the halfway house you want. Many supply teachers enjoy the freedom of supply and is a great fit for more family friendly working.

There are no writing schemes of work, significantly less planning (none on short-term placements), and minimal marking but you still get to teach. Many claim supply gives you back the good bits of teaching. If you choose to undertake supply teaching then you will need to have plenty of time fillers, educational materials and quick lessons that you can deliver with ease. Supply teaching also has the advantage that you work traditional school hours and term times.

Jobs After Teaching To Consider

1. Tutoring

Tutors work in a variety of ways including as online teachers or 1:1 teachers which still utilises your teaching skills. You could look for regular work in a tutoring environment like Kumon or Kip MacGrath. They have national centres to help children. 

Alternatively, you could set yourself up and advertise yourself as a private tutor. With the pressure on children, there are always parents paying for tutors be it to get into grammar schools, for SAT’s GCSE and even A Levels. Many tutors charge approx £25 per hour which is an above-average salary. There are also many online tutoring agencies where you can advertise yourself and this makes finding clients easier.

Since the pandemic, the government response to education has been the catch-up programme delivered by the National Tutoring Programme which is looking for experienced teachers to work in schools and online. From what I hear this is a great initiative that many are enjoying working for. The pay is about £30 per hour from my research and you can be employed through agencies or directly by schools once you have completed the online training.

There are also many teachers working with home ed students and so sessions are in the day. The next step would be to advertise yourself using social media.

Being a home tutor means you can pick your own hours and your own rates. You can work from your own home, in your student’s home, in a professional office or in an agreed public place. I still do the odd bit of tutoring as I enjoy teaching in this capacity and it keeps my hand in and keeps up my professional development.

2. Exam Marking

This is obviously a seasonal job taking place in May, June, and July. Marking exams, be it SATs, GCSE or A Level is a way to keep up to date and still use your subject knowledge and valuable skills. There are also positions for senior markers and those who write and moderate the exam papers themselves. Although not enough for a full job on its own it does complement tutoring well. It demonstrates to parents that you fully understand what is likely to come up in your subject area in the exams and the styles of questions and answers required.

3. Creating Resources

If you are a creative person you can use your expertise and experience to create resources to help other teachers. This could include curriculum design such as writing schemes of work or workbooks. Resources and online courses can be sold via TES online or by making ebooks to sell online. Or take your ideas to an educational publisher. Many former teachers move into a second career of publishing support materials, many have turned their hand to becoming an instructional designer. Twinkl is often looking for creatives for this type of role and in many of these roles having an education degree and understanding how children learn is key. Or you can choose to sell directly to teachers using a platform like Teachers Pay Teachers, just read my post on how to make money on Teachers Pay Teachers first! 

4. Be A Teaching Assistant

Why not look at related job opportunities? For many, time as TA (teaching assistant) is valuable, although the drawback is the low pay as it isn’t comparable with a classroom teacher salary.

Maybe you don’t want the responsibility of a whole class. Maybe one to one or small group support is better than classroom teaching. Many SENCO’s or behaviour specialists are qualified teachers but no longer teach in the classroom they use their strong interpersonal skills for a new role.

5. Work For Ofsted Or Your Local Authority

 Cross to the dark side and become an Ofsted Inspector or local authority representative. This is especially good for highly experienced teachers with leadership roles that have a wealth of experience to offer, they are often referred to as an educational consultant. Their driver is to improve outcomes for all students and whilst when we are teachers we have an inbuilt fear for Ofsted inspectors, many of them are actually highly qualified teachers with plenty of classroom experience.  

6. Private Tutoring

A lot of the time, people who are looking to leave the world of teaching are just as passionate about teaching as they ever were, but the classroom setting has tired them out. If this sounds like you, then going into private tutoring may be the right idea for you.

The private tutoring business is booming across the UK, and it may offer the exact flexibility that you’re looking for. There are several opportunities where you can choose your own hours and rates.

Private tutoring offers the flexibility to work remotely, in a student’s home, or even in an office. This can be a great option for ex-teachers, as it has all the benefits of teaching kids, while also allowing you much more flexibility.

7. Publishing

Publishing is a huge field that certainly won’t go away any time soon. As a teacher, you have a huge wealth of knowledge that you can draw from, and it may interest you to share some of that knowledge with the world, via your keyboard.

There are, of course, writing jobs in which you could pen a textbook if you’d prefer to stay in the educational field. Alternatively, you could also find jobs that allow you to edit or Copywrite for several different publications, this is particularly relevant for an English teacher who has a great skill set.

While your experience may make you most eligible for educational material, it’s likely that you’ll be perfectly comfortable writing in a number of different contexts.

8. Education Liaison Positions

There’s every chance that you might feel that while you care deeply about the world of education, teaching itself isn’t for you. There are a number of roles that fall under the banner of ‘education liaison’, most notably teaching teachers. Teachers often have great communication skills and that is clearly needed in these positions.

This work can be carried out in a number of capacities, but it’s often done in the background to promote unified national education. This work can include innovation in teaching, as well as teacher recruitment, and student support.

It’s likely that you’ll already know people in education liaison from your time as a teacher, so it may be worth reaching out to them and seeing if they can put you in touch with the right people. The liaisons you know will likely be affiliated with a company, which may be currently taking on staff. Reach out and find out!

9. Corporate Learning and Development

The reason you got into teaching may be particularly complex and known only to yourself. Whatever the reason is, there’s a fair chance that a career as a teacher has given you a love of helping people to learn new things. If that’s the case, then you might be interested in teaching people in a non-traditional environment as a corporate trainer. Great interpersonal skills are often developed during the course of being a teacher, and they enable you to offer great learning and development courses within a company.

This type of role is often easily found in a business that deals with your field of teaching, and can be very fulfilling and a great opportunity for someone who wants to teach, but has had enough of schools.

10. Student Learning Support

This role can be particularly fulfilling and engaging if your favourite part of teaching is motivating kids to succeed. The role exists in a number of organizations in order to give teachers more flexibility, as student learning support staff swoops in to help out kids in whatever way they need.

Former teachers often apply to support teams in a supervisory role, which often has a higher wage and bracket of responsibilities than other members in the department.

There are a huge number of different specific jobs within the world of student support, so there’s sure to be something that might appeal to everyone. Jobs range from roles providing targeted support for kids outside of the classroom to accompanying pupils to relevant therapy sessions. I often see Universities advertising for student support roles to work in their wellbeing areas and support students with disabilities or specific learning needs.

11. Academic Adviser

An academic advisor or school counselors have a specialized role within the school system which is very well-suited to former teachers. In essence, advisers provide support to school children when making decisions about the future. This is most commonly seen in the form of advisers helping children who are picking their GCSE subjects.

Advisers can be hired in a number of capacities, from working in a school to being a key part of a local community of schools and colleges. Because you, as a former teacher, have a lot of experience in giving children advice on their school decisions, you’re a prime candidate for a job in this field.

This type of job allows you to listen carefully to problems that a student may be having, and then dedicate time to helping them however you see fit. This requires good emotional intelligence and problem-solving skills.

12. Youth Worker

Helping kids is a huge part of being a teacher, and it may be part of the job that you loved most.

If that’s the case, then a career as a youth worker may be ideal for you. The main responsibilities of the job are ensuring that children and young people in the local area feel supported as much as possible, plus allowing them to flourish as they develop new skills.

Youth workers lead a number of activities, such as youth clubs, organizing community projects, and managing outdoor activities. There maybe some training courses that are needed for this, but your teaching qualifications would make you a good candidate in this type of job search.

13. Human Resources

A teaching career crosses a huge number of different disciplines, which means that you’ve picked up a number of powerful transferable skills. An HR department could be a great place to exercise those transferable skills. A career in HR involves inspiring others to take advantage of their own skills in the workplace. This system of work needs great interpersonal skills and a lot of enthusiasm – both of which you’ll have learned to cultivate as a teacher.

There are a number of day to day duties required of an HR employee, including preparing employment records and explaining HR policies to other people within your organization.  To enhance recruiting procedure, reduce attrition, and increase productivity, a new addition of Wonderlic test, wonscore assessment, is used by many organizations and recruiters, which is an all-in-one psychometrics solution to improve their overall growth.

If you’d like a change of scenery from a school while making use of transferable skills that you’ve learned, then project management could be a great choice for you.

14. Museum Role

A huge part of a teaching career is enjoying and being open to learning new things. If that’s part of what you enjoy as part of your teaching work, then you’re sure to enjoy a career in a museum. It can be an intellectually stimulating experience that is perfect for teachers looking for an alternative career.

There are a number of different roles available within a museum, from being an educator to being a curator. A number of teachers often make the move towards this field of work as they can apply specialist knowledge from their teaching career to specific collections within museums.

15. The Civil Service employees

There are many fields in the public sector, including Local government and council, Central government, Civil service, Education, Healthcare, International development, and Police, firefighting and armed forces. These jobs can be found on the GOV.UK site and many require the leadership skills that teachers have in bucketloads! These job titles are ideal for teachers you use critical thinking skills.

16. Driving Instructor

If you have got to the days where you enjoy a nice sit down and a steadier pace of life but still want to have a job and teach in some format, being a driving instructor can be a great way of fulfilling both requirements.  Many learn to drive when they are 17 so it’s working with college students as potential customers.

17. Become a Coach

More and more teachers are looking at alternative careers as a coach, this is incredibly worthwhile and I myself have gone down this role. It is so rewarding and can transform a persons life. Coaching was once seen only in the realms of sport or business but employing a coach can help individuals find that missing something in their life. I have retrained to Level 7 and plan to use this as a career coach and also as a parenting coach, so still working with young people and their parents. This can also be done as a remote job You can find out more by clicking here.

18. Many teachers retain as a Social worker.

They will need to do a conversion course but it can be a worthwhile career. Former teachers are ideal for becoming social workers because they possess strong communication skills, the ability to manage diverse groups, and experience in fostering positive relationships. Their background in education equips them with patience, empathy, and problem-solving abilities, which are essential for addressing the complex needs of individuals and communities in a social work setting.

19. Former teachers are ideal for roles in educational sales

They possess a deep understanding of the educational system, curriculum, and classroom needs. Their firsthand experience with teaching enables them to effectively communicate the benefits of educational products and services, build trust with educators, and provide insights that resonate with their clients’ real-world challenges.

20. Event planning

Event planning involves coordinating and managing various aspects of events, from logistics and scheduling to communication and budgeting, ensuring everything runs smoothly. Former teachers excel as a event planner due to their strong organizational skills, ability to manage diverse groups, and experience in handling unexpected challenges with poise and creativity.

21. Former teachers are ideal for becoming a software developer

Due to their strong problem-solving skills, ability to learn and adapt quickly, and experience in breaking down complex concepts into understandable parts. Their patience and persistence in teaching students translate well into debugging and refining code, while their organizational skills and attention to detail are crucial for effective programming.

22. Former teachers are ideal for becoming a data analyst because they are skilled in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data to assess student performance and educational outcomes. Their experience with creating and using assessments equips them with a strong foundation in quantitative analysis. Additionally, their ability to present complex information clearly and effectively makes them well-suited for communicating data-driven insights to stakeholders.

In conclusion, former teachers are well-suited for a variety of careers due to their versatile skill sets and extensive experience in education. They excel in roles such as school administrators, educational sales representatives, social workers, software developers, and data analysts. Their strong communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills, along with their ability to manage diverse groups and convey complex information clearly, make them ideal candidates for these positions. The transition from teaching to these roles allows former educators to leverage their expertise and continue making a significant impact in different professional settings.

If you are considering leaving teaching, then you should also start working on your exit plan now.

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