Career changers find passion for teaching with in-school training

Sidah Russell has swapped a communications career for English teaching. She shares a laugh with Marvelle, a student at Westlake Boys’ High School.

Driven by four Auckland principals, the Auckland Schools’ Teacher Training Programme (ASTTP) is supporting career changers to take the leap into teaching. It’s run in conjunction with the University of Waikato’s remote teacher education training programme.  

The principals involved in developing the initiative were Tim O’Connor, Auckland Grammar School; Steven Hargraves, Macleans College; Justine Mahon, St Cuthbert’s College and David Ferguson, Westlake Boys’ High School. 

“We tried a few different things at Westlake – speaking to cohorts at university at the start of their postgraduate diploma year, sponsoring people prior to them becoming teachers. That worked out well, but I just thought it would be worth trying to have them based at schools.  

“The University of Waikato had a remote learning programme anyway, so they were very receptive to the idea and were a natural partner,” says David.  

This year, 26 Auckland secondary schools are taking part in the programme, hosting 64 trainee teachers with the Ministry covering the cost of fees and a stipend. Around 80 percent of the students are career changers. In the past two years, nearly all have been employed by the school that hosts them.  

“The vast majority have had a career in something else and they offer unique skills and experiences. We have deliberately targeted career changers. I can’t speak for all schools, but most have recruited through school communities and word of mouth.  

“It’s a significant investment so the schools do the due diligence upfront and see if that person is going to be a good fit. There’s no guarantee that there’s going to be a job, but a lot of schools are taking these people on in shortage areas,” explains David.

Gill Scott shares her passion for maths.

Post-Covid career changer  

Stephen Butterworth (Ngāti Porou) has had a long and successful career in theatre and television in Aotearoa and overseas and describes himself as a post-Covid career changer. While Covid impacted the arts, that’s not why he decided to train to be a teacher.  

“During Covid, people began questioning themselves as to what they were doing in their lives and the value they were putting towards the world and the future. The arts industry picked up quite quickly, but within that time, I compiled all my work in a large scrapbook. While there was a huge amount of work, it was like one in every four or five years, that I would think ‘Yes! that’s amazing’.  

“When I started having more contact judging Shakespeare in Schools and directing theatre productions for schools, I realised that my passion and excitement was greater for teaching children. Not only was the need there, but I got a lot out of teaching – more than I ever did on stage,” he says.  

Stephen has undergraduate degrees in geography, and in drama through Toi Whakaari; he’s been enjoying exploring his roots and matāuranga Māori through the course work.  

“The papers from Waikato this year have really made me think deeply as to why my mother didn’t teach us Māori growing up. My mother was chastised for speaking Māori at school, but I didn’t realise that the effects of that would still be prevalent in us. It’s not really for myself to do this, but for my Mum, my culture and my people because it’s really important that we not only get Māori back into teaching, but Māori males as well.  

“So now I’m going to make sure that I’m introducing as much Māori into my lessons as possible and I’m loving it,” he says.

First year teacher Emily Kennedy, who is teaching science and chemistry at Rangitoto College, used to work in a laboratory.

Overwhelming but empowering  

Stephen is doing his in-school training at St Cuthbert’s College, and a required practicum (25 days in the year) at Westlake Boys’ High School. He will be looking for a teaching job in Auckland at the end of the year.  

He became a LAT (limited authority to teach) two years ago when working with Year 7 and 8 drama students at Diocesan School for Girls. He taught Year 10 drama at  

St Cuthbert’s last year and it was then suggested he apply for an ASTTP scholarship.  

As well as full-time online study and the ASTTP requirements, which include teaching a junior and senior class in his subject area, Stephen has been teaching relief classes, is acting in a show and has a contract to direct Frozen at another Auckland school.  

“It’s overwhelming at times – but I’ve got through it. As a mature student it’s good to be able to turn down acting work and say, ‘You know what? I’m happy to be teaching 30 students in drama right now.’ I’m learning to say ‘no’, it’s so empowering!”

After completing a Health Science degree, Larissa Reddiex decided that a teaching career was for her. Here she is teaching science at Diocesan School for Girls.

Passion for teaching  

Gill Scott graduated with a business and marketing degree and worked for approximately 20 years in various roles in the business and legal world. She then volunteered at her children’s school before being offered a position as a teacher aide. She became an ESOL teacher and she now teaches maths as a LAT at Glenfield College, where she will have a teaching job next year.  

“I have been working at Glenfield College for four years now. The principal, Paul McKinley, and the previous SENCO kept saying ‘You’re a natural teacher – you need to train!’  

“To be a teacher you have to have a passion for it. My youngest is 15 and I could have gone back into the corporate world, but this is what I love. My boss has been encouraging me to do it for a long time.”  

While Gill is “loving the learning”, she is also working full-time and fits in the required study in the evening. She is fortunate that she can do her practicum at nearby Westlake Boys’ High School when she has one or two non-contact periods at Glenfield College.  

“I go to Westlake Boys’ as my practicum school – just seeing all the different teachers and teaching styles is really good. When my seniors leave for NCEA exams, I’ll have more time for the practicum.  

“I do the study until midnight or two in the morning and then I get up and go to work next day. It’s exhausting and not something that I would recommend, but I keep telling myself that it’s only a year!” she laughs.  

Gill says that through the course work, she has learned different ways to make mathematics more exciting. She particularly likes working with ākonga who struggle.  

“It’s gratifying just to see some progress that they’re making – to see them happy.”

Christopher Won, a first-year mathematics teacher at Massey High School discovered his passion for teaching maths during youth ministry work in Vanuatu.

Different schools, different people  

A strength of the training programme (ASTTP) is that not only are trainee teachers encouraged to do a practicum at a school that is different from their base school, but the whole cohort attends professional learning and development (PLD) workshops at 12 different schools during the year. The trainees also have time to network, socialise and support each other.  

“Each school we go to, we’re learning something different – one school might focus on professional growth, and another on cultural responsiveness. There will be a kind of lecture for the first hour or two and then we get to go into the classrooms of those schools, just to see how different teachers teach and manage classrooms in different ways,” explains Gill.  

She has enjoyed meeting the wide range of people who are in the programme.  

“I’ve met so many people and they’re from so many different walks of life. There are quite a few young ones straight out of university, but there’s a lawyer – he decided he’s earned enough money and wants to follow his passion. There’s also a firefighter who’s going to be a teacher and a university professor who has decided he wants to teach secondary school. The 64 of us regularly meet and go to other schools, so we get to see how other schools work,” says Gill.

Roberto Moscariello traveled the world as a chef for 15 years and tutored food and hospitality, before deciding on a teaching career. He was a teacher trainee in 2022 and now teaches food technology at Henderson High School.

Many benefits  

David says that most trainees have said they wouldn’t want to go back to university full-time.  

“They prefer this as a way of preparing for teaching. This programme persuaded them to take the leap and sign up for it,” he says.  

Feedback from schools involved in the programme is that the ASTTP teachers are well placed at the start of their teaching careers.  

“The schools feel they’re more advanced than beginning, first-year teachers normally are. Secondly, they are used to the culture of the school. They’ve done a lot of things that first-year teachers wouldn’t normally do like have a form class, coach teams, and they are used to the systems and processes in the school, making the transition into the first year easier.”  

The programme is already attracting widespread interest.  

“Approximately 12 new schools have got in touch that want to sign up next year – just in Auckland. We’ve been contacted by other regions to ask about it as well. There’s a lot of interest and I would imagine it will continue to be part of the initial teacher education landscape for a number of years.  

“It’s an appealing way of training. I don’t think it’s going to fix the teacher shortage, but it certainly helps,” concludes David.

For more information about the Auckland Schools’ Teacher Training (ASTT) programme, visit schoolbasedtraining.org(external link). 

Lachlan Craig was an inaugural teacher trainee in 2021 and now teaches music at Diocesan School for Girls.