Paul Timmins had no problem getting a job as a teacher.
The 46-year-old former electronic engineer is about to start a new career teaching at Guilsborough school, a Northamptonshire secondary.
He trained on the job for a year, His school-based course covers rural Northamptonshire and part of Buckinghamshire and he worked at both Guilsborough and Roade schools. But others on the course, known as the Grand Union Training Partnership, were not so lucky.
“Modern language teachers experienced difficulties because pupils are being allowed to opt out of languages and the number of schools doing French and German has dropped,” said Mr Timmins.
He said he opted for on-the-job training because he wanted to learn in a professional environment. “At my age I didn’t really want to go back into a full-time college course,” he said.
“Sharing a lecture theatre with 22-year-olds would have been difficult having been in industry for quite a while.
Mr Timmins decided to go into teaching 18 months ago. “I just needed a career change because I wasn’t getting a buzz out of what I was doing anymore,” he said. “I thought teaching would be a challenge and it has been but in a nice way. It gives me far more intellectual stimulation that I was getting before.
“I don’t have fears about behaviour as I have taught some difficult classes and coped reasonably well. I know I need to improve my skills but I am not going in with trepidation.”
