WHEN housing officer Ian Taylor bought The TES he was looking for a career change. And now thanks to TES Teacher magazine he has a brand-new Mini Cooper, to help him along the road to becoming a primary teacher.

Mr Taylor, 33, from Manchester, won the pound;11,500 car, the latest interpretation of a marque made famous in the film The Italian Job, in the competition to mark last month’s launch of TES Teacher.

After reading history at Nottingham University, Mr Taylor had several different jobs and went travelling.

Then he took a Teaching English as a Foreign Language course back in Nottingham and spent three months crossing Russia before teaching in Japan for six months. “I loved it and wanted to stay longer. I really like the idea of teaching in a primary school,” he said.

He mentioned the idea of a career move to a teacher friend who recommended The TES as it would give him a better idea of what the job was about. “That’s when I saw the ad for the car competition,” he said.

Mr Taylor plans to apply for a PGCE course in either Manchester or Nottingham. “All being well, I’ll be a teacher soon,” he said.

He loves the prize car - “a beautiful racing green”-which he says is a good deal classier than his old VW Polo.

“I still haven’t come down to earth,” he added.