I would dearly love to teach and I have a PGCE in secondary science. However, I keep arriving at the same problem.

Each time you apply for advertised teaching jobs, they expect you to fill in a special application form. My problem is that I have worked for over 20 years in IT, so have a full CV with many details of my work, references and so on. Copying it laboriously into a different form each time is a waste of time, a waste of energy and always involves losing much of the information. All the forms seem designed with the assumption that applicants will have been teachers all their working lives.

Why can’t the profession act like others and recognise that there are several ways of earning a living and accept a CV with full information about a person’s working history? If they did, then people like me with significant external experience to bring to the classroom just might get an interview.

David Hitchman, Qualified science teacher, Open University lecturer and parent governor, Mildenhall, Suffolk.