Andrew Lee, 22, who will be teaching key stage 2 pupils at a Stockport primary.

“It has been hard getting a job. It is difficult across the whole of the North-west but particularly in Stockport because four primaries will close next year. A lot of people from my course at Manchester Metropolitan university have not got jobs.”

Dave Gander, 42, former IT consultant will teach ICT at a comprehensive in New Malden, Surrey.

“Getting a job was pretty straightforward because technology is a shortage subject and I had experience. I decided to become a teacher because I was getting a bit stale. My main fear was dealing with pupils’ behaviour but my lecturers gave me confidence there are techniques that work.”

Samantha Fellowes, 24, chemistry teacher at Rosebery high, Epsom, Surrey (pictured left).

“I trained in Liverpool and initially tried to get a job in the north which I found very difficult. It was much easier around London.

I never wanted to be a teacher, seeing how much work teachers in my family had to do put me off.

But as a chemistry technician at a school in Surrey I was having fun in the classsroom and decided to give it a go.”

Dawn Wheeler, a 40-year-old registered nurse about to start teaching English language at South Dartmoor community college, Ashburton, Devon.

“I got the first job I went for. It was down to a mixture of me being flexible about where I worked and there not being many English language teachers around. I was a learning assistant at my youngest child’s primary.

It made me decide I really enjoyed working with youngsters.”

Simon Daw, 40, a former cycle shop owner will teach at Clare middle, Clare, Suffolk.

“I got a job after my first interview. But it was a mixed experience for others on my course at Anglia Polytechnic university, Chelmsford. People in south Essex found it easy but those in north Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire found it difficult. As governor at a primary I was an extra pair of hands (in the classroom). I ended up loving it and decided to switch careers.”