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6 Alternative Careers for Education Students

6 alternative careers for education students
Written by CB Community

Many students graduate from university with a prestigious honors degree in Primary Education, all bright eyed and bushy tailed as they feel incredibly excited and optimistic about their future careers as teachers. They set out to inspire and to change lives and their minds are filled with ideas on to how to make their lessons enjoyable and fun so their students love learning. Flash forward three or four years down the line and some teachers start feeling burnt out from the rigors of their career.

The cute little angels that they had always envisioned teaching were not angels at all, but stapler throwing, crayon stealing, hair pulling demons. Ok maybe that’s an exaggeration, but for whatever reason, the experience might not have been entirely as they expected.

Now, this is not meant to bash the teaching profession. In fact, we need great teachers, and there are many phenomenal teachers that pour their heart and soul into their craft and love every minute of what they do. But the reality is that some students don’t actually know if that career is for them until they actually start working in that position. Rather, if you are intrigued by the idea of being a teacher, or maybe still unsure of your career path, we wanted to reveal other job options that are within the realm of education.

Teach English Online

Teaching online from home can be a completely different ballgame to teaching English in a classroom environment. For starters, you are teaching from the comfort of your own home and typically, your classes will just be conducted on a one-to-one basis. Instead of teaching fractions to a classroom filled with 30 hyperactive children, you can just practice speaking English with one quiet and studious individual. It sounds too good to be true, right?

Teaching English online generally entails practicing spoken English with adults and children based in foreign countries who want to improve their English abilities. Since many people in foreign countries want to improve their English in order to improve their career prospects amid a global economy there is a high demand for English teachers. The pay is good and you can manage your own schedule – meaning as many or as few classes as you like. What’s more is that all of this is done from your home so you don’t have a long and arduous commute to work.

Become a Corporate Trainer

Many people consider teaching adults more relaxed than teaching younger teens or children. Working as a corporate trainer may entail teaching specific courses related to a particular job, or it may simply be informing new employees at an organization about the company’s processes and protocols.

Become a Tutor

Some children act completely different depending on the environment they are in. When you have 30 children together crammed into one room, things can get chaotic at times, and some kids crave attention from their peers. However, in a one-to-one situation, that same loud and brash child can turn out to be quite polite and demonstrate a fascination with the topic at hand. Tutoring could be a good alternative if you are unsure if teaching large groups of students would be a good fit for you.

Create Informative Courses

Creating courses about the skills you possess are a great way to make a passive income. Websites such as Udemy feature courses that people can purchase in order to build on and improve on particular skills. For example, courses may cover “how to build a successful blog”, “how to make money from cryptocurrency” or in your case, practical teaching advice for new teachers.

You could create courses on behavior management, lesson planning, and any number of teaching topics. Create one or two courses to test the waters and if you start enjoying sales and success, you can add more courses to your repertoire. You only have to sell a small handful in order to make a profit, but there are many people who make a full time living from passive income in this manner. We live in a digital world, and options like these are becoming mainstays. Or, if you are still wanting to teach in the traditional teaching atmosphere, this could be a great option to create a second source of income.

Consider Producing Teaching Materials or Writing

Publishers of teaching textbooks and other resources and materials used in the classroom environment often hire people who have teaching experience.

You don’t have to restrict your new potential writing career to academic writing, however,  chances are, as a teacher you have a good grasp of written English, and of how to create content that is engaging and sparks the reader’s imagination. Whether you are interested in writing children’s books or diversifying into a completely unrelated area, more than likely you already have the know-how.

Museum or Tourism Work

As an education student, you will be developing several transferable skills that will make you perfect for a museum environment, or even work in the tourism industry as a guide. For starters, you will be accustomed to standing up in front of people to deliver informative knowledge in an interesting manner. At least when you are conducting a tour of a museum with a group of adults, rather than reading to a group of children, you will not be dealing with tantrums, fights, and pens being launched across the room at frequent intervals (we hope).

If you are entertaining the idea of entering the world of education, it’s nice to know what other options are available. Whether you want something to supplement the income of a traditional teaching career, or perhaps teach in a non-traditional format, pick something that fits so you can love what you do and come to work feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

If you would like to get more great insight into all things college, make sure to check out more of our blogs at College Basics.

About the author

CB Community

Passionate members of the College Basics community that include students, essay writers, consultants and beyond. Please note, while community content has passed our editorial guidelines, we do not endorse any product or service contained in these articles which may also include links for which College Basics is compensated.