Been over to Redcar College earlier today. There were about 8 or 9 of us there being trained in a program called Vision2Learn. It provides free training online. Four IT courses and a few others. The other trainees were similar to myself. People with teaching backgrounds and IT competent. Some were retired, some redundant, and some like myself who had had health problems. One was quite young (she was a lady who had left teaching) but the rest of us were middle-aged upwards. I guess you’d say that we were all bright people but sadly difficult to find full-time employment for, for various reasons.
The software looked a bit finicky - I guess it just takes time to get used to it. The online learners find the website when they are online and register to join. Vision2Learn collects their applications and forwards them to Redcar College. The College then contacts one of the tutors with their details. And the tutor’s role is then to support the learner through his learning. We are paid for the contact time that we have with them (but with a maximum time allowed), and we have to motivate them to complete the course. There’s a high drop-out rate unfortunately.
Anyway, here’s a link to more about it:
http://www.vision2learn.co.uk/
I would think there’s a good chance that Redcar College will take me on to do this.
I’ll take this if I get it. Downside is I suspect the pay won’t be terribly great. I’ll have to be good at the job, efficient, and probably have to put a lot into it to get a decent pay. It’s homeworking after all.
I think it’s unlikely that I’ll get face-to-face teaching work in one of the colleges now before September. It’s become obvious that they’re flooded with other decent quality candidates. But at least this would help to support me while I do my teacher training course.
It’s not enough to be bright and hard-working. If you’re over a certain age or have had health problems you end up near the bottom of the pile.
Er, one of the local colleges is running a course about storytelling (2 hours a week for 10 weeks) - it’s free, so I’m giving it a go. Nothing to lose!
Job training day at Redcar College
Well at least that may give you a lead in to other things too Diane. It will look good on your CV
Glad you've found that storytelling course though. Has it started yet, or do you get going on it in the New Year?
Yes, it may lead on to other things Philomel. I am hoping that I will find classroom work at the colleges in September, though that will probably be only part-time.
The storytelling course starts in mid-January.
Oooh the storytelling is really something to look forward to then :)
The storytelling class is about using a storysack with your child. Targetted at parents but used a lot by teachers. I suspect they’ll be reading aloud from books - professional storytellers don’t use books - they memorise their stories. Memorising dozens of stories is a real test!
Yes, it's one thing to remember the broad outline, but to get all the detail in and the mood of the piece is a real art....
Just got an email - confirms that I have a job with Redcar College! Wheeeee!!!!! Merry Christmas!!! See my new thread ------>
Oh, brilliant news - will go find that new thread right now.......