A Fast-Track Alternative to a Teaching Job
October 16, 2009 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
ANXIETY about what comes next in midlife is gripping a lot of people these days, especially if their jobs are ending or they are nearing retirement age.
Linda Spillers for The New York Times
CAREER-CHANGERS Katie and Wylie Schwieder of Richmond, Va., turned to teaching.
Wylie Schwieder mulled over his prospects as his consulting job was winding down. And when his wife of 20 years, Katie, a former corporate trainer and business writing coach, came home on Sept. 3, 2007, their wedding anniversary, he was waiting on the front porch of their Richmond, Va., house with a bottle of wine and two glasses.
“I’ve decided to become a teacher,” he told his wife.
“Really,” she replied. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
Mr. Schwieder, 52, a former executive at CarMax and Capital One bank, became interested after a local science teacher told him about a fast-track way to become a teacher.
The idea of studying intensely, then getting into the classroom quickly, appealed to the couple, who have four children. Within three weeks they had signed up with the Career Switchers program, the Virginia-based program that requires applicants to pass an Educational Testing Service exam in the subject matter they want to teach, take an online course and attend a series of meetings to learn classroom teaching skills.
The program, which has helped more than 500 people earn licenses, costs $3,150 and takes about 18 months to complete.
Armed with a provisional one-year license, the new teacher spends a year of monitored classroom instruction before earning a renewable five-year state teaching license. The Schwieders are both teaching full time now. Virginia certifies the program, which was started in 2004 to address the shortage of math, science, reading and English teachers. The placement rate, said Rebecca Waters, the director, was 80 percent last year. This year, in the state budget crunch, placement has fallen to 42 percent.
Even so, teachers in math and science still find jobs. And over the long term, teaching may be a job haven because of its relative …
Read the original article at NYTimes
