Teaching 'the least boring job'

Most teachers said no two days were the same

Graduates who choose a career in teaching are least likely to be bored in their job, a survey suggests.

The Training and Development Agency for Schools questioned more than 2,000 graduates aged 21 to 45, finding more than half were regularly bored at work.

Those in administrative and manufacturing jobs were the most frustrated, followed by marketing and sales employees.

Teachers and healthcare workers were the least bored.

Graduates working in the media, law and in engineering were middle of the "boredom scale".

Boredom ratings out of 10 Admin/secretarial 10 Manufacturing 8.1 Sales 7.8 Marketing/advertising 7.7 IT/telecommunications 7.5 Science research 7.3 Media 7.1 Law 6.9 Engineering 6.9 Banking/finance 6.6 Human resources 6.6 Accountancy 6.3 Hospitality/travel 5.3 Healthcare 5.1 Teaching 4 Source: TDA survey

Some 61% of employees surveyed said they were bored because of the lack of challenge in their jobs.

Not using skills or knowledge made life tedious for 60%.

Doing the same thing every day was a source of boredom for 50%.

Half of those employees who said they were bored had considered changing profession in the past year.

When asked why they found their job interesting, 81% of teachers questioned said it was the challenge of the role and the same proportion said it was because "no two days were the same".

The opportunity to interact with people was the job's most positive feature quality - mentioned by 86% of respondents - while 64% welcomed the opportunity to use their creativity.

Michael Day, executive director at the TDA, said: "These findings demonstrate that one of the chief benefits of teaching is the sheer variety of the job - that no two days are the same."