Quick teacher training: 'No way'

Ian Gordon-Brown: "Hostile audience"

People who have made a career switch into teaching have been commenting on the government's scheme to "fast track" people with industrial experience into England's classrooms with just six months' training.

The plan has generally been greeted negatively by those contacting the BBC News website.

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David Townsend did a one-year post graduate certificate in education in business and economics, qualifying as a teacher just after his 50th birthday.

Before that he had spent 16 years as a Royal Navy officer and another 16 in industry then completed a three-year university degree.

'Have a go'

"I have had a successful and rewarding teaching career for the last nine years and recently obtained a Master of Teaching degree," he said.

"There is absolutely no way that I could have coped with teaching after just six months' training.

You cannot just transfer your skills from industry into the classroom David Townsend

"You cannot just transfer your skills from industry into the classroom, you have to learn both the theoretical and practical methods of making a difference to young people's lives and that takes time, lectures, and teaching practice."

He added: "To be a graduate of a six-month initial teacher training course would always make you the PCSO to the real policeman. Respected, but not quite there."

But he said he would fully encourage older applicants to become a teacher, as it has given new meaning to his life, reinvigorated his self-worth - and might "make a difference".

"Don't moan about the younger generation, teach them," he said.

'Don't miss the City'

London teacher Ian Gordon-Brown may be just what the government has in mind, having turned to teaching after 14 years as an investment banker.

His feeling is that the training requires a minimum of a year.

"Six months is insufficient because you have to deal with psychology of children, sociology of children - you have to deal with the fact that potentially you have a hostile audience," he said.

"Children don't necessarily want to be at school. They don't realise that it's actually good for them."

It was unlike the sort of experience someone might bring from their previous job.

"In the City if you are just a normal lecturer or you are giving a presentation, all the people that you are meeting and your are lecturing to or teaching there are there because they want to be."

Commitment

Most people qualify as teachers by completing a one-year postgraduate certificate after their main degree, or do a three-year education degree.

Angie Alloway, a class teacher at Studfall Junior School in Northamptonshire, has been in teaching for two years after completing a three-year course at the University of Northampton.

"I had to be dedicated to teaching to commit myself and my family financially to my new career," she said.

She warns anyone thinking of doing the same that teaching is not the easy option she thinks it increasingly is viewed as being.

"I had previously worked in sales and had responsibility for a turnover of £2.5m in my area but nothing compares to the pressure of teaching.

"Regularly working 10-hour days at school and then at home and during the holidays you really need to be committed."

The government's plan has generally been greeted with scepticism by those commenting on the BBC News website. Read the comments here.