Twice a week we publish problems that will feature in a forthcoming Dear Jeremy advice column in the Saturday Guardian so that readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. Here is the latest dilemma – what are your thoughts?
After thinking about it for a long time (and despite having been away from the classroom environment for almost 40 years), I finally took the plunge last autumn and, at my own expense, enrolled on an intensive four-week course which has ultimately qualified me to teach English as a foreign language to adults.
The course was desperately hard work but it’s dawning on me that finding work in that field is even harder. Establishments either want a minimum of two years’ experience or can only offer a handful of hours per week. I still have a (hefty) mortgage and bills to pay so I have reverted to my previous industry, road haulage, and have perversely found a job that I really like.
However, the feeling persists that I have something to contribute to adult education locally and I would even be prepared to offer voluntary tuition if I thought it would help to gain some sort of a foothold.
I should add that there are plenty of posts advertised abroad, and as a younger man (I’m 58) I would certainly have been attracted by the prospect, but I have too many ties here to be able to consider that.
Do you need advice on a work issue? For Jeremy’s and readers’ help, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@theguardian.com. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or to reply personally.
• This article was amended on 26 June 2015. An earlier version had a headline that stated “back into teaching”, where “into teaching” was meant.
