Primary Teaching - Demand for males

noel123ie

Hi there

Im thinking of going into this but im wondering are there many oppertunities out there for males

Im based in Cork I know which is the hardest county to get into teaching

Also are there any good sites for finding subbing?

Any help would be great
Noel

Tom Dunne

I'm not teacher, but I can't see how they could specify jobs for males only.

They could probably encourage more males to get into the profession, but I am sure there are plenty of laws that prohibit explicitly reserving a job for a male at the expense of a female.

I believe there was some discussion on this topic a while back. Have a search back through older topics.

As for links, have a look in the stickies at the top of the forum.

noel123ie

Hi there

Cheers Tom will do

Also I was wondering my primary degree is in IT I wonder would this qualify me for this course or does it have to be in some way related to teaching ie degree in Science etc

Thanks
Noel

TheDriver

Males are in short supply but doesn't mean you'll walk in and pick up a job!
Also, Kerry is far more difficult to get into than Cork!

Rosita

For those looking at Hibernia I believe that the subject of the original degree is irrelevant.

As for demand for males in Primary teaching, there are these stories out alright. Certainly the job seems to have become predominantly a female thing in recent years for watever reason. However, where that translates to conferring some kind of tacit advantage on a male in an interview situation is not clear.

One thing I have noticed reading through teaching threads/posts here is that there seems to be little pattern to the idea of demand for anything, or at least nobody who can speak confidently in a national context about it.

For example, I regularly hear the mantra that "they are crying out for Irish teachers" yet this idea was rubbished here a few months ago by a few people, while others continue to swear it is the case.

But no less than with the "demand for male teachers" there is no mechanism for picking teachers of Irish (second-level) or any specific subject for the PGDE. Your degree could be in Hebrew/Greek or Irish/Maths and all that appears to matter is your final mark rather than the broad suitability of or demand for your subjects.

Similarly with the male teacher thing, even if there is a demand for them on the ground in schools - whether there is or not I have no idea - there may not be a mechanism which ensures that this specific demand is met.

Toto Wolfcastle

I work in an Irish college with a newly qualified male primary school teacher. He has fluent Irish, plays plenty of sports, and is fantastic with kids. He came near the top of his class in college, and did very well on TP. Through his work in the Irish college, where he has worked for 4 or 5 summers, he has connections to a lot of primary schools in the Cork area.

He has applied for every job available since the beginning of summer. He has not yet been offered an interview.

If people like this can't even get an interview, then I don't know if it can be said that males find it easier to get jobs.