UK - How to transition from Primary school teacher to PM?

Posted by Johnlocke-108@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 29 comments

Hi all! I'm posting on behalf of my parter who is a primary school teacher with 5 years experience here in the UK. They are looking to make a career change into something with more stable hours, less kids to deal with, and potentially WFH/hybrid work. My father, who is a retired PM has suggested PRINCE2 courses. I could my question is two-fold:

What's the best route, potentially training, that they could do over the next year to set themselves up for a Junior/Associate PM role. There are a ton of transferable skills from teaching they can leverage, but specific training around PMing is vital.
How best and where to find entry-level PM roles. Any industry is fine. Preferably remote, but hybrid with travel into London is okay too. We live in Aldershot, so only 45mins into Waterloo.

[-]

knight-under-stars@reddit

What do you mean when you say PM?

[-]

AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

We're looking at the next entry level leader of the nation of course

[-]

martzgregpaul@reddit

Well if Truss managed it then i dont think its a graduate position

[-]

ampmz@reddit

I’m guessing from the mention of PRINCE2, they mean Project Manager.

[-]

knight-under-stars@reddit

That's no help if you don't know what PRINCE2 is.

[-]

Johnlocke-108@reddit (OP)

Sorry should have been clearer - Project Management

[-]

leapyeardi@reddit

Look for project administrator/support roles in universities. Jobs.ac.uk is a good place to start

[-]

spring_gecko@reddit

I can't comment on the PM side of things but I'd suggest looking at edtech companies who often hire ex teachers.

I moved from secondary school teaching to sales at an edtech company. I've now moved into a sales role in a different sector all together.

I work a lot less and get paid a lot more than when I was teaching.

[-]

VisitWinchester@reddit

I know things aren’t going great for him but I don’t think Keir is going anywhere just yet

[-]

GrimQuim@reddit

Hey everyone!! I found Andy Parson's account!!!

[-]

holytriplem@reddit

Can't be, delivery isn't shite enough

[-]

VisitWinchester@reddit

Googles Andy Parson

[-]

GrimQuim@reddit

I tried to edit in the link but my formatting went wrong ...

[-]

VisitWinchester@reddit

Haha I’m curious to know what it is!

[-]

Background_Fox@reddit

If he's Aldershot then there's a number of defence contractors in that area, or MoD civil service - you have DESNZ in Farnborough or AWE near Reading and there's a few others dotted around. AWE use APM as their tool, as do MoD I believe, but to be honest the majority have very similar set ups. A lot of companies have moved away from Prince2 but it's all similar. It's the concepts you really need to understand as you'd need to tailor it to the company once there anyway

The other thing you can do for interviews if they're going at junior level is to take on a few projects outside of work that they'd be doing anyway - interviews are after examples of behaviour and challenges overcome, and it doesn't have to be in a work environment for that. Home improvements, school charity events, it's all good stuff

Would also recommend looking at employment lists - eg Indeed - for PM roles. The adverts should confirm what type of things they're looking for and which particular tool system they'd like experience in. Although PMing is generally the same, PMs focusing in construction will have different tools needed than those in Research and Development or Software

[-]

stevecrox0914@reddit

The junior project manager title tends to be project support officer.

At least in Software PRINCE2 has a bad reputation. The running joke is it has processes and metrics except for delivery

In software the normal approach is Agile Scrum.

Agile Scrum tends to have a scrum master who acts as a facilitator for the team/s who largely handles all PM tasks except financials.

Lots of companies will try to place a junior dev in the role and most PM's see SM's as inferior beings, personally I think a good SM is worth their weight in gold

[-]

Johnlocke-108@reddit (OP)

Thank for the detailed reply, this is very useful. I'm a Product Designer and more often than not work in Agile environments in tech - in terms of Agile Scrum courses/certifications, can you recommend any good ones to go after?

[-]

steveakacrush@reddit

Go to scrum.org and take a look at the training section - it details all their current offerings.

Product Owner might be an option to think about as well.

[-]

plantlady1-618@reddit

Could try and get on a graduate course with the civil service. There's Fast Stream options and also a tax specialist course with HMRC (TSP). Both pay reasonably well, and have flexible working plus a pension.

[-]

cockerspannerell@reddit

NHS trusts often have Project roles. My partner started as a Project Officer (band 5), moved to Project manager (band 6) after a year and then moved to programme manager (band 7) after a few years. She had already got her Prince 2 from another job but didn’t have much hands on project experience and didn’t have a background in healthcare.

[-]

GrimQuim@reddit

I've been patronised by some PMs in my time but being primary school teacher patronised at work would make me flip my shit.

[-]

ChanceStunning8314@reddit

Get a job as a support to a PM function-called PMO (project mgt office). Entry level jobs, more admin, but will give experience to the world of PM and the training around that.

[-]

OkEnd2704@reddit

I assume by your reference to PRINCE2 that PM relates to project management? Scrum.org offer basic qualifications for Product Owner and Scrum Master. Perhaps sign up to a Udemy course or similar to revise and then take the exams.

Of course just having the qualifications isn’t enough as your partner will be competing against people with qualifications and experience. See if they can implement the project management methodologies into their experience in the classroom e.g. in managing new initiatives or similar. Not a perfect solution but it may provide some more tangible experience

[-]

ThePolymath1993@reddit

Hey, I've never been a teacher but I am a PM.

The qualifications will vary a bit depending on the industry you're in as you will need a bit of technical background in whatever environment you're working in. As an example I started out as an entry level IT person so I have some Microsoft OS and Cloud certifications on top of my PM qualifications.

But yeah PRINCE2 is a good start, also look at APM (Association for Project Management), they're a chartered body, their qualifications are well regarded.

Another "If you'll be dealing with IT projects" one, look at ITIL. You don't need all of it but the Foundation (basically a terminology course) and maybe Service Transition. It's something you'll come across a lot and if you don't know the lingo it'll feel like techy people talking an alien language.

As for finding roles, it's basically the same as any other job. Personally I got my start as a PM applying internally at the company I work for now. I was in IT Ops, and wanted to move across once a vacancy came up.

[-]

RainbowPenguin1000@reddit

Prince 2 is a good foundation to start.

Wanting a remote role is fine but everyone else wants them too.

His best option is to start studying for Prince 2 and then begin looking for and applying for roles now. Why wait?

[-]

Temporary-Zebra97@reddit

Civil Service, look for project admin jobs with a L&D angle, Lots of CS projects have a learning element and your teaching skills will be very useful, get a couple of projects under your belt, you will be chucked onto P2 and Agile courses, then move up to an assistant PM role, get a few more projects under your belt, more training, then go for a PM promotion.

Then what usually happens is PMs usually spot that due to CS pay scales and retention issues that the CS hires in contractors on very good money so they leave for the outside world and more money, and the cycle begins again, or they head towards programme mgt training and roles.

[-]

Top-level comments to the OP must contain genuine efforts to answer the question. No jokes, judgements, etc.
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!

Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.