Education Alternatives

Have a look at Prospects and targetjobs to find out what roles in this sector involve and how to get into them. These are some of the job profiles available:

Teaching roles outside of mainstream schools

• Private tutoring
• Online tutor
• Teaching English as a foreign or second language

Non-teaching roles in education

• Education administrator
• Education consultant
• Ofsted inspector
• School business manager
• Special educational needs coordinator (SENCO)
• Teaching assistant

Adult and community education

• Community education officer
• Adult education lecturer
• Prison Instructor
• Museum education officer
• Environmental education officer
• Community arts worker

Outdoor and sport education

• Outdoor activities instructor
• Sports coach
• Sports development officer

Early years provision

• Playworker
• Nursery manager
• Early years teacher

Supporting children and young people

• Education welfare officer
• Learning mentor
• Welfare rights adviser
• Youth worker
• Counsellor

Careers and educational guidance

• Careers adviser
• Careers information officer

Training and development

• Training and development officer

Healthcare

• Education mental health practitioner
• Play therapist
• Health play specialist

• excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• the ability to relate to people from diverse backgrounds
• empathy, diplomacy, sensitivity and a non-judgmental manner
• a respect for confidentiality
• flexibility
• the ability to work on your own initiative as well as part of a team
• resourcefulness
• problem-solving skills
• attention to detail
• the capacity to cope with pressure
• the ability to liaise with other professionals and organisations

• browse our Work Experience and Graduate Employment directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed
• use LinkedIn’s Alumni tool to find out what Newcastle graduates are doing now. You could ask to connect with them, to gain advice and insights into their career. See Newcastle Alumni on LinkedIn to help you get started or watch our quick tutorial on Getting inspiration from others [3:13]
• attend alumni events, such as Newcastle Develop, to hear directly from our graduates
• sign up for mentoring support with Graduate Mentor and The 1 Hour Project. These aim to match students with industry professionals who can provide invaluable insights. Register to be connected for a one-hour meeting
• attend , including recruitment fairs and employer and sector insights. Hear about graduate jobs, placement schemes, build your network and ask questions

Searching for reviews online can be a useful way to get an idea of what to expect from certain roles or employers. Reviews are written by employees with different opinions about what makes a good employer.

Use the following review sites for inspiration and insight into the recruitment process:

• RateMyPlacement - placement year reviews written by students.
• The Job Crowd – graduate job reviews
• Glassdoor – company reviews from employees

Read career guides for this sector, such as:

• Prospects – Jobs in education
• TargetJobs – What else can I do with an education or teaching degree?

Use online magazines and journals to follow news from your industry. Reading about trends and developments is important for applications and interviews.

Examples include:

• Guardian Education - teaching and education sector news
• Times Educational Supplement – education news
• Children and Young People Now – news for professionals working with children, young people and families

Attend events to hear directly from professionals in the industry. 

See our events page for upcoming events, including recruitment fairs and employer and sector insights.

Join education specific student societies.

The Education Society often organises and promotes events or invites guest speakers to talk about their careers.

Use social media to find industry insights

Join sector-specific groups on LinkedIn to keep up to date. Posts often include news, events and opportunities. You can also find useful insights on careers on X and TikTok. Treat these with caution, as not all content may be accurate.

Find out more about how to use social media for your career and subscribe to our sector Twitter list.

Consider joining a relevant professional body/industry network

Professional bodies often:

• run networking events
• have specialist groups you could join
• post vacancies on behalf of their members
• have member directories, useful for speculative applications

Key organisations include:

• Society for Education and Training
• Career Development Institute (CDI)
• The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS)
• Institute for Youth Work (IFY)
• Group for Education in Museums

Finding professional bodies worldwide

GoinGlobal’s country guides include details of professional bodies. Find them under ‘Professional and Personal Networking’ on each individual country guide.

Use our resources to get started:

• MyCareer - search for internships and placements in the North East, UK and overseas. Register/log in to access vacancies and sign up for personalised email alerts
• Internships, placements & shadowing - links to vacancy sites
• Global work experience - for internships or placements abroad

The Careers Service runs flexible term-time and summer internships with local employers and on campus. NCL internships are aimed at all students, from any stage.

Search for these under Vacancies on MyCareer. Type in ‘NCL internship’ into the text search box.

You can find these advertised throughout the academic year. Full-time summer opportunities are advertised from around March.

Access GoinGlobal for internships in over 120 global locations, updated daily. Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world

If you’re looking for inspiration, try searching our NU Work Experience Directory. You can see where our students have had internships and placements in the last five years. To see all results in a search category, keep the search field blank.

Use our resources to get started:

• MyCareer - search for graduate schemes and graduate jobs in the North East, UK and overseas. Register/log in to access vacancies and sign up for personalised email alerts
• Graduate Jobs – lists graduate vacancy sites

Search the sites below for more opportunities

Private and online tutoring

• The Tutors Association
• MyTutor

Teaching English as a foreign or second language

• See the Careers Service’s Teaching English as a Foreign Language page for a list of job vacancy websites

Adult and community education

• Association of Colleges (AoC)
• Times Educational Supplement (TES) Jobs

Outdoor activities instruction

• Institute for Outdoor Learning

Prison education

• Novus

Museum education

• Group for Education in Museums (GEM)
• Museum Jobs

Non-teaching education roles

• Jobs in Schools North East
• Education Jobs

Supporting children and young people

• FE Jobs (learning support roles)
• Children and Young People Now (youth work)

Careers and educational guidance

• Association for Guidance and Careers Advisory Services
• Career Development Institute
• Jobs.ac.uk – jobs in university careers services

Training and development

• Personnel Today
• Simply HR Jobs

See International jobs for details of overseas vacancy sites.

Access GoinGlobal for job adverts in over 120 global locations, updated daily. Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world.

Start by identifying organisations you are interested in. Our guide to finding organisations below can help. Then use the following steps to approach them speculatively about possible opportunities:

1. Identify a contact name to address your cover letter to. Call or email to find out who handles recruitment within the organisation. Or, find a key contact in the department you want to work in.
2. Send them a tailored CV and cover letter. Express your enthusiasm for the sector. Show that you have researched the company.
3. Follow up your speculative application with a phone call, or email, around a week later. This shows you are serious and motivated.
4. If your application was unsuccessful, ask for feedback or advice, and keep trying!

You can use this approach at any point in the year. We recommend that you:

• start your research as early as possible to gather relevant contacts
• contact organisations around three months before you want the opportunity to begin

• find organisations on MyCareer. Select ‘search' then 'organisations’
• use the business directories and databases on our  page
• search for companies on LinkedIn. The Find Alumni tool shows you where Newcastle graduates are currently working
• browse our Work Experience and Graduate Employment directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed

Use the resources below to find organisations in the North East, UK and worldwide.

• Newcastle Support Directory has details of education, community learning and support services in Newcastle

• targetjobs - search employers by sector.
• Youth Access has a directory of support services for young people.
• Professional body websites sometimes include member directories, which are helpful for finding employers.

Search GoinGlobal’s employer directory for company information in 196 countries. Their country guides list professional bodies around the world.

PK Education recruit for education support roles and outdoor education instructors.

See Recruitment Agencies to find more agencies.

GoinGlobal's country guides include details of recruitment agencies in specific countries. They are listed under the following headings:

• Staffing agencies and temporary help firms
• Executive recruiters and search firms

Recruitment agencies may not operate in the same way in different countries. In the UK agencies are free for job seekers, but this may not be the case elsewhere. Explore the terms and conditions of an agency before signing up to use them.