You may have seen my Tweet earlier today about this but it has had me so frustrated I’ve decided to dive into the subject further. Mostly, because I feel like my head is about to explode with all of this.

Apologies for this being totally off topic for the blog.

I will finish my degree this week and graduate in July.

This is something I could never have imagined myself saying six years ago, heck, three years ago when I was applying I still wasn’t even sure if I was going to go. I was never one to follow the norm back then. I didn’t see the point in university if it didn’t get you a job at the end. Of course, the degree I will complete this week does get me a job, well at least it is suppose to.

I wanted to start a career in teaching not just because I love working with children and helping them to learn but because it was a career which I could take around the world with me. Well that’s what I thought anyway. Here I am, trying to find my way through this maze of TES forums working out if I go abroad straight after my degree would I throw the last three years of studying down the drain?

The teaching system in the UK is set up so that you have to complete a newly qualified teaching year, something which is best done in the UK (albeit not impossible to do in certain countries abroad). Only then do you get the freedom to have a little choice with your career. Additionally, the university and the degree is set up to keep teachers in the UK teaching and you daren’t mention the idea of working abroad without receiving a snide look from a lecturer or five.

Due to all of this and the lack of concrete information about completing a NQT abroad it is seemingly impossible to get enough information to make an informed decision.

Do I have to spend another year in a long distance relationship, living in the UK just to complete my initial year of teaching? OR Can I move abroad and teach there without throwing away the last three years and my entire teaching degree? Will anyone even employ me once I come back to the UK and haven’t even taught there before?

I have spent three years putting my studies first and the reality that I now need to put my career in front of what I WANT TO DO just because of the way society is set up, SUCKS.

Can we please break this mould of: go to university, get a degree, get a job, work hard for the rest of time, take a holiday once a year if you are lucky, never leave your home country.

Rant over.

Normal service will resume on Monday with my first post about Venice. In the mean time enjoy my Instagram updates.

Jodie x