Jobs for Ex Teachers: 12 Alternative Careers to Consider

You likely show your leadership skills every day in how you manage a classroom of students and liaise with different stakeholders from parents to colleagues to school inspectors. That’s why, team leader and management roles will be suitable jobs for ex teachers.

Discover our business leadership programmes including online MBA.

Classrooms have adopted technology to assist learning in a big way and teachers have had to develop their digital skills fast. Teachers with good digital skills will find them a good fit in digital and IT job roles whether that's cybersecurity, AI, digital transformation or edtech.

Transferable skills are teachers go-to currency when it comes to finding a career after teaching. That means highlighting these skills and demonstrating clearly how you can use them in an alternative career.

You’ll move your teaching skills to corporate environments across a wide variety of sectors. You’ll still do a lot of what you did in the school classroom such as creating lesson plans, problem solving, working with different personalities but you’ll be teaching professionals who have a vested interest in learning from you to further their careers.

Take a look at our Principles of Teaching and Learning University Diploma distance learning course.

You’ll work for a large company, usually linked to Human Resources and People Management. Your role will be to put in learning initiatives to develop company talent in line with organisational development strategies. Teachers are a good fit for this job because they understand how to shape learning and development in line with key policies.

The CIPD explain more about Learning and Development roles.

Consider this job role if you have an interest in shaping strategies to improve education outcomes for schools and other teaching institutions. You’ll draw from your experience in teaching and assessments to provide expertise that makes a difference to students, parents and schools.

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Like the Corporate Trainer, you’ll still be teaching as a HE Lecturer but to a different type of student. You’ll bring a lot of your skills from mainstream teaching such as excellent communication, problem solving, planning and people skills. It’s ideal if you’re passionate about a particular subject and have a keen interest in pursuing that knowledge through academic research.

Find out more about our Learning and Teaching (Higher Education) PG Certification.

A Learning Experience Designer creates educational courses but, while the Instructional Designer focuses on the content and how it is structured, the LXD uses their knowledge of psychology and UX design to create a user journey that shifts behaviour for best educational outcomes. Former teachers could make good LXDs with their knowledge of learning behaviours. Many teachers are already tech-savvy with the growing use of technology in teaching and learning.

Could ARU’s distance learning Education with Technology MA take your career in a new direction?

As a teacher, you’ll already manage and juggle projects as part of your everyday duties – you might just not call it project management. You’ve got plenty of transferable skills to move into a Project Manager job role from multi-tasking, stakeholder management, communication and presenting skills, problem solving, critical evaluation and decision making.

Pivot your career with an online Project Management MSc.

Digital Marketing Executives manage digital channels and execute digital marketing campaigns. Their skills lie in content creation, communication, stakeholder engagement, data analysis and project management – all skills you already exercise in your teaching role.

Read our blog 10 reasons Digital Marketing could be your ideal career - ARU Distance Learning

If you still want to work with children and young people and make a positive impact on their lives, consider a role like Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner (CWP). You’ll assess and support children and young people with mental health issues to access the right therapies. This type of role could be a great fit when considering jobs for former teachers because you already have vast experience working with children and providing pastoral care.

CWPs do not have to be educated to degree level but ARU’s online Child and Adolescent Mental Wellbeing MSc provides in-depth knowledge for those looking to specialise in this topic and progress any research ambitions.

Read more about this role on the NHS website.

Working for the Civil Service could be a good option for ex teachers. The Civil Service welcomes workforce diversity so older ex teachers will feel less threatened by ageism in the workplace. There are also many different types of roles from communications to research to project management within the Civil Service – drawing on many of the skills teachers already have.

Find out more about working for the Civil Service here.

Careers Advisors support people to make decisions about their career path and next steps for employment. They can work in universities, colleges, schools or national public institutions like the National Careers Service. As a teacher, you’re well versed in providing advice and guidance to young people and your well-organised, methodical approach will help in this role too.

More information on how to become a Careers Advisor via the Gov.uk website.

• Academic Advisor
• Assessor
• FE College Tutor
• Teaching English as a Foreign Language
• Teaching abroad

• UX Researcher
• Technical Writer
• Customer Success Manager
• Product Trainer

• Local Government
• Police Trainer
• Prison Education
• NHS Training

• HR Advisor
• Recruitment Consultant
• Communications Officer

• Coach
• Freelance Writer
• Virtual Assistant
• Online Course Creator

Whether you need to retrain or study new qualifications really depends on the job role. Some jobs don’t require retraining where your transferable skills and experience will count for a lot – particularly roles that remain within the education and training sector.

Some roles won’t necessarily require retraining after teaching or a new qualification but could be beneficial and make you more competitive. Examples include Project Management, Careers Advisor, Marketing.

Other job roles will require extensive training and accredited qualifications such as psychology, law or a highly specialised IT role.

Either way, for a successful career change for teachers, we recommend thorough research into the job role entry requirements.