According to the Charity Commission there are just over 170,000 charities in the UK with a workforce in excess of 1.2 million. Whilst charity recruitment is competitive, for teachers changing career, the sector offers a logical next step. As a teacher, your career to date has contributed towards societal good. If you choose to work for a charity then you are continuing to weave an altruistic thread through your working life.
If you opted for a career in teaching this demonstrates you are motivated to make a difference and it can be leveraged as evidence to show your values align with the causes of a charity employer. If your job search is focused on finding new employment in the charity sector then you possess a wealth of soft skills that are in demand.
This blog explores the important skills needed to forge a successful career in the third sector and why as a teacher you have them covered.
Strong Communication Skills
Your ability to distil complex information into a language that multiple audiences can understand is a true super power. You are adept at delivering presentations in front of large audiences and have cultivated skills of persuasion and marketing through school or subject promotion. Many employees are often nervous about speaking in public but you regularly address audiences consisting of several hundred individuals. You have supreme written and oral communication abilities and are meticulous.
These qualities ensure you have what it takes to be successful in communication roles within charities. You are likely to be sincere in your delivery especially because the focus of charity work are causes you believe in.
More recently charities have been leveraging the power of social media to target niche donors, volunteers and contributors stimulating growth in digital roles. Likewise, schools have also been developing their own social media strategies with many teachers contributing and writing content to help promote a schools offering.
Therefore, as a modern teacher you are very likely to possess a plethora of relevant experience when it comes to communicating with third sector stakeholders across a range of media.
Experience In Teamwork & Collaboration
Teachers are normally part of much larger teams sometimes working across schools or multi academy trusts. Whether you work as part of a year, subject or senior leadership team you are constantly collaborating on projects to drive improvement on top of your day to day teaching.
The ability to collaborate in a collegiate way is appealing for charities that rely on brilliant synergy from their teams in order to drive marketing campaigns, fundraising events and deliver on their aims. Traditionally teachers have collaborated in person during departmental meetings or through professional development. But the disruption of the pandemic has led schools to pioneer software that enhances collaboration harnessing digital platforms to drive through projects and capitalise on the dynamism of teachers.
Charities often need team members to go above and beyond and as a teacher you are used to pitching in and rolling your sleeves up to ensure that work is completed when other team members are unable to contribute.
Ability To Adapt & Problem-Solve
Teachers are not only resilient but are experts at adapting to the pressures around them in order to achieve outstanding outcomes. As a teacher you’re at ease working at a fast pace, a common characteristic of charity work. Teachers have the agility to be successful in charity work. A teacher’s job is multifunctional and your ability to problem solve and manage multiple workflows concurrently is a huge strength. In smaller charity organisations taking on multiple responsibilities in roles that are often less clearly defined may often be the norm.
Research by Dr. Tina H. Boogren suggests that teachers make more decisions in a day than a brain surgeon and this innate ability to find solutions to a near constant flow of new challenges demonstrates a flexibility that is especially important for the small and medium sized charities that make up 80% of the sector.
As a teacher, you are often conducting quantitative analysis identifying complex problems and breaking them down into solvable elements often with limited resources. Teachers are proactive people and this unrelenting ability to deliver results under pressure is a characteristic that can make you stand out from other candidates applying for roles in the charity sector where a constant flow of varied and new tasks need to be executed.
Passion for Community Impact
Charities are often centred on egalitarian and altruistic principles. Therefore, your choice to teach showcases that you align with such philosophies and have a natural enthusiasm to work for causes beyond financial gain. Being passionate about charity aims is the life blood of the sector.
Most charities work towards improving social services, housing, education, human rights, development, health, conservation and environment. Teachers are often either directly or indirectly striving towards similar goals. As a teacher your desire to support social mobility or improve the life chances of marginalised or underrepresented groups offers an opportunity for charities looking for candidates with relevant experience.
Whether you’re a teacher looking to help disadvantaged young people or make a more direct impact to achieving sustainable development, your teaching experience demonstrates that you have the right attitude to succeed.
Effective Leadership & Mentorship Qualities
Teachers are effective leaders. Whether it is leading a class on a day to day basis, a department or whole school many teachers have experience of managing diverse teams of individuals to deliver on key performance indicators. Understanding the different personalities and backgrounds of people that they manage means that they are often able to coax high performance levels out of other team members.
More experienced teachers are often asked to develop members of staff new to the profession or those that are training. Often this mentorship is provided without remuneration and is a further demonstration of your willingness to go beyond the expectations of a job role.
Convincing, bringing in and inspiring others whilst also dealing with conflicts effectively and sensitively are intrinsically linked to effective school leaders and are traits highly desired by the charity sector.
Innovation & Creativity
Whether it is developing engaging learning content, devising whole school or community events, planning extra curricular activities teachers are often finding novel and interesting ways to work with different audiences.
In the charity sector there is a reliance on idea generation in order to stimulate new ways to fundraise or deliver. Teachers are constantly refining and evaluating their work, generating new ideas and evolving their practice. This ability is something you can transfer to work in the charity sector.
Overall the soft skills that a teacher possess are highly portable to charity work and will enable you to contribute to causes that you believe in on a larger scale. If you are interested in charity work it is often recommended that you carry out some volunteering first. This will enable you to explore if it’s the right fit and also help you develop new skills.
