Hi Mummas
I'm in my mid 30's & looking at a career change to become a Teachers Aide. So, hoping for some feedback from some TAs on the course you undertook & the job itself. How satisfied are you? Is the income enough to live comfortably? Is there a lot of work out there? How many of you have gone onto further study? How many of you have been able to obtain permanent full or part time positions or is it mostly casual work on offer?
I'm a single mum with one child, whom I have full custody of (court ordered). Currently living week to week off a dead end retail job & desperately wanting a positive change! Teachers Aide seems like a good fit. Any info's appreciated 😊
*Edited to add i'm looking at this as the first stepping stone. If i try it, & find that I really love teaching then I'll jump in & do the full Uni thing. I'm not feeling confident yet to jump into a uni course, I don't want to "fail" as i'm just now at a point where i'm picking myself up. I'm also desperate to leave my current job. Hope all that makes sense?!
8 Replies
My advice is to jump into a degree. Do the hard work now and get into a job that pays well enough to support you and a job you will be happy to do for another 30 to 40 years. Teaching or nursing?
Work is hard to come by as a teachers aide. Lots of mums want the job as it fits in school hours. You often rely on contract work and people don’t move on once they get a position. Its highly dependent on how much government funding is around and how many kids with a disability are enrolled. It helps of you already have a foot in the door at a couple of schools, but many schools won’t hire you if you have a child in the school.
Work is extremely hard to get no pay on holidays and not always getting hours each week
It’s not a job you can do if you can’t survive without the money,
Next to no chance of permanent hours your literally waiting for someone to die so you can get a iob
Can be short days, 2,3 or 4 hours per day across a few days or a week. The special needs school usually have aids for 6 hours per day. I think the cert 3 is a 12 month course and you usually need to find a school for work placement yourself. You also need to consider the fact that you don’t get paid for school holidays, it’s 10 weeks of the year without pay!!!
I’ve done the course but haven’t yet got work (I haven’t looked)
You don’t need to be qualified to work as a teachers aide so I’d put your name down and do some hours to see if you actually like it. I think the pays is slightly more if your qualified
Pay is based on years of service not qualifications
Speaking as a former long term Teacher Aide..
It's all about who you know, and not necessarily what you're qualified for, however if who you know is limited, a qual will get your foot in the door. I don't know about all states, but in QLD you don't need to be qualified or have a cert to be employed as a teacher aide. Saying that though, to jump a pay bracket, you will be required to gain cert 3 or above, maintain blue card, first aid and cpr, and possibly a few extras.
Most often, teacher aides are under contract positions, which are typically offered to a schools pool of casual TA's. Qld policy also states that if hours are available, they must first offer those hours to current employee's who want to increase their hours. Sometimes you might need to work casual for a year+ to be offered a position, as a schools funding is dependant on student numbers and verified higher need students. When working casual, you may recieve anything from 1 shift every 4 weeks to 5 days per week. A contract typically lasts from year to year, but schools can't usually guarantee hours for contracts until day 8 of the next year when student numbers weigh in.
Gaining permanancy is even more difficult again and is tough road to go down.
Honestly, Aiding is a job I enjoyed a lot! It helped working in a fantastic school with great colleagues. I've heard some really rough stories from not so great schools. I did earn more working in retail though! The pay ia steady, but it's definitely nothing flash. It will 100% be the perfect job to supplement a second income if your situation does change.
In my opinion, if the door opens for you jump at it, but I wouldn't spend my time and energy on creating a career out of it and jumping through all the hurdles. It would be much more worth to put the pen to paper and work toward a full-degree.
If T/A'ing is the path you go down, get in touch with your local or state union. They will be your best friend, fight for your rights, and better work scenarios.
Being a ta is very rewarding, it can be extremely difficult to get your foot in the door unless you know someone. Having a child can be detrimental to your career, if you need time off due to childs illness. They do not like staff having days off.
Everyone starts off on casual, and will maybe offered a contract that can last between 10 weeks and a year, you may or may not have have the opportunity to bank hours which pay for school holidays , and public holidays, when you do not get paid. Contracts can also be cancelled by the school at any given time, for any number of reasons. I have been a ta for a few years, like you the hours sounded great, reality for me was it made me so incredibly anxious, I was given 6 month contracts to start, then casual, then contract, then casual. And so on. At times you get left hanging until the last day of term to find out if you have work for the next term or not. The money is not that good, but that will also depend on how many days you get. Not everyone is offered 5 full days a week. So dont drop payments from centrelink. Permanent, full time positions are very rare, schools will tend to give those positions to staff that have been there longest, so you can literally wait for ever to get one. I know ladies that have been working 20 years that are still fighting for permanent positions. I would advise joining the union too, they are like your insurance against any allegations that anyone may put against you. ( saw this happens to a friend) lastly if it is something your passionate about it is a great job, be prepared to be a shit kicker, alot of teachers treat ta like absolute garbage, you need to know your place. Good luck with making your decision.