I read the Times Educational Supplement (TES) every week. They also have a website. The TES is a prestigious resource for professional teachers. Lots of teaching advice and news. It also discusses pay and conditions.
Recently they had an article on teachers in FE, specifically the part-time ones like myself. Exploited is how they described us. Because we are highly skilled yet work long hours for poor pay. They depend on us, yet they don't value us enough to improve our pay and conditions of service.
I currently don't have any learners to teach. Mine have either finished or they have dropped out. Huge numbers of learners drop out. Because they underestimate the amount of study needed and also because they can't affort to buy Micorosoft Office, and because they develop computer problems that they can't fix. You need lots of motivation to succeed on distance learning courses.
No learners = no income.
So when I am getting another batch of learners then? Not for a long while. The college emailed me to say that they were doing alterations on the website so we wouldn't be getting any more learners for a while. One of my learners thought they were doing restructuring - she really, really wanted to learn, so now she has gone and enrolled at another college for her studies.
There is a forum for the vision2learn website that is used by the tutors. One of them told me that my college has a funding problem, so it can't afford to take on any more students on this program at the moment. Not till the autumn at the earliest.
Is it any wonder I feel fed up and disillusioned?
Exploited!
Oh dear, how disappointing for you! After all the classes you have taken I can't understand why you wouldn't be given a paying job to begin with. I really hope something comes up for you soon. Keep up your jaunts, it will give you a chance to think things out. Meantime, take care of yourself. Doris
Thank you Doris.
There's no vacancies Doris, nothing that I can do about that. And they also have stronger candidates than me for the posts. I have strong misgivings about doing Stage 2 in the autumn, but I suppose I should finish the course.