Education Sector

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I was wondering if someone could give me a pros/cons of working in the education sector (Schools, colleages, universites, Local Authorites/london boroughs)

The reason why i am asking is because someone in my family is a teacher and mentioned my grade in the 70-291 exam to a work colleage. An IT guy was floating around who supported a group of schools for a london borough over heard this and mentioned I should look to work for the borough as they use cutting edge equipment for most things.

I know a few people here work in different levels for the education sector and was wondering your general impressions as well.

Thank you,

 

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For schools you may also want to check edugeek as a lot of them hang out there and I also seem to remember there's a specialist firm that advertises for IT staff to work in schools (forgotten the name).

Public sector work *can* be regarded as reasonably secure (not always tho) and some authorities are undertaking massive projects at the moment but do tend to want a lot of experience.

School side - yeh, I thought that looked interesting too. Pay tends to be on the low side from what I've seen and, depending on the school/budget, the job can either be a joy or a right pain !

Others on here can no doubt shed more light on it for you

 

Thanks for the response Ken.

I dont mind loosing some money to work with more systems at a technical level. Just will have to see how much the difference is. Can you make up some of the gap by doing training like yourself?

 

Link for Edugeek

Link for Special Agent (Education employer/recruiter)

HTH

 

I've been working in a secondary school for a year now and like Ken, I would say that the main advantage is getting your hands on lots of different technologies. But there are lots of disadvantages though:

- money is in very short supply in a lot of schools - one of the main computer rooms in our school was being run off a 10Base-T hub (not even 10/100!) until a few months ago, and getting the £150 needed for a replacement switch was like pulling teeth
- I totally agree on the lack of support I get compared to the amount of users. I believe the Becta recommendations are one technician per 190 users? Some schools I've seen struggle to make even that...
- salaries aren't great (and in my case, are pretty appalling)
- there's definitely a divide in my school between the teachers and support staff - I don't get treated at all well by the IT teachers, but they take it upon themselves to be as demanding as they like

 

I have worked in Infant, Junior and @ secondary level. + Had an I.T. job full time for a year in 'industry'. There are big differences yes in each. Pay is bad.

You can get alot of access to different technologies. Some days may be busy some not - same as anywhere really. It can be rewarding sometimes but other times annoying.

Its not really somewhere where you want to be developing your career if you have a few years experiance. There is also a lack of CPD + career development. With BSF coming up its not really a place you want to be for long term security probably. However for those starting out in I.T. schools are a good option probably.

I have alot of benefits which is why I took the role I am in now. Term tiem only are a benefit, as I want to do more travelling.

 

Hi Ken, yes it does... and that extends as far as two people controlling all three ICT budgets in the school (infrastructure, projects etc). And thanks for posting that document, it made an interesting read Our network definitely comes under the category of 'older'!

 

Its almost as much as saying 5 techs for the school I am in. We have 1250 users, 500 desktops and roughly 200 laptops then associated whiteboards, printers, servers etc ish.

We have 3, NM, tech (mainly develops 3d models/applications for our virtual reality room) and myself. Thats is enough for a network our size! And I am term time only. The network is well run and no way would be there need for another tech.