Thanks for the replies both of you. What's your view on the below?

"Will good international schools want to employ a geography / IB Environmental systems and societies teacher who doesn't have a degree in geography? Or should I just stick to history?"

> 2) Well its going to have an effect, obviously youre not a young, pretty,
> 20 something blonde but 30 isnt much to worry about. What will matter is
> the lost decade of experience, thats a big hole to explain and being
> "ill" wont be a very good reason (what they are going to think is
> you will relapse or you will be out sick a lot). You may want to consider
> writing off that decade as being a small business owner or house-spouse or
> something.

> 3) Internships in IE are one of two kinds, either they are legitimate
> intern appointments at upper tier ISs, that provide most if not all OSH
> benefits and reasonable coin (usually step 1 or 0 on the salary scale) of
> which there are very few in IE and they tend to be whole IS appointments
> (usually one, maybe two) so finding a match can be difficult. The other
> type is lower third tier ISs that use "internship" as a way of
> getting cheap labor, that otherwise look like any IT appointment.
>
> 4) Depends what your exam scores are. Have a history of high performance
> results with your students and recruiters and leadership wont care what
> your degree was in.

> 5) Yes, thy make a difference, but UCL isnt considered a Global Ivy in IE.
> Theres about 8ish Global Ivys in IE, in the UK thats OxBridge and maybe,
> maybe, maybe LSE, maybe. So if your not one of those Global Ivys than a
> degree is a degree is a degree as far as IE is concerned, in which case the
> only benefit your going to get is if a recruiter or leadership is a fellow
> alumni of UCL.


Hey, thanks for the reply.

Re 2) I'd rather not lie, these things have a habit of snowballing and then you're caught in them forever. I don't intend to refer to the years 2007-2017 at all on my CV, and these days (in the UK anyway) it's very unusual to list your DOB on your CV or tell a prospective employer your age - so will schools even know?

Re 3) Ah, I meant non-teaching internships (ie ones available to undergraduate students which can be done part-time around one's degree, or take place in the summer). I thought about the UWC International office in London (esp as I'd love to work at one of their schools), but I can't think of anywhere else.

Re 4) Even if I've only got one or two years exp post-NQT?

Re 5) So schools don't care/know about specific uni departments, just the overall brand name? Surprising because as I say, UCL's IoE is absolutely the equal of Harvard's Graduate School of Education.... ah well. Not that it matters as that isn't why I want to stay at UCL anyway, but I thought it'd be a nice additional perk.

HI guys. Long-time lurker. Looking for some advice.

I'm 29-year old mature student from the UK. Unfortunately, I've been ill for a long time and the last decade can be written off as far as life or work experience goes. The good news is I'm finally getting better and I'm starting to build the foundations of a teacher career. My future CV will hopefully look something like this:

2024-2026: MA Educational Leadership
2023-2024: PGDE in Secondary Geography
2019-2023: BA European Languages (50% Scandinavian languages, 50% history)
2018-2019: Certificate in Geology and Physical Geography (60 ECTS, equal to first-year of degree)

Obviously I'm making a few assumptions here, but I would prefer to do my teacher training via the Teach First graduate scheme because I'd be able to do a PGDE and MA whilst getting work experience. Plus they don't require a degree in geography, an added bonus because that is the subject I'd prefer to teach.

Despite the name of my BA, half of the degree content is in history. Is a poorly named degree going to affect my employability if I apply for a history teaching post?

Will my age (I'll be in my mid 30s by the time I've got my two years' teaching experience) have a detrimental impact on my career, and is there is there anything I can do to mitigate the lost decade of work experience... good places for prospective intl teachers to intern etc?

Will good international schools want to employ a geography / IB Environmental systems and societies teacher who doesn't have a degree in geography? Or should I just stick to history?

I'm doing my BA at UCL and I'd like to stay and do my PGDE/MA here too. The UCL Institute of Education is apparently quite prestigious, outranking Harvard. But do things like this make a difference to school employers?

Cheers