Teaching seen as ‘a safe port in storm’

City workers who are looking for a career change in the current economic downturn want to give something back to society, according to a national education agency.

In the last few years, private company managers and workers have seen teaching as safe job, according to the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).

According to a poll by the organisation, the number of trainee science teachers will reach 3,670 in 2008-09, which will exceed the government’s target by two per cent.

John Connolly, head of the TDA, said teaching is increasingly being seen as a "safe port in the storm" by people who have made their money in London.

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"We are investing heavily in conversion courses which take people who have degrees in other subjects and send them to a six-month science boot camp to get trained," he added.

However, according to figures from Education Data Surveys in September 2008 applications for teaching in all subject areas had fallen by nearly nine per cent.