As anyone got first/second hand experience in one/both of these professions?

Obviously she’d need to spend a few years at University before being able to do either. She has worked in retail in the past (which i always hated) but has not been working for a coupe of years, while the kids were so small. Now she’s thinking about going to university, and perusing a more serious career proposition. These are the two options she is considering now.

Personally, i have been leaning towards Teaching – as i understand it, Teachers work more sociable hours and get paid more. I’m happy to be corrected on this, though.

Does anyone have any experience they wouldn’t mind sharing?

Midwives Payscale starts at Band 5

http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/372992/004106.pdf

Added onto that is shift allowance for unsociable hours which depends really or local agreement but if call it an average of 21% on top of pay then it’s a rough guide.

And get school hols off
Daughter is a teacher, daughter in law is a mental health nurse with midwifery experience
Both love their jobs
Best to look into employment opportunities in your area. There was only one job advertised during daughters last year of her course which she got 😆
Something in your wife’s favour is that she has maturity and life experience to draw on which employers are now beginning to value.

Midwife. Think it is very rewarding. Sure teachers get school hols, but you take your work home with you, ie marking books and preparing lessons .

Teaching covers a wide range. big difference between a-level / gcse to primary school and nursery.

Wife is a primary school teacher and it is very hard to get a job at the moment and even harder to get into a good school!

Wot uwe-r said, teaching is fine but the paperwork and audit trail is horrendous. Most holidays Mrs Ming spends a good proportion of her time planning and leveling.

Schools live and die by a good head teacher.

Mind you having witnessed the birth of my son theres no **** way id be a midwife. Problem with teaching is that if you cannot do it no amount of training will help.

anagallis_arvensis – Member
Problem with teaching is that if you cannot do it no amount of training will help.

POSTED 1 MINUTE AGO # REPORT-POST
+1
Same with the nursing prof ie having to deal with blood, guts & death

Midwife, you will see the sprog you bought into the world grow up, and you can think i helped to bring them into the world.

Midwifery – working for the NHS all the time including Xmas day.

Teachers- working a third of the year and thinking your hard done to.

I know which would be the easier option.

I’d be encouraging her to look at other professions too; physiotherapy, radiology, speech therapy, and so on.

One point to note about hospital based midwifery; it is likely that the next few years will see smaller hospitals lose services and specialist stuff will be concentrated in particular places. She might be travelling a long way to work.

Nursing is a bit more flexible than midwifing too.

Speech and language therapists and other notionally non-critical health professionals are being squeezed very, very hard just now (wife is one). Midwifery probably a safer bet…

Same with the nursing prof ie having to deal with blood, guts & death

Not quite true… You will become more tolerant of it and get used to seeing and smelling it all.

As a midwife it will be poo, little bit of blood and generic ooze. You get all this working in a primary school as well as having to deal with the annoying kids 😛

That lovely Mr Gove says teachers only work 32.5 hours a week, and he should know. That looks like a cushy option, especially with the holidays as well. And the gold-plated pension.

Does she have the required qualifications to get in to study either?

As a midwife it will be poo, little bit of blood and generic ooze. You get all this working in a primary school

After watching Mrs yunki give birth (again) last Thursday evening I can assure you that you will also have to watch women going through hours and hours of what is estimated to be the most painful ordeal in life.. a harrowing and utterly exhausting experience.. and that is just from an observers point of view..

what about a Catholic Priest..?

One of my close friends trained and practiced as a mid wife.

She must have been in the profession for close on 30 years now, spent the first 10 years training and doing standard stuff, she then specialized in ultrasound scanning, so a 9 to 5 job with no shift work for the best part of another 10 years. For the last 8 or so years she has been in a “managerial” best clinical practice role first at a regional and now at a national level I think.

She has been sponsored through a couple of MSc courses since I have known her, and all in all seems to have done very well out of it, both in terms of career and financially. Earns more than me as IT architect in a big blue chip / corporate

Most importantly she seems to be able to turn off outside work.

By contrast a couple of my old university friends who are teachers seem completely obsessed (and not in a good way) about the job and are unable to talk or take much of an interest in anything else. Probably just their own personalities, but I don’t think any job should shape someone’s life so much.

Mrs B is midwife. 12hr shifts not uncommon for her to go with no breaks (meal or toilet) regularly works longer than her 12hr shift without extra pay. Always always always shattered after her shift so short staffed it must be dangerous for staff and patients. Only works part time I doubt it would do much for her health to work full time.

Shifts are a mixture of week days, weekends nights 12hrs. Sometimes the shifts can give her a few days off in a row sometimes she’s been down for working a day shift after a night shift…..

Teachers = school hrs, school holidays regular tea/coffee breaks 1hr lunch breaks. Downside is dealing with other peoples kids 😉

1hr lunch break at a school?

Having been the child of 2 teachers, I can remember my father working 8am to 9pm 4 days a week with an early finish on Friday at 4.30, with probably 4 hours of preparation/ admin on a Sunday afternoon. Seems pretty cushy to me 🙄

Off course they do! kids are out playing for over an hour. 😉

<note the winkie>

After watching Mrs yunki give birth (again) last Thursday evening I can assure you that you will also have to watch women going through hours and hours of what is estimated to be the most painful ordeal in life.. a harrowing and utterly exhausting experience.. and that is just from an observers point of view..

what about a Catholic Priest..?

Do you think that it only seems this way because you are her husband? I’m not accusing… It is a genuine question.

Would you view it from a different perspective if: A you were of no relation. B were also a woman?

Both are quite serious career choices, and in many ways Id hope your wife would have a ‘calling’ for one or the other, and not be open to to much pursuation one way or other.

That lovely Mr Gove says teachers only work 32.5 hours a week, and he should know. That looks like a cushy option, especially with the holidays as well. And the gold-plated pension.

I suspect you are taking the mick – otherwise you are clueless!

Teaching is a hard job to do and harder to do well. Job availability is an issue in some subjects. The holidays are good but the term-time usually consists of 50-60 hours per week plus the commute on top, although few people appreciate the 10-12 hour days for 5 days in a row plus a few at the weekend for good measure.

Midwife – they are in demand and she can switch off the moment she gets home. There is also a great demand for midwife all over the world, the shortage of midwife is obvious that is why UK imported many from other countries.

Teacher – she will have no time to rest or life and never switch off. All those holidays only mean more work like marking papers etc and preparing for next semester. Pay for teacher is crap which is a pity as this is a job that should be paid well.

Midwife they are in demand and she can switch off the moment she gets home

Not in this house… “have I done this? Did I do that?” Then I get a debrief of the shifts events, yes dear I am listening.

Pay for teacher is crap which is a pity as this is a job that should be paid well.

Everything else you say I would say is true but I think the pay is pretty fair and good. The only place its on the low side is if you live in London.

A nice thing about doing a midwifery degree, is that the NHS pick up the bill for the fees and may even give you some free cash too.

Most of the allied health professions come under this deal; I’m studying to become an occupational therapist right now.

Some of my friends started on midwifery courses last September- places on these (any NHS courses really) courses are fiercely sought after (at least 10x over subscribed) so a really strong personal statement is needed. I imagine that it would be too late to apply for a course starting this year. Maybe your wife should start getting some experience now to strengthen her possible application. Shadowing a midwife would be ideal, visiting a load of departments and getting clued up on it would be a good second.
As many women have found out; just having had kids isn’t enough experience to apply to become a midwife!!

One of my sisters is a midwife, my cousin is and my aunt was. The thing I would consider is dealing with life & death. I’ve heard or cases of babies been born with drug addiction (from parents misuse) stillborns and so on. It takes a toll on the midwife. I don’t mean to put a downer on things but I’ve seen the job from the other side.

All those I know who do it love the job and wouldn’t change it. Hard work but can be very rewarding.

Midwife – they are in demand and she can switch off the moment she gets home

Very far from the truth.

More alternatives; pharmacist or dietician…

The mrs is a teacher

8am till 10pm most nights with an couple hours off for evening meal and often no lunch if she has to do paperwork for misbehaving kids ,esp hard work with curriculum for excellence coming in and the new lessons needing planned ( apparently)

Not as easy to get a job as you think – the mrs got the only full time perminant job in the area and shes the only one in her class at uni to get a full time job.

I wouldnt do it .

Public sectors getting **** over left right and centre from the government ….. I know a couple of aussie nurses and a teacher who came over here and have all given up their line of work till they get back to aus as they say hospitals and schools are understaffed and over worked- as said above its getting dangerous !

I doubt the mrs ever does even 32.5 hours just on the teaching never mind planning and marking.

Neither (if she really needs her man to decide via a mountain bike forum).

The wife had the same dilemma, after awhile it was narrowed down to the midwifery route, upon further reflection it was working with the children she wanted so opted for Pediatric nursing and is in her second year of uni at the moment.
The NHS funding the course fees and offering a bursary is probably on borrowed time, they have removed it from social work degrees for courses starting in September.

Duffer, i would ask your wife first before she wastes others time, what she has to offer the organisations running the courses, working in a shop and being unemployed, are not really requisites for becoming a teacher or midwife, where as experience of voluntering with kids or working in a care home home again as a volunteer or low paid care worker,(thats what they get paid) will stand her in good stead.

…and if you choose the paediatric nurse thing, do your normal adult nurse training first; far more options, far less restrictive….

Neither (if she really needs her man to decide via a mountain bike forum).

Not entirely sure what you’re getting at there, buddy. She doesn’t “need” me to ask on a bike forum, but i’ve taken it upon myself to try and get some more information from people that have experience in these fields.

Top tip; it will destroy any fantasy you have regarding the sexiness of nurses or anyone in a similar uniform.

An often overlooked but important consideration.

Presumably becoming a midwife requires doing a midwifery degree..? Whereas teachers require a degree + a PGCE (from what i understand a degree in education isn’t worth it). The former requires a decision now, the latter require a decision 2 and a bit years into the degree (when applying for a PGCE). The latter also offers greater flexibility if it turns out to be the wrong choice.

Most of my family are teachers – my sister is in her second year out of the PGCE. She had so little time to herself during teaching practice and in the first year she was constantly stressed, on the phone in tears once a week, and almost quit. But it is good preparation.

From either this year or next year, the bursary will not be paid to help those training to become nurses.
Also. Its unlikely she will get a place if she has no experience in the nursing enviroment.
My wife worked as a nursing assistant whilst she did the qualifications required to gain entry to university.
She loves her job. But there have been quite a few of her uni friends who have given it up already … it certainly isnt everybodies cup of tea..