Teaching

Find out whether teaching is right for you, and learn about the diverse routes into the profession.

On this page

• Why teaching?
• Is teaching right for me?
• Do I have the right subject knowledge?
• How can I become a teacher?
• Can I get extra support?

Why teaching?

There is no archetypal chemistry teacher – recent graduates and career changers may become excellent teachers, sharing a passion for their subject, and a desire to inspire the next generation of scientists.

There are many reasons to become a teacher, for example:

• the chance to make a real difference to children and young people
• to use your passion for your subject to inspire young people
• a challenging but rewarding career
• opportunities for progression into a wide range of management roles, such as managing a year group, subject or key stage.

In addition to teaching a range of age groups and abilities, a career in teaching will involve providing pastoral care, trying new innovative techniques to further improve progress, planning lessons, and marking students’ work and assessments. Find out why now is a great time to get into teaching.

Is teaching right for me?

The best way to decide whether teaching is for you is to gain experience in a school. Observing lessons will help you gain an awareness of teaching and pastoral work, the day-to-day school life of a teacher and give you the opportunity to watch a range of lessons and age groups being taught. It'll also make your teacher training application much stronger providing valuable insight and a great focus point for your application and interviews

Having experience in primary schools – even if you want to teach at secondary level – is also looked on favourably, as it shows a breadth of awareness of teaching and how children develop. In England, you can gain classroom experience by applying for the School Experience Programme.

Alternatively, you can arrange to shadow a teacher you know, or get in touch with schools in your local area. It’s useful to visit more than one school to gain experience in different teaching environments.

Primary or Secondary?

You can train to teach primary or secondary. Primary teaching may be right for you if you have a passion for engaging with younger people and you want to teach the whole curriculum. There are few science graduates teaching in primary schools, so you could make a real difference as a science subject leader to guide the science teaching in a whole school.

Secondary teaching may be right for you if you have specialised in one subject area and want to use that knowledge to teach and inspire young people. You’ll teach a range of classes, of varying ages and abilities. With the lower age groups, you will likely teach Physics and Biology alongside Chemistry.

Do I have the right subject knowledge?

If you are not sure that you have suitable subject knowledge to apply for secondary chemistry teacher training in England, you might be able to improve your knowledge through a Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) course.

Subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses offer you the chance to prepare for teacher training by building up or refreshing your existing knowledge. They are funded by the Department for Education (DfE), and are completed prior to teacher training. They are available in chemistry, for trainees completing teacher training in chemistry.

These courses range in length and are for graduates who need to develop their subject understanding before going on to Initial Teacher Training (ITT). You can find out more about SKE courses by visiting Get into Teaching

The Royal Society of Chemistry approve courses that provide effective subject knowledge enhancement for potential trainee teachers. This includes a minimum of 10% of the course being spent undertaking supervised laboratory work. Our approval criteria can be viewed here. FAQs are available here.

The following pre-ITT SKE courses have met our approval criteria:

• University of East London
  • 8 week pre-ITT SKE course
  • 24 week pre-ITT SKE course
• The University of Sussex
  • 16 week pre-ITT SKE course
• Birmingham City University
  • 24 week pre-ITT SKE course
• University of Brighton
  • 8 week pre-ITT SKE course
• Manchester Met University –
  • 8 week pre-ITT SKE course

The Department for Education fund SKE courses for those who meet their eligibility criteria. To qualify for DfE funding, completing an SKE course must be a condition of your ITT offer. SKE courses are available all over England at universities, schools, or third parties.

The Royal Society of Chemistry’s policy position on SKE courses can be viewed here.

How can I become a teacher?

There are a number of ways to get into teaching and the courses differ depending on where you train to teach. If you don’t already have a degree, you can undertake a three or four year undergraduate course. If you already have a degree, there are two main postgraduate training routes; unsalaried and salaried. Unsalaried courses can be University based or school based and salaried routes are normally school based.

Please have a look at the following links for detailed information about training to teach in Scotland, Wales, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England.

Can I get extra financial support?

You could earn a salary while you train via a postgraduate (salaried) route.

If you choose a postgraduate unsalaried route, you could be eligible for extra financial support. Our Scholarship programme is ran in partnership with the Department for Education to support chemistry trainee teachers in England. It includes a £28,000 tax-free bursary as well as a package of chemistry-specific support, including:

• free classroom materials including books, posters and a lab coat
• mentoring by an expert chemistry teacher
• meetings with other scholars
• free online CPD courses focused on active learning in chemistry
• Royal Society of Chemistry membership for 2 years
• Opportunities to engage with the RSC beyond the scholarship year

Bursaries of up to £26,000 are also available from the government as an alternative to scholarships for those studying in England (they are not available as an additional payment).

If you have a disability and normally live in England, you may be entitled to Disabled Students Allowances (DSAs) for physical or mental impairments, long-term or mental health conditions, or specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. 

There is also funding support available across Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland