With more than a decade’s experience as an electrician, Jack Sutcliffe has a wealth of technical and practical knowledge to share. He explains how the SET for Teaching Success programme has helped him begin doing so at Sheffield College.
The programme is good. I appreciate the fact that although there is a lot of information, it is broken into smaller pieces which are easier to take in. You don’t feel overwhelmed with too much new stuff to learn.
I’ve found that there is always something to learn. Sometimes this can come from me as the teacher, but at other times I can learn things from the students, too. It’s important we listen to them and find out what helps them to learn best; they are individuals and we need to be able to help them learn in a way which suits them, even if it’s something you’ve never thought of before!
I was looking for a career change but didn’t want to waste my skills, knowledge and experience. Teaching seemed like an ideal change as I get to help people develop their own skills using my experience as the starting point. Aside from the technical side, I can offer knowledge about the practicalities of working in the construction industry.
I get great satisfaction from seeing the students develop their technical skills and theoretical knowledge. It’s a great feeling when a student passes an exam – I’ve helped them achieve that.
I already had the knowledge from my previous jobs and thought teaching was an ideal way to pass that knowledge on.
Having the opportunity to meet up with like-minded people and being able to share our experiences has been the main benefit of the programme. It’s good to listen to others in the same position as you share frustration and success. We all help each other out, using our own experiences to help offer support.
I am hoping to work through the TAQA (Training, Assessment and Quality Assurance) assessor course.
For details of how to apply for the SET for Teaching Success programme, please visit the programme page.