I have some questions to ask

[Shakey1980]

I am currently 32 and would love an IT job in a school (there is nothing I want more) but firstly I need to know a few things. I was born with Myoclonus Dystonia and this makes my hands shake making practical jobs very difficult and almost impossible to, take computer apart for example because of the tiny screws or install/uninstall hardware. Saying this I am able to do most other stuff I.T related like install different o/s, install/uninstall most applications like MS Office and Adobe, I can use Word, Excel, Access, Publisher, make websites with Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop and I know some coding/HTML. So there are quite a few things I can do but some things that I can't and would like to know if I would have any chance of getting an I.T job in a school? I know it's difficult because employers are different, I am on benefits at the moment but I am sooo bored and I really want to work. I have NVQ Level 1 & 2 in I.T, so if I had a chance to work what other qualifications would I need or be best to have to get a job? Thanks in advance for anyone that helps with answering my questions. Edited April 23, 2013 by Shakey1980

[synaesthesia]

I can't see why not. There's an increasing amount of schools who are hiring people specifically to look after their digital presence. There's a lot more to school's IT than hardware. Some schools rely so heavily on their VLE they hire people who's full time job is specifically just looking after that.

Plus you don't have to tinker; some schools find it more cost effective to replace machines rather than pull apart and fault diagnose, some rely on pre-built systems where there is no tinkering involved (thin clients, tablets and wireless devices, BYOD etc).

There's so much you can do without ever peering inside of a PC.

[elsiegee40]

As part of a team, I can't see why you shouldn't be employable. In primary schools we often work alkne and have to be able to do everything. In secondaries the team could handle the fiddly bits. Perhaps you could find a local school to volunteer at and see where that leads?

[Shakey1980]

As part of a team, I can't see why you shouldn't be employable. In primary schools we often work alkne and have to be able to do everything. In secondaries the team could handle the fiddly bits. Perhaps you could find a local school to volunteer at and see where that leads?

 

Hi great idea about volunteering, would it be a matter of phoning around the local schools and asking if they would like a volunteer to help with I.T?

Edited April 23, 2013 by Shakey1980

[synaesthesia]

The only barrier you'd get to that is needing to be CRB cleared; certainly worth asking around though.

[elsiegee40]

Hi great idea about volunteering, would it be a matter of phoning around the local schools and asking if they would like a volunteer to help with I.T?

 

Put a cv together showing your skills and qualifications and send it with a covering letter explaining your situation to the head teachers of the local secondaries that you can get to. Don't forget any private schools. Take a look at the school websites and see what you can find out about them. There may be something obvious that yiu can offer.

@witch is edugeek's cv and job application guru. PM her and I'm sure she will be able to help you put something together.

 

To work in a school, even as a volunteer, you will need a DBS (used to be called CRB) check to be carried out by the school.

[Shakey1980]

Put a cv together showing your skills and qualifications and send it with a covering letter explaining your situation to the head teachers of the local secondaries that you can get to. Don't forget any private schools. Take a look at the school websites and see what you can find out about them. There may be something obvious that yiu can offer.

@witch is edugeek's cv and job application guru. PM her and I'm sure she will be able to help you put something together.

 

To work in a school, even as a volunteer, you will need a DBS (used to be called CRB) check to be carried out by the school.

 

Thanks I last had a CRB check just over a year ago as I used to be a volunteer for a Child Contact Centre but understand that I would need to be checked again. As for the CV I do already have one but it may just need tweaking a little. I guess it's a case of whether the school will be willing to pay to have the CRB done or would I need to pay for it?

[elsiegee40]

Don't be afraid of contacting @witch to perfect it; everyone does! She used to be a recruitment consultant and gets excellent results

[witch]

Awww - that's so sweet! Yep, I can help if you like

[teejay]

First off, what part of the country are you in? I'm sure there are a lot of people on here who would be willing for you to come into their school to see what the job is like, I'd be more than happy if you are in or around the West Yorkshire area.

I would say your best option would be to go down the web development route, there are a lot of schools, especially secondary or colleges, who have someone working full/part time on web development including the website and VLE etc. It's often combined with other software roles to make the job full time, for instance our web dev also does software deployment and some other bits and pieces. You would need to up your skillset slightly and gain some experience of working with content management systems like Joomla and blogging software like Wordpress, also VLE software such as Moodle. All of those are open source and free, so you could set them up on a machine at home and learn how they work.

Personally I think you may struggle with an IT Technician role, although if part of a team in a larger school the job could be tailored around you to some extent. IT Technician roles do tend to have quite a lot of manual work fixing PC's, projectors, printers and anything else with a plug on. Once you get to higher levels such as Network Manager roles, the manual work level does decrease, but is still there.

[Bertie_Dellend]

Don't forget any private schools.

 

Put private schools at the top of your list for volunteering! They are more inclined to want some "free" work done.

You may only get a few hours or half days a week to begin with - but once you have got your foot in the door!!

[hardtailstar]

Id say look towards more secondary schools as people have said that roles are split up so you could effectivley just do the job of digital media etc. Primary schools just tend to have an all round person to do everything.

 

Good luck in finding somewhere.

[Tall_Paul]

I'd be only too willing to show someone what we do (and it would definitely be a big plus mark if they applied for a job here).

[Shakey1980]

First off, what part of the country are you in? I'm sure there are a lot of people on here who would be willing for you to come into their school to see what the job is like, I'd be more than happy if you are in or around the West Yorkshire area.

I would say your best option would be to go down the web development route, there are a lot of schools, especially secondary or colleges, who have someone working full/part time on web development including the website and VLE etc. It's often combined with other software roles to make the job full time, for instance our web dev also does software deployment and some other bits and pieces. You would need to up your skillset slightly and gain some experience of working with content management systems like Joomla and blogging software like Wordpress, also VLE software such as Moodle. All of those are open source and free, so you could set them up on a machine at home and learn how they work.

Personally I think you may struggle with an IT Technician role, although if part of a team in a larger school the job could be tailored around you to some extent. IT Technician roles do tend to have quite a lot of manual work fixing PC's, projectors, printers and anything else with a plug on. Once you get to higher levels such as Network Manager roles, the manual work level does decrease, but is still there.

 

Thank you and also to everyone else on here who have helped, I am from the West Midlands. The web development route sounds interesting and I think I am going to look into this. I have heard of Wordpress and a while ago I was watching Youtube videos about it but I will look into it more now as I didn't think the schools used it. I will certainly have a go at Joomla and Moodle also now I know I can set them up on my home PC. I have also seen links to VLE on some of the local school websites but they require a username and password, what is a VLE is it for storing information on about the school?

[teejay]

Thank you and also to everyone else on here who have helped, I am from the West Midlands. The web development route sounds interesting and I think I am going to look into this. I have heard of Wordpress and a while ago I was watching Youtube videos about it but I will look into it more now as I didn't think the schools used it. I will certainly have a go at Joomla and Moodle also now I know I can set them up on my home PC. I have also seen links to VLE on some of the local school websites but they require a username and password, what is a VLE is it for storing information on about the school?

 

Moodle is a VLE, VLE is virtual learning environment so you basically use it to create online courses. Have fun exploring and learning them

All these can run on Windows, but their native environment is Linux, so it would be good to get some experience of Linux at the same time. Install something like VirtualBox on your PC so you can set it up in a virtual environment so it's easier to roll back if needed, also another good learning experience

[Miscbrah]

^ What teejay said. VB is amazing for tinkering! If you set up a virtual pfsense router, and stick everything else on an internal network you can have a REAL LIFE domain all sitting in the virtual realm! If all that sounds like greek check this out

[Shakey1980]

Thanks again for everyone's help I was up most of last night creating a Joomla website (2.5) and once you know how things work it's not so bad It has taken me about 5 hours so far, I got some hosting and a template and I even managed to put a slideshow on the home page I need to work on re sizing the images, creating a logo and some other stuff and then I will post the link to the site and you can all tell me what you think. I will stick to learning Joomla for now as it's all quite new but once I have mastered it I can then move on to Wordpress and Moodle VLE