You are not alone if you consider making a career transition from a school teacher to a corporate trainer. It’s not uncommon to research alternative careers to teaching!

Success will depend on your ability to uncover relevant skills, attributes, and accomplishments and effectively communicate them in a visually appealing resume and cover letter.

Translating your teaching skills into corporate skills and showcasing them in your resume is vital to securing a job interview for a corporate trainer position.

If all goes as planned, you will share these relevant achievements and core competencies in a job interview to continue showing your value.

Ultimately, securing an excellent job offer as a corporate trainer is the goal. 

Why are many teachers looking into testing a second career? Making a transition from teaching to a different career is not unusual. 

There are many warning signs that you need a career change.

The financial pressures of life have created a situation where many teachers are seeking a better financial future and a more satisfying job environment. Many teachers are leaving the education profession for various reasons.

Over recent years, there has been an increase in teachers transitioning from the academic sector to a career as corporate trainers. The good news is that the two professions share many skills and attributes, making the career transition easier.

Communicate Transferable Skills in Your Corporate Trainer Resume

There are also several differences between the two that one must be aware of when making the career change. If managed well, the transition from a school teacher to a corporate trainer can be advantageous, and you may discover it is your dream career. The skills and experiences gained from teaching can help you reach your full potential in a corporate training position.

In the teaching profession, teachers aim to increase their audience’s knowledge of specific subjects. Teachers use different strategies to ensure students acquire knowledge in a wide range of topics. Teachers also used various techniques to check students’ progress, such as examinations, tests, assignments, or other assessment methods.

What is the Role of a Corporate Trainer?

Corporate training empowers company employees to develop professionally and achieve the organization’s goals, aligning with its mission statement. When conducting corporate training sessions, course development, along with presentation skills, is paramount. Always maintain an enthusiastic, friendly, and positive attitude to ensure your audience finds your training sessions enjoyable. Demonstrating confidence by communicating that you are knowledgeable about the content you are sharing.

Conducting training in the business sector can be exciting since you will be training adults who often appreciate the importance of learning. They will be more than willing to listen to and understand the things you teach them, unlike in a K-12 setting.

A corporate trainer’s duties are fundamental to the company’s growth. With staff being a company’s greatest asset, training employees is vital for improving overall organizational effectiveness. Therefore, a lot of planning is required for staff training preparation.

Corporate Trainers Need These Areas of Expertise

To effectively secure this kind of work, your educational background needs to be suitable. Most companies will require corporate trainers to have a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.

Some of the skills vital to transition into a corporate trainer role include:

• staying current on emerging business trends and strategies
• content knowledge – product and services
• strong written and verbal communication
• technology – training tools, videos, presentation software, online learning apps
• writing manuals
• collaboration with department heads and senior executives
• ability to deliver training in groups or one-on-one training
• business processes and policies
• presenting content in an engaging way
• student motivation
• listening
• designing programs – curriculum development
• adjusting to learning styles and abilities

As you can see, many of the skills required are similar to those you used teaching in a classroom, meaning they are transferable.

Being organized and adaptable will help you immensely in this role. Completely understanding the company’s products or services is paramount to creating high-quality training for adults.

Know Your Audience and Company Training Goals

Knowing your audience is your key to success, so involve them by letting them participate and ask questions during all your sessions. Listening and thinking on your feet are vital. You will need to provide detailed responses to any questions.

When you’re ready to make a career change, gather as much information as possible to become an excellent corporate trainer. Conducting research will provide relevant information to make it easier to meet your employer’s expectations. Understand the work environment and the audience to ensure learning takes place at each session you facilitate.

Transitioning from teaching to another career will take time, dedication, and determination. Don’t let a rejection get you down – it is part of the job search process.

Always start your job search with a targeted, visually appealing, keyword-rich, accomplishment-based corporate trainer resume and application letter that will pass through applicant tracking systems and wow the reader, ensuring you get corporate trainer interviews.

If you need help, contact Candace at 1-877-738-8052 or candoco@telus.net.

Have you ever been to a teacher interview where this question has been asked: How do you differentiate your instruction? The interviewers want to know how you accommodate different types of learners in your classroom.

It is important the response you give to the job interview question is truthful, relevant to the position, and shows value to the school district. Communicate to the interview panel you understand the importance of differentiating your teaching to meet all students’ needs.

The following could be a possible answer, or it may provide some ideas for you to tailor your response:

My teaching is unique;  my teaching approach is holistic, and it’s inclusive and individualized. It is holistic because I not only share knowledge with my students, but I elicit knowledge from them.

For instance, when I was teaching mathematics, I didn’t only show formulas and methods of solving mathematical problems. I explained to my students the value of understanding numbers and the great things we can use math for, such as thinking logically.

For those who have difficulty, I use cooperative learning, peer tutors, and re-teaching techniques. I attend to the individual needs of the students by modifying assignments. For example, when I had a group of gifted children in my class, I regularly gave them special jobs to work on to stimulate higher-level thinking skills and had them present their work to the class.

As no two students learn in the same way or at the same ability level, it is important to differentiate instruction toward different learning modality preferences, different skill levels, and different interests.

I plan to group students by the interest for certain activities but may have activities set at various levels of complexity (questioning levels/abstract thinking processes), resulting in different products that employ students’ preferred learning modality (auditory/visual/kinesthetic).

Differentiating the content by interest takes work but pays off. The lesson is being differentiated by readiness (complexity of thinking skills required), and student learning modality preferences are differentiating the product. This multiple differentiation has the added advantage of making presentations much more enjoyable than if all groups did everything in the same way. Each presentation was simply a repetition of the former one.

During group discussions, I will also adjust the questions I ask the specific student I am addressing. For instance, I will direct higher-order questions to students at that level and adjust questions accordingly for students with greater needs. I will employ flexible grouping, peer teaching, reading buddies, and learning centers as methods to differentiate instruction effectively.

Discover 152 teacher-specific interview questions and detailed potential answers to prepare you for your next education interview. A+ Teachers’ Interview Edge (2nd Edition)

Please comment below on how you do or will differentiate your teaching. Provide a couple of examples.

When trying to obtain a special education teaching position, your resume’s format and its content are critical to getting selected for an interview. Few job seekers like writing their resumes; it can be tedious and tiresome. It’s important to remember your resume is the next thing a prospective employer sees after your cover letter.

If you have a lackluster resume, you can jeopardize your chances of obtaining the position you desire. That is why writing a focused resume to submit to special education teaching positions is so important. Make the resume targeted towards that job title. 

Special Education Resume Writing Tips

When trying to obtain a special education teaching position, you need to write a quality resume to highlight your relevant experience and qualifications for the job. 

Hiring committees are looking for a reliable, knowledgeable person when hiring Special Education teachers.

Below are a few tips to help write a resume to secure a special education teaching job interview.

Open with a Strong Objective – the Title of the Position(s). 

Job professionals seem to be divided as to whether a resume should have an objective or not. Include the title of the position you are targeting at the top of the resume, followed by a strong resume profile.

A well-written, sincere resume profile is your first opportunity to demonstrate your specific interest and passion for special education as a teaching field.

While it is widely known that it is easier to get jobs in special education because it is specialized, schools do not want to hire people who have selected the profession simply because there were strong job prospects. A special education teacher is charged with creating and implementing individual education plans to help students facing a diverse array of challenges succeed.

School districts want to make sure they select someone who can live up to this responsibility. If you open your resume by stating that you are interested in special education because you are interested in the students you serve and the work you will do, you will immediately put your best foot forward.

Resume Content Should be Specific and Detailed

When listing your previous teaching or related experience, be sure to list any specific disabilities or issues that you have worked with within the past.

Frequently, schools will have a specific list of needs that they want to meet, and they will be looking for candidates with strong experience supporting students with those specific needs. They will likely want to select someone who has experience with those disabilities, so the teacher they hire is already mindful of appropriate accommodation strategies.

Listing your experiences with specific needs and explaining how you could support students with those needs to ensure their success is an excellent way to help your candidacy stand out.

Mention Special Certifications

Create a section where you list any special certifications that you have. Be sure to include the date when you earned the certification and any specific information about the certification.

Some schools require teachers to have certifications such as reading endorsements and will filter out resumes of candidates who do not list those certifications. If you hold one of these certifications but fail to mention it on your resume, you could miss out on getting a job for which you are actually very well qualified. Don’t lose a potential job by overlooking the little details.

Use Special Education Keywords

While you don’t want your resume to be an unintelligible mess, be sure to demonstrate you can comfortably use special education keywords by utilizing them in your resume.

Even administration deals with special education students, so don’t feel you can’t mention IEP’s or 504 Plans without throwing them for a loop. If you use the terms fluidly, it will demonstrate to the hiring committee you are comfortable with the terminology and well versed in your field.

Consider using both the full term and the acronym; the hiring committee could be using an applicant tracking system to filter for one keyword and not the other.

While it is undeniably much easier to obtain a special education job, it is important to remember that you still need to stand out as the best candidate for each job for which you apply.

Some individuals hold the qualifications necessary to teach special education and are jobless. Unless you want to be one of them, be sure to create a resume to convince employers you are the teacher for their school.

Are you considering finding a teaching job internationally? For many, teaching abroad is an excellent chance to see the world and gain experience as a teacher and traveling. Start your overseas job search with the right tools to make it as quick and easy as possible.

Asking the right questions to the school representatives about the overseas teaching jobs before making a decision is vital to accept the right job offer.

While it is exciting to relocate and work in another country, it is important to keep in mind to conduct due diligence. Before your eagerness to escape your mundane life takes over and you accept a job too hastily, consider asking the following questions regarding the international teaching position.

Use your future school’s answers to determine if the job is something you can commit to or if you should keep on searching:

How many international teachers do you employ at your school?

Are you comfortable being the only foreign teacher in a school?

If not, make sure that you select a school that employs many international teachers. This can be particularly important if you are working in a country where you do not speak the local language.

It could be quite lonely to spend extensive periods of time without communicating with others who speak your language, so be selective in your choice.

Do you require that your teachers speak some of the country’s language?

Some countries in which English is not the official language insist that any teacher abroad speaks the local language. In other cases, there is no such requirement. Ensure that you are clear on the school’s policy where you may potentially work, so there are no surprises down the line.

Do you provide housing for teachers?

Housing available for visiting teachers, especially if the school specializes in appointing teachers from abroad. Providing housing to the teacher is often called a perk. If the school does not provide this benefit, be sure to research accommodations to ensure they are within your budget before signing a teaching contract.

What types of students make up your student body?

Try to find out what kinds of students you will be teaching. Do all of the students come from local farms, or are they all city-raised children?

As you have undoubtedly learned in your teacher education, students from different geographic and socio-economic backgrounds respond quite differently to various education styles. Don’t assume that your students abroad will all be little angels. Every country has some bad apples.

On average, how many students do you have in a regular class?

Particularly in countries where overcrowding is rampant, class sizes can be quite large at times. Be sure to inquire about the average class size so that you can prepare yourself. If you aren’t comfortable teaching 40 students, make sure that you select a school where you know that the classes will be smaller.

Do students take any standardized tests?

Every country has a different standard of education. In most countries, students must take some standardized tests to ensure that they have a sufficient understanding of the material. Be sure to ask about the types of tests your students will have to write so that you can do your job and prepare them adequately.

If you are interested in teaching abroad, the key to success is knowledge. Make sure you look before you leap. Don’t let your excitement over the promise of an exotic new land be the reason you don’t ask the right questions.

Ask questions now to ensure that your experience is everything you wanted it to be and more.

Submitting a quality international teaching resume will save you an abundance of time and frustration.

Here are a couple of teaching job interview questions about teaching students higher-order thinking and writing skills to help you prepare for your next teacher interview.

Have a look at these sample interview responses to help you tailor your response, including examples in your answer that will make your response more convincing in the teaching interview or when asked by your supervisor. It builds credibility with the interviewer.

How will you improve students’ writing abilities?

Here is an example of a response.

I am a big fan of peer editing and collaborative writing exercises to strengthen students’ independent application. The best way for students to improve their writing abilities is to give them lots of writing opportunities. In-class writing exercises, journal writing, creative writing, and collaborative writing allow students to explore the many different writing avenues through being prolific in their writing attempts.

It is important to provide students with the maximum amount of feedback that provides a venue for maximum learning. As correcting and grading writing is one of the most time-consuming tasks for teachers, it is a great technique for students to mark another student’s writing. Writing and evaluation are two sides of the same coin.

To grow as writers, students must learn to develop an editorial eye. Peer editing allows students to benefit from the writing process while the teacher remains the coach and facilitator.

Teaching students require patience, and understanding that students learn differently is critical to improving students’ writing abilities.

What do teaching students’ higher-order thinking skills mean to you?

When teaching students higher-order thinking skills, I emphasize Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Always differentiate the instruction as needed; this includes providing support for students with exceptional ability.

To reach each of the higher-order thinking skills, I incorporate topic elaborating questions into worksheets and group discussions. These questions include: What is it? How does it work? What are its interesting characteristics? How do these characteristics change? What are these changes related to? What would happen if? What could be done about it?

When teaching students higher-order thinking skills, I model and re-model each skill, develop a framework to attach to each complex skill, gradually increase each skill’s complexity, scaffold each practice opportunity closely, and teach the skill in a low content context before applying content later to practice opportunities.

It’s important to review the framework’s structure frequently and review the skill frameworks using visualizations and strategies that involve multisensory approaches. Finally, once students have learned the skill, I teach them when appropriate to use each skill – meta-cognition.

Please share with us by commenting below how you improve students’ writing abilities and teach students higher-order thinking skills. How would you answer this question in a job interview?

Special education is a rapidly growing sector of the education field. The number of students requiring special education services has increased because students with special needs are identified earlier, and there is an increase in the acceptance of services necessary.

As the special needs student population grows, school districts need to hire more teachers to provide these students’ services. And certain skills are necessary to obtain a special education job. The Occupational Outlook Handbook states that the number of special education teachers required will increase by 17% from 2008 – 2018.

If you are ready to apply for special education teaching jobs, be sure to consider the steps needed to increase the chance of being selected for vacant positions.

When districts hire special education teachers, they look for certain attributes, skills, certifications, experiences, and accomplishments. If you make sure you possess these traits, you will be a more desirable candidate and will be more likely to be selected for the position. Knowing how to conduct a job search will be helpful to get the best results. 

Familiarize Yourself With Current Special Education Keywords

Special education is full of acronyms and keywords that a qualified teacher should be familiar with and understand. Study up on these acronyms. If you have to ask them to explain what they mean in the interview, it may deter them from hiring you. When they use technical terms associated with the position, you should know what they are referring to.

Schools want to hire someone current with the latest special education techniques to promote learning. If you are a bit hazy on this, be sure to review some of the common terms, such as intensive individualized instruction, special adaptations, and specific special education software. Comprehend and effectively answer interview questions demonstrating your knowledge by practicing.

Be Knowledgeable About Various Disabilities

It is beneficial to know about all types of disabilities – the students you instruct could be challenged with various obstacles, and you will need to be fully prepared to assist. Be sure you know basic information about a wide variety of disabilities before you go to an interview.

Accurately and impressively answer questions may pose regarding different disability types. As a special education teacher, you are the school district’s expert on disabilities. School hiring representatives want to hire someone they can turn to if they have questions, not someone who constantly needs to consult a resource book.

Know Differentiation

Differentiation is a popular buzzword in education today. It is something that all teachers should do in their classrooms. However, as a special education teacher, you will be required to do more differentiation than anyone else. Consider how you could modify lessons to meet students’ individual needs, and be prepared to give specific examples in your interview.

Demonstrate your Ability to Work Cooperatively

Teachers in special education are frequently required to work cooperatively with other teachers and resource specialists. Most schools want to hire a special education teacher who is a team player. Understand and communicate the importance of collaborating with other teachers to help ensure students’ success.  Emphasize your willingness to co-operate with other teachers in your interview.

Understand the Roles of Support Staff

Depending on the nature of disabilities that may be present in your class, you may be in charge of managing and allocating support staff. Be sure you are aware of the different support staff that generally assist with special education programs. Your interviewer may ask you to explain how you would utilize different support structures. Before the interview, you may want to consider using other staff to help disabled students succeed effectively.

The job of a special education teacher is significant to the entire school community. When schools interview potential teachers, they look very carefully at the applications, credentials, knowledge, and skills. They want to select the proper candidate. If you want to be the candidate who earns the job, you need to make sure that your qualifications are top-notch.

Do not forget to research the school district before your teacher or school administrator job interview. Investigating the school district to uncover information about the academic community and its needs is one of the most critical preparation steps.

Knowing as much information as possible about the school district will help ensure you can tailor your responses to interview questions.

School hiring representatives expect you to come prepared for the interview, including finding out information about them. Doing homework on the school will let the interviewer know you are interested and serious about your career and job search.

The best information about the school district will come from any friends or colleagues you know who already work there or have worked there. First-hand accounts are always the best. Schools and school districts may welcome phone calls from individuals to ask pertinent questions regarding hiring procedures.

When you call, you can ask about obtaining any school literature that could provide you with valuable information about the district. Most school districts and individual schools have a website which you can gather relevant, useful information. Perform a Google search to see if there are any related articles written about the school or district.

Researching the school district is essential to interview success. It is very unwise to walk into a teacher or school administrator job interview not knowing anything about the school or school district where you hope to become a new employee.

If you don’t research the prospective school, you may not realize whether you would like to work there.

Know the Answers to the Interview Questions

1. What are the demographics of the school population?

2. What is the district’s mission/philosophy?

3. How many employees does the school district have?

4. What area does the district cover, and how many schools are in the district?

5. How is the district’s standing with standardized testing as compared to the national average?

6. Does the school district offer any new teacher support programs?

Knowing these answers will provide you with a wealth of information that you can discuss during the interview. For instance, if the school is very concerned about raising their literacy scores and having a literacy endorsement, this will be a tremendous asset.

If you can tailor your interview answers to address important issues to the school, your chances of securing the position will grow exponentially.

If one of the school district’s focus areas is integrating technology, which is one of your strongest assets, you communicate this throughout the interview.

On the other side of this, you need to find out what the school is offering its employees.

Does the district provide professional development opportunities?

Are you required to complete many professional development hours each year?

Will you be expected to take on extracurricular responsibilities?

These are all important things you should find out, either before the interview or at the meeting, to determine if the school will be a stable fit for you.

Are you aware of the advantages of cold calling for a teaching position?

Cold Calling Versus the Traditional Job Search Method

When looking for a teaching position, most teachers opt for the traditional method. The conventional job seeker approach uses online job boards, newspapers, and district websites to find advertised job openings. This job-hunting style can be fruitful and end up with you gaining an interview or maybe even snagging the open position.

The downside to only applying to advertised positions is that you will be going up against many other job applicants. The competition is fierce because every other teacher looking for a job in your area could apply to the position since it is advertised.

Try a Job Search Alternative Technique

Establishing personal contact with a school is often overlooked in today’s job search. Many job seekers think it can be easier to only apply for advertised positions. Applying for jobs this way doesn’t allow you to establish any direct contact with the school, and your odds of success go up exponentially when this is accomplished.

It’s a more formal way of building relationships and a fabulous way to make a continued good impression. Cold calling schools are sometimes a great method for finding out about open positions.

Many schools and districts don’t advertise at all.

Two Ways to Cold Call a School

1. Approach Schools Directly for Substitute Teaching Work

Cold calling can be a productive method to get your foot in the door of a school you want to teach. Once you have taught the students a few days, weeks, or months at the school, you will find out if vacancies are coming up. By substitute teaching, you get the chance to know the school, its students, staff and become familiar with its routines, policies, and procedures. Knowledge of the school will help you in an interview situation.

It will allow you to assess whether or not the school is right for you. If you do a good job, students will likely look forward to having you as a substitute, and that can be a huge “in” when a job does come available. If you can prove to students and parents that you’d be an asset to their education, your worth will increase exponentially.

2. Make Cold Calls to Schools to Ask About Available Positions

You may be surprised just how many schools are looking for teachers or are planning on hiring at a particular time (end of the semester, school year, etc.).

If they don’t have any immediate vacancies, they will often tell you whether or not they will be hiring in the future. If they don’t volunteer this information, make sure you ask. And if they are currently recruiting, you will be able to jump on the other candidates.

Even if schools aren’t hiring, they will often still ask you to send a resume for them to keep on file. If they don’t ask this, volunteer to do so. This way, if an opening does come up at the last minute, you will already be in their file of existing candidates: conduct follow-up phone calls and request meetings with hiring officials.

Do yourself a service and don’t get caught up with only checking job boards and applying online to advertised or posted job openings. When conducting a teacher job search, you need to diversify. Ensure you cold call schools because the potential for hidden job opportunities is untapped by most other teachers.

What other cold-calling tips do you have? Comment and share below! If you need help with any aspect of your job search, reach out to Candace today!

Do you know how to answer this difficult principal interview question: What basis do you believe school priorities should be established?

It is essential that the response you give to the job interview question is truthful, relevant to the position, and shows value to the school district. The following could be a possible answer or provide some ideas for you to tailor your response.

I believe that school priorities should be established using evidence-informed processes and tools to evaluate school performance and self-assessing to identify school priorities. Think about the top factors to achieve student success.

Using the School Improvement Framework can assist in these matters, as the framework will help examine a school’s programs and practices critically. School priorities should be established across four main disciplines: learning and teaching, leading and managing, student environment, parental relationships, and community involvement. Once a school has self-assessed using the School Improvement Framework as a basis, it can then decide which areas need to focus its priorities on moving forward in a positive direction.

In addition to priorities focused specifically on school improvement, some priorities should be established that are less concrete and more about ensuring a positive learning environment. For instance, if the school is very multicultural or has issues with bullying, then a major priority should be on self-esteem, acceptance, and societal responsibility. This emphasizes the importance of taking into account other influences on the school community outside of just academics.

Another question to consider the panel asking in the interview is, can a school be too student-centered?

There are many other school administrator questions and potential answers on this site. You may wish to review a few more.