Back to school

BRITAIN: Where have all the former bankers gone? In the UK, thousands are becoming teachers or school business-managers.

Simon Brown, a 51-year-old investment banker who took voluntary redundancy when his bank was taken over, now works as a school business-director.  “Banks were going to be pilloried by society and there were going to be huge redundancies," Brown told The Guardian. "I began to re-examine what I wanted from a career.”  In school, he says, the children are the most important thing. “In banking, it was all me, me, me, and bonuses and fancy cars.”

"In school, the children are the most important thing. In banking, it was all me, me, me."

Britain’s National College for School Leadership recently reported that the number of people applying to manage school funds has quadrupled this year. And the Graduate Teacher Trainer Registry says that applications for teacher training courses are up 14 per cent on March last year. Boosting  the trend, the government last week offered people who have lost top jobs the chance to become teachers in half the normal time.

“There are thousands of highly talented individuals in this country who are considering their next move, and want to do something challenging and rewarding, that is highly respected, and where good people have great prospects,” UK school minister Jim Knight said. “My message to them is see what they can offer teaching and what teaching can offer them.”