TEACHERS shape the future, especially in the further education (FE) sector. FE encompasses all formal learning for those aged over 16 that isn’t part of an undergraduate or graduate degree, including students studying T Levels and adult learners looking to enhance their careers, do something different or pick up a new passion.
As a result, people with hands-on experience in a huge range of industries – from plumbing, mechanics and construction to law and healthcare – are sought after to pass on their skills to the next generation of workers in their industry.
Dominic Whelan, 48, is a former RAF engineer turned automotive lecturer at Sandwell College in the West Midlands, and won a Pearson National Teaching Award in 2022 for his FE teaching.
Here he explains how his experience of working on planes, trains and automobiles helps him to inspire his students – and why he finds the job so fulfilling.
“FE teaching is 100 per cent the best career in the world. Getting a car engine running is great but firing up a student for a career in mechanics and engineering is even better.
“Recently I received a message from a former student saying he’d got a job with a sports car team and was prepping a vehicle for a race at Brands Hatch.
“I thought: brilliant – that’s the reward of teaching, inspiring the students with a passion that will lead to adventures and fulfilment.
“I went further than I could ever have dreamt of going when, as a young lad leaving school, I became an apprentice mechanic. So, I can relate to my students.
“In the 90s I studied for a City & Guilds engineering qualification. My FE teachers were great, and combining study with on-the-job experience kept me interested – I remember the excitement when a Porsche came into the garage one day.”
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You don’t need prior teaching experience to share your skills in further education – you can study for your qualifications while on the job. You just need real world experience and a desire to pass on that knowledge to the next generation of workers in your field – you can teach in subjects such as health and social care, digital and IT, engineering, manufacturing or law. You can even teach part-time or on an ad hoc basis while continuing in your existing career.
“The RAF took me from boy
to man. Yes, it was tough, but the camaraderie was wonderful”
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THRILLS AND SKILLS
An RAF engineer turned
teacher explains the joy of further education
FIRST STEPS
“After four years as a car mechanic, I visited the RAF Careers Office in Liverpool and asked about becoming an aeroplane engineer.
“I’d loved aeroplanes since I first flew, as a nine-year-old, to South Africa in a jumbo jet. Back home, I’d sit in the cat box pretending to be a pilot!
“The RAF took me from boy to man. Yes, it was tough, but the camaraderie was wonderful.
“At RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, I worked on Hercules planes. Flying low level over the Bristol Channel and Cheddar Gorge to check they were shipshape was amazing.
“Then I was put in charge of the small components workshop at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland, where the recruits who’d just finished basic training had their first hands-on experience with planes.
“It was daunting for the young ones, walking into this massive multimillion-pound facility. But remembering my own experience of that, I reassured them.
“That was my first experience of sharing my skills with the next generation – and I found helping them gain confidence very rewarding.
“Inspired, I applied to train as a teacher at the RAF’s Defence School of Aeronautical Engineering in Shropshire.”
Ignition impossible ... getting an engine running is great – firing up a student for a new career is even better
GIVEN WINGS
“As well as giving me on-the-job teaching experience, the RAF put me through my cert ed at the University of Wolverhampton.
“The first thing I taught in front of a classroom was how to make those origami fortune-telling puzzles that 80s kids like me played with.
“It was a random subject chosen in a panic when I heard we had to give a five-minute class to our fellow teacher trainees. But we were soon all laughing and there was a real buzz in the room. It was exhilarating.
“Teaching recruits how to fix plane engines, I felt at home. I knew my stuff, I wanted to share it and the recruits were keen to learn.
“That’s what I say to anyone in industry considering a move to FE: if you can give a talk to your colleagues, you’ve got what it takes to teach students.
“At the college I discovered that even though I’m great at fixing planes, I’m even better at teaching people to fix them. So, when my posting drew to a close, I made a leap of faith and left the RAF after 13 years to become an FE teacher.
“I’ve been lecturing in the automotive department at Sandwell College for eight years now. I did have a short stint out to work at Network Rail as an overhead line engineer, but I wanted a better work-life balance and I missed FE teaching.”
Knowledge is power ... Dominic shows his students how training as an engineer opens up a world of possibilities
NEXT GENERATION
Dominic continues: “Here at Sandwell, we’re at the cutting edge of technology, which might surprise some people who reckon all teaching takes place in classrooms.
“We’ve just taken delivery of our first electric vehicle in our workshop. No planes yet, but I have given some theory of flying lessons in the engineering department.
“It’s my job to inspire students, not just train them. That’s why I organise outings to the Royal Air Force Museum in Shropshire, where I point out the bits I riveted of the Harrier and Hercules jets on display.
“I’m proud to have worked on planes that flew all over the globe and are so special they’re now in a museum. ‘This is where training as a mechanic or engineer can take you,’ I tell my students. ‘It opens up a world of possibilities.’
“It’s the same when we’re working on a car engine in the workshop. I’ll bring up images on the computer of an aeroplane engine to show the similarities and tell the students: ‘Planes, trains, automobiles, ships – the basics of an engine are the same and there’s a whole world out there for engineers.’
“Sure enough, I’ve had a few guys join the RAF and Network Rail after college, which made me proud.
“Others are inspired by the theory side of the course and go on to university to study engineering. They might be building bridges in the future and it’s the joy of teaching to know a small part of that is down to me.”
Driving seat ... in further education you can choose to teach part-time alongside your existing career
“If you can give a talk to
your colleagues, you’ve got
what it takes to teach students”
PHOTOGRAPHY: JUDE EDGINTON
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