Develop skills, open doors

At a school in Essex, Joe Graffham coached the Year 10 football team. He also set up a new politics A-level course (oversubscribed) and organised a trip to the Houses of Parliament for pupils who had never been to central London. That was in addition to his full-time teaching responsibilities. And, at this point, he had been in the classroom for less than two years.

Joe joined our two-year Training Programme in 2015, training to be an influential classroom leader, working with some of the most disadvantaged young people in the country and developing the skills to succeed, wherever his career eventually leads him. It’s a challenge he’s welcomed with open arms:

“With Teach First there are so many opportunities open to you, you just get used to that mentality of ‘Shall we try this?’ and ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Develop invaluable skills

Joe, like many of our participants, tells us the genuine responsibility that our programme offers from day one enables you to develop a wide range of personal and professional skills.

Another participant, Musibau Kaffo (known as Kaffo), who joined our Leadership Development Programme in 2014, says he developed resilience, confidence, leadership and presentation skills from his experience in the classroom. “After all,” he says, “you’re talking in front of 30 kids every day for two years.” Kaffo adds:

“Through Teach First I honed my people skills – compassion, interaction, reading people’s body language. Quite often kids don’t tell you how they feel, so you get quite good at that. This helps me in my job now, when meeting clients and working with colleagues - trying to understand things from their point of view and not being too judgemental. My feedback at work tends to be about my ability to build good relationships.” 

Open doors for your career

After our programme, Kaffo became an actuarial associate at PwC and has found, like many of our participants, the Training Programme actively opens doors for your future career, wherever that takes you, and often helps you progress further faster. In Kaffo’s words:

“The relationship-building and the resilience I developed through Teach First – these are things you don’t always see in other graduates who’ve come straight to PwC.”

Kaffo’s experience is backed up by the more than 80 organisations working in a range of sectors – from government and charity to tech and finance – who recognise our programme’s ability to develop leaders with a spectrum of transferable skills.

In fact, of the individuals who move into careers in consulting or finance after our programme, 75% are working for our supporter organisations, just like Kaffo.

And Joe knows just how the Training Programme can help fast-track your career in education: He progressed to become a curriculum leader in his school the year after completing our programme. In fact, Teach First teachers are seven times more likely to be in senior school leadership positions. And at least 28 individuals have already gone on to become headteachers.

Access exclusive opportunities

The Training Programme helps you gain the transferable skills you need but, more than that, it also offers you exposure to our high-profile partner organisations. Our Platinum Partners - Accenture, Google, PwC and the Royal Navy - offer exclusive benefits to our participants, including one-to-one leadership coaching, specialist subject support and internships during the programme. Recognising the skills developed in the classroom, some of our partners also offer opportunities to explore careers at their organisations, if you chose to move on from teaching.

For Kaffo, this meant taking on an exclusive internship with PwC during our programme, working in assurance, after which he was offered a job. He made a decision to apply for a position in the actuarial team instead, but believes the internship “opened the door” for him. It also meant he was fast-tracked through part of the PwC application process.

Join a prestigious and powerful network

Our participants often tell us they believe employers take note of them because of the prestige of the Training Programme. In Kaffo’s experience:

“PwC recognise the quality that comes out of Teach First participants.”

Our programme offers world-class training, resulting in a highly transferable qualification that recognises your advanced skills in both teaching and leadership. The programme is based on global best practice and research and refined through more than 15 years of experience and feedback from leading employers, teaching experts and previous participants.

More than 10,000 people have joined our Training Programme so far. And you can be part of this network of leaders who are continuing to make things happen through their roles in education, business, government and social enterprise. Our participants tell us this network is one of the most valuable aspects of joining our programme. In Joe’s words:

“There are so many sister organisations set up by people who’ve done the Training Programme, and as someone who’s done the programme you have access to this network to develop skills for your future career.”