Essential Skills For Further Education Teachers
We recently posted a blog about essential skills for trainers. We thought it would be a great idea to discuss some essential skills for teachers in the further education sector. Now some of the skills may cross over into our other blog about soft skills, but that’s fine! As a practitioner, you’re going to be making a massive difference in your student’s learning. You need to be able to become an effective teacher. So these skills are going to come in handy. What kind of skills are you going to need?
If you plan on becoming a teacher or want to become even better, then working towards these skills will definitely help you become a great teacher.
Passion
When it comes to teaching you need to be passionate. No one wants to learn from someone who isn’t passionate about their subject. As we mentioned in the essential skills for trainers, a passion for teaching is detrimental to becoming an even better teacher. Not only do you have to have a passion for teaching, but you need a passion for the well-being and development of your learners.
Leadership
Becoming a better teacher requires you to have leadership skills. As a teacher, you need to be able to lead a classroom. As well as inspire confidence in your students. You also need to be able to deal with a variety of learners. Who may have different needs to be met. You may think you don’t have leadership skills, well don’t worry! It can be developed. To be a good leader you need to have the confidence to lead the class by example and make sure every student is receiving the same level of care and attention.
Multitasking
Multitasking is a skill you need in any profession. It’s extremely handy to have under your belt. Especially within the education sector. You need to be able to deliver lessons, plan lessons, mark work and write reports among other things! Multitasking is paramount to the success of doing it all. However, as a teacher, you need to have the qualities to perform each task to the best of your ability.
Adaptability
Along with multitasking, adaptability is a skill you need to possess in any job. You need to be able to adapt quickly, even more so as a teacher. Things go wrong all the time! You may have a perfect task set out for your learners but it doesn’t go to plan, so you need to be able to adapt and change so you can make it more suitable. It’s a great quality to have, to be able to think on your feet and be open to adaptions.
Communication
Similar to communication, any teacher needs to be a strong communicator. This doesn’t just mean being able to give the information to your learners but also speaking to them one on one if it’s necessary. As some learners will ask for that. You need to be able to do that effectively and be able to clarify things if a learner is struggling.
You as a teacher need to be approachable in case a student has concerns. Whatever those concerns are. If students feel as though they can communicate with you as a teacher that’s great.
Patience
Every student is different, depending on their age, background and individual needs. As every student will learn differently. Some learners will be able to pick up the material almost instantly, while others may need individual help and guidance. You can start to spot the different learning styles in your students so you can tailor lessons. This is part of becoming a great teacher. Having the patience to help each student individually, rather than just teaching them and expecting them to keep up with you.
Becoming tech-savvy
With the pandemic happening and pretty much everyone going online, the growth within technology was massive. Having the ability to use a computer or other technology for a variety of different purposes is essential. Regardless of if it’s for accessing online material, recording grades or guiding research, having computer skills is beneficial to any teacher. Now we know technology is always advancing but it’s extremely important that we keep up to date with the advances (as long as they’re relevant), and it makes for some great CPD!
Now all these skills can be developed and learned, so if you’re thinking that you don’t have any of these then don’t worry! They are also types of soft skills. Which are also very important when job seeking, so it’s extremely beneficial to learn some of these skills if you don’t have them.