Further internal resources
For EMBL fellows
Within EMBL, further internal resources (e.g. recorded career seminars) can be found on our career exploration intranet pages.
Career area: Secondary education
If you enjoy communicating science and in particular teaching, a career path as a school teacher can be an option for you.
Roles and responsibilities
On a day-to-day basis, you will:
- prepare and deliver lessons
- mark classwork, coursework and exams
- monitor student progress
- prepare lab activities
- provide pastoral support to students
- contribute towards other school activities and governance
Knowledge and skills
In our careers & skills survey, 5 science educators told us about the competencies they used most often. The most commonly selected competences were:
- effective communication (selected by 80% of respondents)
- broad scientific knowledge (60%; and ranked as most important for success)
- organization (60%)
- mentoring and leadership (60%)
- self-management (60%)
Career entry and progression
Requirements for these positions are specific to national educational systems. A small number of programmes e.g. TeachFirst in the UK provide a fast-track option for graduates, and some private schools also do not require a full teaching degree. But for the vast majority of teaching positions, you will require a formal qualification from a teacher training course.
Why consider this career area?
In our careers and skills survey, 5 science educators told us what they appreciate most about their work. The most common selections were, that the work:
- is intellectually stimulating
- allows me to be creative
Want to learn more?
Sources / further information
- Written articles (overview):
- Why these PhD scientists swapped research for secondary-school teaching – Nature Careers
- My second life as a high school teacher – Science Careers
- Blog post: Better Science Teaching, using real science in the classroom
- A plum teaching job, off-campus – ChronicleVitae
Informational interviews
For all career areas, we highly recommend first learning more about the careers using the resources above, then conducting informational interviews to gain further insights directly from former PhDs working in career areas that interest you.
Last update: August 2022
