Career derailed after good start

Stacy Squires

OPPORTUNITIES ELUSIVE: "bucketloads" of job applications proved fruitless for teacher Mellissa Banks. 25.

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Melissa Banks would like nothing better than to spend her days in a classroom, but finding a job in a New Zealand school has proved so difficult she is about to leave the country.

Banks, 25, graduated from Teachers' College in Christchurch in 2003 and headed overseas to teach in England.

"I wanted to do my OE and I thought a teaching degree would stand me in good stead in the UK," she said.

"I travelled around teaching at lots of different schools, which gave me loads of new skills and experience, as well as seeing a bit of the world."

After 18 months, Banks returned to New Zealand hoping to continue her career, but after a good start she has found it almost impossible to get a job.

"I got a job at Avonhead Primary School relieving the deputy principal in her classroom, and I did some other relieving work there as well, which was really great," she said.

"But unfortunately, after a year they could not keep me on.

"After that I applied for bucketloads of jobs and sent out loads of CVs, but although I got a lot of interviews I couldn't get a job. There always seemed to be someone with more experience."

Despite having some experience, Banks is still classed as a beginning teacher, meaning schools have to put in extra resources to help her.

"I can totally see where they (schools) are coming from," she said. "It is easier for them to employ someone with experience, but that doesn't help new teachers. There are loads of good new teachers out there."

Banks is now working as a restaurant manager in Akaroa and plans to go back to Britain to continue her teaching career.

- © Fairfax NZ News