CDT Teacher / Videographer / Shop Owner

Key skills/talents

Secondary school teachers

Knowledge of teaching and the ability to design and run educational courses
The ability to create the best conditions for learning or teaching new things
Leadership skills
To be flexible and open to change
Patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
Excellent verbal communication skills
Resilience - to deal with problematic children and parents!
Good administration skills - there’s a lot of admin!
Competent use of computers and all the main software packages

CHECK OUT FRANCES'S PODCAST

Key skills/talents cont...

Secondary school Teacher

Knowledge of teaching and the ability to design and run educational courses
The ability to create the best conditions for learning or teaching new things
Leadership skills
To be flexible and open to change
Patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
Excellent verbal communication skills
Resilience - to deal with problematic children and parents!
Good administration skills - there’s a lot of admin!
Competent use of computers and all the main software packages

Wedding Videographers

Excellent camera knowledge and a good understanding of photographic equipment.
Good audio awareness and audio knowledge so you can spot and manage audio correctly during filming and during the editing process.
A knowledge of cinematography. This is different to videography and covers things like the composition of a shot, lighting and colouring.
Good planning skills. From ensuring you have all the right equipment on the day of the shoot through to managing your diary and planning each shoot as carefully as possible in advance.
A calm head. Things can go wrong or not go to plan, and the best videographers know this, and are able to adapt.
A steady hand. You’ll pretty much only get one shot at it, so keep those hands and arms safe and secure.
Great communication skills. From talking to people and telling them where you'd like them to stand, through to communicating with the venue and the happy couple.
Good tech skills, especially editing software.

Shop Owners

Of course, good customer service skills
Patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
The ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
The ability to work well with others - customers, staff and suppliers
Ability to multi-task and get the whole job done each day
The ability to sell products and services confidently and professionally
Business management skills - how to manage the whole supply chain profitably.
Competent use of computers and all the main software packages

Qualifications required

To become a secondary school teacher in the UK, you typically need the following qualifications and steps:

A bachelor's degree: You'll need a degree in the subject you wish to teach or a related field. For example, if you want to teach mathematics, you should have a degree in mathematics.
Qualified Teacher Status (QTS): This is a mandatory requirement to teach in state-maintained schools in England. You can obtain QTS through various routes, such as a university-based teacher training program or a school-based training program.
Criminal Records Check: You will need to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check to ensure you have no criminal convictions that would disqualify you from working with children.

During your teacher training program, you'll gain practical classroom experience, which is an essential part of your preparation. Please note that specific requirements and routes to becoming a teacher may vary slightly in different parts of the UK, such as Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It's advisable to check with the relevant educational authorities for the most up-to-date information and specific requirements for the region in which you plan to teach.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is key and expected as a teacher. You'll be expected to engage in ongoing professional development to enhance your skills and keep-up with educational changes.

To become a Wedding Videographer (and other than self-teaching, like Frances did), there are lots of filmmaking/videography/editing courses you can attend (online and in person). Below are just a few we’ve found

Evolve Videography Training have online courses, specifically for wedding videography.

The BBC even have an online course you can attend.

To set up your own retail outlet/brand, it really is a case of biting the bullet and doing it; and most importantly, deciding what kind of shop you want… Purely online. Purely Bricks and Mortar. Or both?

There are a few courses you can do which would definitely help and might give you the confidence boost you need to do it...

Level 1 Business Start Up
Level 2 Certificate in Preparing to Set Up in a New Business
Level 2 Retail Skills
Level 3 Certificate in Business Essentials
Level 3 Retail Skills Sales Professional

Most colleges around the UK have one or more of these courses on their curriculum. Use the National Careers Service website to find the best located for you.

Rules and regs

Secondary School Teacher

This link details all government advised standards for Teachers.

There is also the following to make yourself familiar with…

The Health and Safety at Work Act.

The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act.

And The Data Protection Act.

Many insurers offer a Teachers & Tutors Insurance, which is as depressing as it is reassuring (that they might need it).

Wedding Videographer

The Ownership of copyright works is an important piece of legislation that you would need to adhere to.

Knowledge of IP is also important, and we have touched on this in a couple of our pod write-ups.

Making sure you get the right permission for filming ‘people’ is key... not everyone wants to be filmed.

Getting the right licence for any music you use in a wedding video (edit), is also key. Lots of music is free, which is great, but always triple check and if needs be buy a licence to cover you for ongoing use.

And as Frances mentions, NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) might be a 'thing' for you, depending on how high-profile your clients are; so familiarise yourself with them, in order to know what you're signing (up to).

Many companies offer videographer insurance, i.e this one.

It is also recommended that you also have Public Liability Insurance, i.e this one.

Shop Owner

There is quite a lot of legislation regarding the owning and running of a shop. Some are quite different from online to offline.

Listed below are the most important:

Most insurance companies offer small business insurance, i.e this one.

Remuneration framework

Teacher salaries ‘tend’ to be between £28k - £45k a year, however geographical location adjusts this accordingly. See this page.

Wedding videography ’pay’ is hugely varied and is subject to not only the videographer’s skill, experience and reputation, but also the scope and brief of the job - the wedding. Do you research if you’re considering this career, and find out what people are charging. According to Google, wedding videographers charge approx. £1,500-£2,500 per wedding.

How much a shop owner earns is so utterly variable and changeable that it's pretty pointless to discuss or speculate on it. So we won’t.

How to get started

Secondary School Teacher

As we’ve said, to become a teacher in the UK, you typically need a minimum of a bachelor's degree, known as a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) or a degree in the subject you plan to teach, followed by a postgraduate teaching qualification like a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) or a school-based training program like School Direct. Additionally, you must pass background checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Finally, gaining practical teaching experience through placements is an integral part of the qualification process. Specific requirements may vary, so it's advisable to check with the relevant educational authorities or institutions for the most up-to-date information.

Get Into Teaching gives a lot of information to help you get started.

Wedding Videographer

As previously mentioned, you can find courses online, or even seek out an apprenticeship / work experience with a local, or indeed national (established) company, depending on the hour requirements they need.

And like Frances did, once you’re relatively confident in your style and ability, offer to do one or two for free. The expectations will be less (‘cos free) and you’ll gain valuable experience to take forward to paying clients.

Shop Owner

The way Frances did it was, in our opinion, a smart way… She set-up the online side first, which meant setting up the full supply chain and buying and selling process without the overhead of a shop rental. It also enabled her to test the waters and test products (and services) in a relatively safe and flexible space, so that when the chance to have a physical shop arrived, Frances not only felt ready, but she felt confident she had the right ‘brand’ to do it with.

This article from Startup gives a great step by step guide of how to get a retail business started.

Associations or official bodies to register with

Secondary School Teacher

For many teachers it is imperative (and expected for you) to join a trades union. Within teaching you can find many, but below are the biggest teaching unions in the UK…

NASUWT

NEU

NTA

Statutory Teacher Induction via appropriate bodies relates to the educational area that you wish to teach in. The regional offices can be found here.

Wedding Videographers

Should you wish, there are film/media bodies you can join, for added reassurance and ongoing advice. This might be particularly prevalent in case you want to diversify into other ‘commercial’ areas of videography and film-making…

Shop Owners

The Federation of Small Business offers not for profit small business advice, financial expertise, support and a powerful voice in the UK government.

The UK government has a blog detailing what insurances you may need to open your shop.

For ‘bricks and mortar’ premises in the UK, you will need to apply for a Street Trading/Shop front licence.

Job site links

Teaching jobs are advertised widely, i.e:

Teaching Vacancies

TES

Indeed

Finding wedding videographer jobs (as in people looking to book a videographer) comes down to online presence and making sure that (a) you have really effective social accounts (and get tagged a lot by ‘happy customers’), but also (b) by making yourself known and registering, maybe even advertising, with wedding social accounts, website and blogs. Frances touches on this in the chat.

Shop jobs (as in if you want to get some experience working in a shop before starting your own - not a bad idea) are constantly advertised. However, if this is your route, and to save yourself some ‘search’ time, perhaps focus on shops that you are particularly interested in, like a homewares shop, if you were Frances doing this. Likewise go into/contact the shops yourself and make your interest known to work there.

Progression pathway

Secondary School Teacher

With good, solid experience you could:

Become a ‘head of department’, as Frances said she did towards the end of her teaching career. Or indeed head of year, deputy head or headteacher.
Become a special educational needs teacher, further education teacher or move into pastoral care. These are great (salary) add-ons for teachers and have never been more valuable in modern education.
Become a specialist leader of education and support teachers in other schools.
Work for an exam board or local education authority, if this area/type of work interests you.
Work as a private tutor, either as a new career path, or indeed alongside your day-to-day job.

Wedding Videographer

Again with good solid experience, and with client testimonials to support, you could expand into other areas of videography and filmmaking. Many videographers change ‘genre’ (move from weddings into documentaries, or even tv/film); and/or move into photography either alongside or in replacement of videography.

You could even set-up your own studio, on your own, or with a team of others.

Shop Owner

The next step for Frances, as you have (hopefully) heard, is to make her own products, so that she controls the full supply chain. She then intends to sell these in her own store, and, if she can, become a wholesaler to other retail outlets (you may have heard Chops reference Liberty’s of London - Chops really loves that shop!

Online expansion is really down to your desire + supply and demand metrics… i.e. stock more products and/or diversify into new areas (Chops asked Frances about adding fashion to her shop).

Alternatively, you could expand by setting-up additional shops/locations. And if you’re keen on this, choose your locations wisely. If your first shop is working, understand the socio-economic dynamics of why - location + population split + affluence etc.