Switch between care and education provides energy
Structural underpayment and work pressure plague both healthcare and education. Newcomers in both sectors explain why they made the switch.
Image: Angeliek de Jonge
Roger van den Berg had a clear plan at secondary school. He was going to do HAVO and then PABO. “But my dean said that I was not good enough for HAVO. And unfortunately I listened to him. ”
After a few failed attempts at training and a career choice test, Van den Berg arrived in the health care sector in 1979. That turned out to be a good fit, and as the years went by, he rose to the pediatric IC, specialty neonatal and neurosurgery.
Working with sick and healthy children is the perfect balance
But education kept beckoning. When he heard about a teacher training college for lateral entrants, he decided to go for it. That training was actually intended for people with a part-time job alongside it. “I worked full-time. I combined that training with my work, did internships during my holidays. I also had a family, it were tough years. ”
Energy
Since 1993 he has been in group 5 two days a week. “In the beginning I couldn't get any fixed days off. For example, it could happen for ten years that I had a night shift and had to go straight to school. But the children gave me so much energy that I was happy to talk about it. ”
Financially he is better off in education. “In healthcare, I really have to rely on my irregularity allowance. But for me, working with sick and healthy children is the perfect balance. I wouldn't want it any other way. ”
Ton Beugelsdijk and Karin Koerts. Image Angeliek de Jonge
Ton Beugelsdijk and Karin Koerts both made the transition from healthcare to education. But their motivation couldn't be more different.
For Koerts, who had worked for 32 years in psycho-geriatrics and later in home care, the cake was completely over when she “got another manager who didn't care”. She quit her job and after a difficult period in which informal care was predominant, she looked around the labor market again. An acquaintance who entered her at an international school. She now takes care of educational resources management.
I stood in front of the class and knew: this is what I want
Her husband Ton was happy as a group leader and cluster manager in healthcare, but when he was asked to give guest lectures, he knew twelve years ago: this is what I want. He now teaches agogic subjects and counts on an MBO training in care and welfare for side entrants.
The two sectors are somewhat similar, he thinks. Due to the great attention to quality care, everything is regularly renewed. “Then I think, our field has not changed that much in recent times, has it? Just let me do my job. ” But he experiences greater administrative pressure in education.
Lower level
Their move did not lead to a major financial step back for the couple. Ton managed to maintain his income even during his training through a secondment construction, after which he ended up in a well-paid teacher scale. Karin did deteriorate a bit. "But that's because she now works at a lower level, not because of the collective labor agreement."
Lotte Glasmachers was a biology teacher and is now a nursing student. Image Angeliek de Jonge
At the last school where Lotte Glasmachers worked, she saw a number of colleagues who were still teaching enthusiastically just before retirement. “Fantastic to see, but I also knew: I don't have that.”
After twelve years in education, she no longer really felt at home. She felt that she had to play more and more as a cop and that there was less and less room to do things her way. What did she want then? She saw that after someone wrote on Facebook: As a child you already knew what your passion was. “Well, as a child I hated playing at school. I always wanted to be a nurse.
I hated playing school as a child
She is now an apprentice nurse and is following a higher vocational education nursing course. That choice works well, although it is sometimes difficult. "You run all day and never have enough time for your patients." Yet it is quieter than education. “When I am at home, I am really at home now. In education you often spend up to ten hours or later checking or preparing lessons. ”
At the bottom of
She took a huge step back in salary, having worked as a school leader for the last few years. Now she starts all over again. She is paid during her training, because it is a trajectory especially for side entrants. "It couldn't have been otherwise."
Read about the intended adjustment of teacher training courses especially for lateral entrants.
