Retraining in teaching: how to do it?

At the start of the 2022 school year, some 4,000 teaching positions will remain vacant, out of the 27,332 positions open by competition. Although these figures may seem worrying, it shows that you have made the right choice by hiring a retraining in education. The need for teachers, both in primary and in colleges and high schools, can only represent a definite advantage in the success of your project. But how to convert to teaching?

Becoming a teacher: preparing for the competition

The first way to become a teacher is to enter the competition. There are different competitions depending on where you want to teach.

• The CRPE: the recruitment competition for school teachers will allow you to become a teacher in nursery or primary school.
• The Capes: the Certificate of aptitude for secondary education teaching allows you to teach in a college or high school.
• The Capeps: the Certificate of Aptitude for Physical Education and Sports Teaching will be required to teach the sport in colleges or high schools.
• Le Capet: the certificate of aptitude for teaching technical education is necessary if you wish to teach in a technological high school.
• The CAPLP: the competition for access to the body of vocational high school teachers will be required to teach in vocational high schools.
• Aggregation: it will allow you to teach in college, high school or in a preparatory class.

For each competition, three recruitment routes are possible: the external competition, the third competition and the internal competition. The external competition is open to people who already hold a master’s degree. To teach in a vocational high school, your professional experience will be taken into account depending on the sector you are aiming for. The third competition is open to people with at least five years ofprofessional experience carried out within the framework of a contract of private law without condition of diploma. The internal competition is reserved for civil servants or non-tenured agents who can prove three years of service and a bachelor’s degree.

How to prepare for a teacher competition?

By enrolling in the Master Meef

If you are licensed or in the process of obtaining a license via validation of acquired knowledge, you can enroll in the Master Meef, Teaching, Education and Training Professions. Since the master’s degree initiated at the start of the 2010-2011 school year, a baccalaureate level + 5 is compulsory to take the teacher’s competition.

The Master Meef is prepared within the National Institutes of Teaching and Education (Inspé). At the end of the first year of Master Meef, you will pass the teacher competition. If you are received, you will then complete a second year of Master’s degree by alternating courses at the Inspé and part-time assignment to a teaching position as a trainee.

If you are in professional retraining, you can register for this master’s, just like people on training leave or looking for a job. If you do not have the license level, then you can go through the validation of acquired experience.

By making a personal preparation

If you meet all the registration criteria for the teacher competition, you can very well prepare for the competition on your own in your corner. Do not hesitate to help yourself with books, annals and information on Internet to put the odds on your side. It is not always easy to know what to expect when you are not accompanied.

By taking distance learning

You can also follow the Master Meef remotely. Indeed, some Inspé offer this option of distance learning through an online platform. The Cned can also be a solution for training you remotely thanks to their online courses.

How is the post-competition going?

Once the competition has been obtained, you become a trainee civil servant and will follow a year of paid work-study training. You will thus juggle between a part-time position at the school and theoretical training at the Inspé, which will take into account your past experiences, your initial training, and your needs for your new position. It is only at the end of this year of training that you can be established.

How to finance your professional retraining project?

If you work in the private sector, you can call on the Professional Transition Project (PTP) which allows you to take time off from your job in order to take qualifying training. The professional transition project, also called transition CPF, is granted on request to the employer and subject to conditions. You are paid throughout your training. You can also use your Personal training account (CFP).

If you work in the public sector, you can use the Vocational training leave which is open to all agents, holders or contract employees of the State, territorial or hospital civil service. Here too, you can use your accumulated hours on your personal training account to initiate your professional retraining.

Teaching without competition is also possible

If you prefer to test yourself before fully committing to your retraining, you can apply as a contract or substitute teacher. You will then be hired on a fixed-term contract for a specific period or for an entire school year, thus allowing you to take advantage of a sort of trial period for your professional project. After 6 years as a contract teacher, you either stop practicing or you are offered tenure. In the meantime, you can still register for the various competitions.