How to develop the ten teaching skills you need to be a teacher

Want to work in the education sector? We’ll run through the key skills and abilities needed to be a teacher, trainer or tutor.

In our teaching skills guide, we’ll cover:

• Why work in teaching?
• What skills do you need to be a teacher?
  • Communication
  • Patience
  • Creativity
  • Enthusiasm
  • Confidence
  • Dedication
  • Conflict resolution
  • Organisation
  • Leadership
  • Adaptability
• Are there any downsides to teaching?

Before we get into the skills you’ll need as a teacher, we’ll run through a few of the reasons to work in education.

Don’t fancy sitting at a desk all day every day? Teaching is ideal. No two days in a classroom are ever the same. Plus, your routine is broken up with sports days, school trips, celebrations, holidays and occasionally something completely unexpected.

A great teacher changes lives. Some teachers go into education because they loved their time at school and want to pass that on. For others, it’s the opposite – they felt let down by poor teaching and want to give other kids a better experience.

There are bursaries for in-demand subjects. They’ll boost your earnings to a good salary while you train.

Outside academia, teaching is one of the few careers where you’ll use everything you learned during your degree. It’s only in teaching that you pass on your enthusiasm for rock formations, Greek philosophers or right-angled triangles.

Education isn’t the highest paid sector, but there’s still potential to earn more than your starting salary. Your wages will increase as you gain experience. If you excel and take on extra responsibilities, it's possible to earn around £50,000 or even more. For further information, check out our guide to education earnings.

Here are the top teaching skills:

A huge part of teaching is communicating information whether it’s verbal, written or via any other route from practical demonstrations to artistic interpretation – whatever gets your point across.

There are lots of ways to grow your communication skills. Our tips include:

• Gain confidence in your verbal communication by getting involved with uni groups. Why not join the debating society, the student council or even an improv troupe?
• Write more to boost your written communication skills. Get column inches in the student paper or publish your recipes online.
• Earn while you learn by looking for a part-time job that’ll help you grow your skills. Call-based jobs, such as phoning alumni for donations, are great for developing your verbal communication skills and building your confidence.

People learn at different rates. Sometimes you’ll have to explain something seven times in seven ways before it sticks. That’s part of the job. And when faced with challenging behaviour, you need to stay calm and not lose your temper.

Patience is one of those inherent character traits. Some people are more patient than others, but it’s possible to learn to become more patient.

Practise thinking before you speak and making patience your goal for the day. So, the next time you’re in a long queue, take a deep breath and resist ranting.

Think of your favourite teacher at school. Chances are, they were someone who made lessons fun. If you’re creative in your approach, you’ll find enjoyable ways for your students to learn.

Don’t think of yourself as a ‘creative person’? Don’t worry. With practice, you’ll become more creative.

Things to do include:

• Take up an artistic hobby, like painting, music or drama.
• Brainstorm when you’ve got a problem – it’s a skill that’ll help you connect with your future colleagues and come up with creative solutions.
• Get inspiration – take any opportunity to volunteer in a classroom and learn from teachers’ approaches.

Your enthusiasm is infectious. If you love your subject and your job, you’ll engage the people you teach.

It’s hard to fake enthusiasm, so aim to teach a subject you love. Picking something you’re passionate about is a great start.

In your studies, look for ways to go above and beyond. Read books that aren’t on the reading list, take on extra projects and show that you love what you do.

Once you become a teacher, encourage enthusiasm in others with engaging activities. Make a game of data entry or write poems to help pupils memorise facts. Soon you’ll have a classroom as eager to learn as you are.

Confidence will help you talk to a class, whether your students are kids or adults. A lot of education sector jobs involve public speaking, so confidence is a must.

A top confidence-boosting tip is to get out of your comfort zone. Challenging yourself will sound daunting at first but if you do things that scare you, you’ll handle anything.

While getting out of your comfort zone is mostly about saying “Yes” to trying new things, it’s good to practise saying “No” more too. Confident people are true to themselves without worrying about pleasing others and fitting in. If you find it difficult, experiment with firmly saying “No” and “I disagree”. You’ve got to find your voice.

Teaching is tough at times, so you’ve got to have dedication. If you’re dedicated to helping your students succeed, you’ll keep up your energy levels without getting discouraged.

Only you know if you’re willing to work through the difficult patches as a teacher. The fact you’re reading this article shows you’re serious about teaching – and that will set you up well.

If you commit to teaching with passion, have empathy for your students and accept the challenges that come with the role, you’ll go far.

Conflict resolution is part of the job – particularly in secondary schools. If you’re good at defusing tense situations, you’ll cope when teenagers upset each other or test your authority.

You’ll learn behaviour management skills during your teacher training, but there’s no harm in having a head start.

To get ahead:

• Attend a conflict resolution workshop or read up on tips online and apply them in everyday life.
• Look into volunteer roles that offer conflict resolution training – it will be more common in positions working with children or teenagers.
• Get to know yourself and how you act. If you end up in a conflict at work, with your friends or during a project, think about how you reacted and what you’d do differently next time.

If you’re a school teacher, organisation skills will help you fit marking and lesson planning around your school hours. Plus, it’ll help you create systems to reuse the resources you develop.

There are lots of ways to improve your organisational skills.

At uni, you can:

• Practise organisation while you study. If a friend asked to borrow your lecture notes, would you know where to find them? If not, sit down and work out a system.
• Keep your calendar up to date and plan how you’ll fit your to-do list items into each day. (Don’t have a to-do list? That’s another thing to work on.)

Teachers need to lead a classroom and inspire confidence in their students. They also have to deal with various students with different (and sometimes competing) needs. Good leadership skills will help here.

If you're not a natural-born leader, we’ve got good news: everyone’s capable of developing leadership skills.

When it comes to leadership, practice makes perfect. Try putting yourself in situations where you're required to take the lead. Why not volunteer to head up a group project or become more involved in a society at university?

Working in teaching presents challenges daily. While challenges keep the career exciting, you’ve got to be adaptable. Sometimes you’ll have a great lesson plan, only to realise you need to switch gears to suit the level of understanding your students have.

To learn to become more adaptable:

• Keep planning but be open to your plans going awry. While it's important to be well prepared, leave room for change and modify your plans accordingly.
• Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Making mistakes is part of the learning process. If you make an error, adapt and learn from it rather than let it derail your hard work.

So, now you know what skills a teaching job requires. You also know the great things an education career has to offer. To be fully informed though, you’ve got to understand the downsides.

Like any sector, there are pros and cons. If you want to be a teacher, you’ve got to prepare for:

As well as a full teaching schedule, you’ll need to find time for lesson planning, creating resources, marking, doing admin, writing reports and more.

In teaching, guidelines, targets and government attitudes regularly change. You’ve got to be willing to move with the times and be flexible.

Teachers learn behaviour management techniques and develop thick skins, but you’ll run across a real challenge now and then. You’ve got to factor it into your career decision.

Core teaching skills, like patience, adaptability and conflict resolution, will help you deal with the toughest parts.

Teaching is a hugely rewarding profession that offers variety, financial incentives and the opportunity to use your degree. Wannabe educators must be prepared for an intense workload, continual change and difficult behaviour.

If you’re up for the challenge, you need the following key teaching skills: communication, patience, creativity, enthusiasm, confidence, dedication, conflict resolution, organisation, leadership and adaptability. Don’t have them right now? That’s OK. Like any skill, it’s possible to learn them and get better in time.

Knowing the skills and abilities you need to be a teacher is a great place to start. Now, you need to work on them and take the first step towards your teaching career.

Want to work in education but not sure if teaching is right for you? Check out our guide to education roles other than teaching.