Working life story: From engineer to maths teacher

When she was at school in East London Sylvia Harris McCoy had a brilliant maths teacher. Mrs Goodman took Sylvia under her wing and encouraged her, and not only when it came to maths. She helped her pass her English GCSE; she helped her when her physics teacher left mid-A Level course and she supported her to go on to university through sponsorship from Ford.

In short, Mrs Goodman saw the potential in Sylvia. After decades of working in engineering and early retirement after widowhood, Sylvia wants to do the same for other children. In September, after completing her training, she takes up a permanent position as a maths teacher at a school next to the hospital where she was born. Her life has come full circle and her journey back to her earlier self has been an emotional one after all the sadness of bereavement.

Retraining

Sylvia [pictured right], who is 55, worked at Ford for 30 years, travelling the world and moving up into management before retiring early in 2019. A mum of three [her children are aged 15, 21 and 23], she said she needed a few years out “to breathe” after her husband died. She did some property development work, but it didn’t satisfy her mentally. She had always wanted to teach, but could never afford to. Being able to draw a pension, she was finally able to.

Knowing where to begin was daunting, though. Sylvia had not applied for a job in 30 years. She looked at the government site on getting into teaching, but found it overfull of information which, being a busy single parent, she didn’t have time to wade through, and aimed more at recent graduates. She was becoming a bit disheartened until she found out about a Now Teach webinar. From Now Teach she got more than just practical support, a coach and the feeling that she was not on her own. She was told her age and experience was valuable in teaching. It gave her that extra confidence boost she needed.

Work and life experience

She then applied to UCL’s Institute of Education to do a PGCE and to Waltham Forest Schools Direct for her placements. During her course she did two placements, the first in the school she has got a permanent position in now. She was immediately struck by how warm the teachers were. There were challenges, but Sylvia says her experience as a parent has stood her in good stead when it comes to managing teenagers’ behaviour and setting expectations, although being in a classroom for the first time was daunting. “I felt like I was winging it,” she says. But she had a mentor at school and being a parent gave her the skills to manage all the different personalities.

Her experience at Ford was also important. As an engineer in a very male environment she feels she can be a good role model for girls wanting careers in STEM fields. At her interview for her permanent job Sylvia was asked what she could bring to the role. A colleague had told her people often struggle with that question. She replied that her cv showed what she had achieved and her advocacy of women in STEM. “I said that what my CV doesn’t tell you is that I left school with two A Levels and have been a manager in a predominantly male, white and highly educated world and that that takes determination and personality,” she says.

It was impressive stuff. At the end of the interview she was asked if she had any questions and she said she wanted to work part time. There followed a series of negotiations, but Sylvia held firm. “For me teaching is a vocation, not a career. I don’t want to climb the ladder. I have done management. I don’t need the money. I just want to do three days teaching with no political game playing,” she states. She starts in September.

Sylvia adds that the experience of teaching at the school has been very emotional. She says she has suppressed her grief for her husband in order to help her kids to cope. Teaching reaches her in an emotional way that engineering didn’t because it is about people. It addresses, she says, the “broken bits inside that I had not addressed as I was 100% being a parent because it is about connecting with people and helping them reach their potential. It makes me happy.” Her students are lucky people.

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