OK. Say you're a recent college graduate or you are about to graduate. It is 2012 or 2013 or later, and the recession is still "recessed." The U.S. economy still has not returned to "pre 2008" levels. You can't find a job in your field of study. You can't find any job! You can't pay off your student loans. Your prospects for finding a job seem slim to none. What can you do besides work for a fast food chain or selling socks in a department store?
After listening to a National Public Radio story aired on December 06, 2011, this idea popped into my mind:
- Take 1+ education course before or after you graduate. Community colleges have offered more of these courses since the mid 2000s.
- Apply for part-time and full-time teaching jobs, even and especially if they are "temporary" such as for one-two terms.
- Graduates with bachelor degrees in the USA can teach high school or grade school classes.
- Not accredited "for fun" and personal enrichment places like "The Learning Center" and other schools might have a class, or you could suggest a new class, that has a topic close to what you were studying for a bachelors degree.
- There will be more "online schools" offering classes in coming months and years where you might be able to teach online from home.
- If you get a p.t. teaching job, teach what you recently learned. Teaching what you recently learned, as you learned it or in ways similar to what and how you learned it, is very good practice for ensuring "you know what your were supposed to be learning." And it helps others. And the teaching experiences teaches you to rephrase and recast knowledge and concepts in the terms your students can better understand. That process is very good practice to broaden and deepen the knowledge and skills you acquired for a bachelors degree.
I will have more to say about this option (1) when I learn more about them and (2) get more inspirations and ideas from the media, education magazines and other related sources. Good luck.