Whether you’ve lost your job or fallen out of love with it, many people turned to something new this year. We meet those who did – plus a beginner’s guide to taking the plunge
For 21 years, Ian Garrett worked in the oil industry. He started his career at BP, then made his way up through the ranks, eventually becoming the chief well engineer for Tullow Oil. He worked long days; his job required a lot of travel, and took him from the North Sea to places such as Angola, Ghana and Algeria. But, at the age of 43, he has just finalised his application to become a schoolteacher. “Assuming that’s successful, I’ll start the PGCE in secondary school maths teaching next September, graduate from that by the following summer, and I’ll be teaching full-time in September 2022.”
Garrett was made redundant from the oil company at the start of the first lockdown. He planned to use his redundancy package to take the summer off, and start looking for work later in the year. But when he and his wife ended up home schooling their two children, aged six and eight, he became one of the few parents to enjoy the experience. “I loved it, actually,” he says. “I found it really rewarding.”
