Evelien Beyens

STEM teacher in a secondary school

Describe your job in less 50 words:

As a STEM teacher, you will be responsible for developing new projects around the various components of STEM.

You convey your knowledge and skills to the children and direct them where necessary. Through tests and assignments, you test their knowledge and skills.

What do you like most about your job?

What I like the most about the job is teaching the children knowledge and practical skills. The children also all come from different backgrounds, so there is always differentiation in class, which keeps the job fun.

A fine working group of colleagues also makes it interesting. Everyone is open to new ideas and everyone wants to learn from each other.

Of course, everything has its pros and cons and so it is for teachers in Belgium. Everyone complains about the fact that teachers are at home every holiday, but what they don’t see is the preparation that needs to be done and that falls on holidays and in the evenings after class hours, just like meetings with colleagues.
In addition, we also have a teacher shortage in Belgium, since this school year it has already reached the point where retired teachers are coming back to ensure that pupils still have a teacher.This fact is because appointment here in Belgium is quite complicated. Every year the regulations around this change. When I graduated, you had to work in the same school or school group for 3 years with a more than half-time job to get a temporary appointment after that. Only when you have the temporary appointment and hours are free can you qualify for permanent hours.
Since last year, they put the period at 2 years and if I am not mistaken, from this school year the period is at 1 year in your professional hours , but with 3 years of service in the school.

What did you want to be when you were at school?

I really wanted to become a doctor or a nurse as a toddler because I spent a lot of time in hospital myself, but as the years progressed, my thoughts changed to becoming a teacher. Which teacher I wanted to become then was not clear to me. It was only when I graduated from secondary school that I knew.

How could i do your job? I would be able to:

Once I graduated from secondary school, I was allowed to choose a course of study. I then chose to study to become a cooking and STEM teacher. The training lasted 3 years during which both theory and practice were covered.

Once graduated, I got the chance to start as a teacher at a secondary school where I give STEM en techniques. I have been working there for 2,5 years now.

Mentoring session