Tony Brady has been a second-level teacher for 25 years. Most of his teaching life has been spent in Malahide Community School in north Co Dublin and for the past seven years he has been the school's Transition Year co-ordinator. He began his career break in September.
"During the past number of years I developed an interest in computers and I began teaching the subject to our students and to adult learners," he says. "I was responsible for the school's adult education programme for a number of years during which we built up the range of courses quite significantly. I could see that there was a growing demand for computer training."
The impetus for Brady's career break came when a friend took early retirement from the IT department of Aer Lingus. "He put it to me that we could set up our own computer training outfit and asked me to consider joining him. I had enjoyed teaching the subject in the classroom, but I'd never thought beyond that.
"It seemed like a good idea and a good opportunity to try something different, so I decided to give it a try. I'm putting in far longer hours than before, but I'm enjoying the change not least because one is teaching adults who really want to be there which is very different to teaching younger students."
Brady and his partner, Tony Murray, now run ABM computer training in Swords, Co Dublin. Their clientele is primarily drawn from the corporate sector and the teaching profession. "I think having the option of a career break was an important safety net in making my decision," Brady says. "It has allowed me the freedom to give something different a go without the worry one would have if one had given up a job to do it."
Sally Bourke, a teacher at the Presentation College Terenure, Dublin, took her first career break in 1990 having taught for nine years. "I decided I wanted to go to Calcutta," she says. "I can't honestly say why and at the time I went without any real idea of what I was going to do when I got there. But I felt I had settled into a very predictable, safe and comfortable routine at home and that I needed to shake myself up a bit and get out of the comfort zone and see how I'd survive.
"Calcutta was a complete and utter culture shock from the noise to the sheer number of people everywhere. All of your theories about life are called into question almost from the time you arrive. That's the kind of place India is.
"It was a fantastic experience, difficult at times, but absolutely fantastic. The Indian people are a very warm, welcoming, resourceful and creative race and I feel it was a privilege to have worked there."
Initially, Bourke worked at a small, riverside medical centre where she was in charge of handing out medication. "This called for artistic as well as administrative skills as I had to draw the instructions rather than write them. A sun for tablets to be taken in the morning, a moon for those at night and so on," she says.
For many people Calcutta and Mother Teresa are synonymous and, while Sally Bourke had not originally intended to work with Mother Teresa's organisation, she found herself spending time first in one of the order's homes for children and then in a home for mentally handicapped adults before going to work in a home for the dying also run by the order.
"I had enjoyed the other work, but I felt I had found my niche when I came to the home for the dying," she says. "It may not sound like the most promising of jobs, but it was a very orderly, peaceful place with an incredible spirit. The people who came there were very sick indeed. Most of them had been turned away by the hospitals which were too full to take them."
For Bourke the most rewarding aspects of being in India was the people she met. "I started off knowing nobody but I made very strong friendships which are still very strong seven years on. You get to know people on a level that would take years to build up at home. There was an amazing camaraderie between those I got to know and a real tenderness and caring attitude about each other among both men and women."
Returning to Ireland and to school after almost a year in India was a second culture shock. "I was a different person than before and I think it would be impossible not to be changed by this kind of an experience," she says. "I found it difficult to see the relevance of certain rules and regulations when I came back. I remember walking out of the supermarket one day without buying anything because I was so overwhelmed by the amount of food on sale. I think that's what an experience like India does to you - it makes you question all the things you've taken for granted."
In 1995, Bourke got itchy feet again. Another one year break turned into two years as she decided to take a second year to study for a diploma in remedial and special education at UCD.
"When I started my second break I had no real plan again," she says. "I had gone back to India a couple of times, but I felt it would be quite hard to fit back in again. So I decided to travel a bit and I spent the initial period as a volunteer in a convent guesthouse eight kilometres from Jerusalem where I made beds, washed dishes and did a bit of gardening.
"I spent the period around Christmas in Ireland and experienced what it was like to be here without teaching - it made Monday mornings feel very different - and then I went to Australia and New Zealand where I have family.
"The UCD course caught my attention and my very understanding principal encouraged me to take the second year to do it. I must say my principal has been fantastic, he is very supportive and encouraging and very willing to listen when you come with ideas.
"The career break is a great idea as you get very bogged down in teaching and find it hard to switch off. I think it was invaluable to have been able to get away and to air my mind and get an alternative perspective on what life is all about," Bourke says.
Bairbre O'hogan is director of the DVBLINIA medieval heritage centre adjoining Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. A former teacher of Irish, history and tourism at the Dominican Convent, Sion Hill, Blackrock, she took her first career break in 1986.
"I had started in a full-time teaching post straight from my H Dip and I had been teaching 12 years when I applied for a career break," she says. "The principal was very supportive and felt it was better to let people go and try something new rather than holding on to them when they wanted to be somewhere else. She also felt that teachers who came back after a break would have new ideas, experiences and possibly new skills to share."
O'Hogan left Blackrock for sunny Australia where she taught Irish at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne and worked part-time at the Irish Design Centre. When she returned to Dublin she spent a brief period as a waitress before being employed by the Irish Life Viking Adventure to research the educational material for the project and to design training programmes for the actors and actresses who would act out the story. She was also involved in marketing the Adventure to primary schools.
In September 1988 she returned to teaching and taught at Sion Hill for another six years. She did a marketing diploma at night and applied for a second career break in 1994. She has been director of the DVBLINIA centre since then and she has now retired from teaching.
"Careers breaks are the best thing that ever happened to teaching," she says. "When you've been teaching for a long time you do get to a point where you know every word of every book and your own learning curve has levelled off. Teaching is also stressful because most of the stress is directed at you personally which can be hard to take on a continual basis.
"I'm not saying there is no stress in the corporate world, but it's more likely to revolve around issues such as finance or personnel and not to be personally directed. A career break gives you the opportunity to take time out safe in the knowledge that your job is there at the end of the year if things don't work out. That's a fantastic comfort."
DVBLINIA, which tells the story of Dublin from the time of Strongbow to Henry VIII, will have over 100,000 visitors this year about 20,000 of whom are on visits from schools. "I've kept close links with the education sector and we have a heavy academic focus in the centre," O'Hogan says. "The last three years have been a major learning experience for me and I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The trustees of the centre took a big leap of faith when they employed me as I had no corporate experience, so I've had to learn on the job which has been an exciting challenge."
