Education, Teaching and Learning Support· Intermediate level

Teaching a five-year-old and teaching a seventeen-year-old are different professions that share a name.

Early years is about routine, play, language and constant supervision. Primary is about teaching every subject to one class you know well. Secondary is about teaching one or two subjects to many classes you know less well, and about managing teenagers. Special education is about individual plans and slow, specific progress. Technical and vocational instruction is about teaching a trade you already have.

Pick a main and a backup. Then find out what each one requires: early childhood work in Canada usually runs through a college diploma and registration with the provincial early childhood regulator, which is a different route from schoolteacher certification.

Write what you would find hardest about your main choice, honestly.

Get the whole sequence on one page, because the last steps often change what you should do at the first.

Ghana: senior high school, then a four-year Bachelor of Education at a College of Education affiliated to a university, or an education degree at a university; supervised teaching practice during the programme; licensing by the National Teaching Council, which includes a licensing examination; then employment, commonly through the Ghana Education Service, with a posting that may not be where you live.

Canada: a bachelor's degree in ordinary subjects; then a Bachelor of Education, which in Ontario is a two-year professional programme including practicum placements; then certification by the provincial regulator, the Ontario College of Teachers in Ontario; then employment with a school board, usually starting with day-to-day supply work.

Check each step on the official page of the body responsible for it. Requirements have changed within the last decade in both countries.

If you are heading for secondary teaching in Canada, this decides your future employability.

Certification for the senior divisions is granted in specific subjects, and you normally need a set amount of university study in each of two of them. That means choosing your undergraduate courses in first year, not in your final year.

Subjects vary in demand. Mathematics, sciences, technology and French are more often short of teachers than history or physical education, which are usually oversubscribed. Ask working teachers and school boards what they struggle to fill.

In Ghana, the equivalent decision is which electives and which specialism you take into your education degree, and which subjects schools in your area actually need.

Write down two subjects, and check what university study each would require.

One sustained tutoring relationship is worth more than a dozen one-off sessions, both as evidence and as a test of whether you like this.

Find one learner, agree a regular time with their guardian, and work through one topic properly. Keep a log for every session: the goal, what you did, what worked, what confused them, and what you changed next time.

At the end, write half a page on whether the learner actually improved, and how you know. Being honest that progress was small is more impressive than claiming a transformation.

Safeguarding is not optional. Guardian permission before you start. An adult present or nearby. Meet in a public or family space, never privately or online alone. Keep records factual. Do not photograph the learner or post about them.

Compare on the things that affect your life: length, how much practicum or teaching practice is included, where placements happen and whether you must travel, total cost, and what support exists for trainees.

In Ghana, ask the college directly what financial support is available to trainees, because those arrangements have changed over time and you should not rely on what an older student remembers.

Bring your tutoring log to a mentor. Ask what they would look for in a trainee, and what they think you have not yet tested.

Then write a term plan: subjects to strengthen, sessions to run, programmes to contact, and a review date.