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IBM Training Employees To Leave IBM?
lucabrasi999 writes "IBM just launched a new program that will encourage some employees to earn teaching certificates and degrees. IBM will help defray the costs of these new degrees. With those newly earned degrees, the IBM employee would then become a 'former' IBM employee who moves onto a career as a public school math or science teacher. While it seems odd that IBM would encourage employees to switch careers, the point is that IBM is trying to help offset an expected shortage in the number of math and science teachers in the United States." From the article: "While many companies encourage their employees to tutor schoolchildren or do other things to get involved in education, IBM believes it is the first to guide workers toward switching into a teaching career. The company expects older workers nearing retirement to be the most likely candidates, partly because they would have more financial wherewithal to take the pay cut that becoming a teacher likely would entail."
To quite myself from elsewhere:
"That's crazy... throughout most of the country teachers earn upwards of $45,000. They also work only 8 months of the year and in a job that doesn't require any form of manual labor. That would make the average teacher salary above $65,000, if they taught a full 12 months. Consider that the average salary across the country is around $35,000 for 12 months of work, the average teacher is making nearly double the average wage. They also get benefits and often receive stipends, which are not figured as part of the salary."
So you would get that teacher's salary, plus your IBM pension. You'd also still have benefits, since teachers get those. That looks like a good deal to me!