How to Get Started as an Education Consultant
When I first left the classroom, I worked as an education consultant for Teaching Channel. I helped to guide the educational content of the videos they created, weighing in on the instructional moves teachers would most benefit from, and working with teachers to plan lessons that we would film. It was a great way to see inside so many classrooms while using my teaching expertise in a new way.
Education consulting can be an amorphous term. In the most basic terms, it just means sharing your education expertise with others. Different ways you can work as an education consultant include:
Advising educational app developers on what types of activities they should include in their apps
Weighing in on possible educational products, sharing your feedback on developmental appropriateness, pedagogical approaches, etc.
Giving feedback to a nonprofit or other organization on their educational content
Providing PD on specific subjects or approaches
Sound interesting? Follow these three steps to get started:
Step 1: Own your expertise
Let’s get this out of the way: As a teacher, you are an education expert. Period. You may feel like you’re not an expert because you don’t know everything about education. But no one knows everything about education! Your training and teaching experience make you much more of an education expert than most people.
Even more than just general expertise, you likely have specialized skills too. Identify what particular skills and experience you might want to bring to a consulting project. For example, if you are a preschool teacher who has spent a lot of time teaching social and emotional learning, you would be a great fit for an SEL consulting project. Or if you are a middle math school teacher who loves to support new teachers, you could consult on a project for new teachers or a middle school math project. There are tons of possibilities! Articulating your particular skills and experience can help you decide where to focus.
Step 2: Identify potential organizations you could work with
Finding jobs as an education consultant usually happens in one of two ways. Most commonly, you’ll see a job posting looking for educators to consult on a project. But sometimes it can be hard to know where to look. If you don’t see postings that interest you, start looking for organizations that interest you. Have an ed tech product you love? Check out their website and see if they’re hiring. Remember an awesome PD you had? See if the provider needs anyone to consult with them. Even if you don’t see postings you can apply to right away, make a list of potential organizations you would like to work with.
Step 3: Pitch yourself
Whether you see an interesting job posting or want to simply write an email sharing your interest, it’s time to pitch yourself. Remember those confidence-building skills you identified in Step 1? Now it’s time to make them shine. When you apply for a consulting job, share about the experience and skills you’ll bring to the table. Above all, share your enthusiasm for using your teacher skills in a different way.
Want more support to become an education consultant? Join us in the Beyond the Classroom course, where you’ll learn exactly how to find and land flexible jobs as a consultant, curriculum developer, online instructional coach, etc. etc.