British Sign Language teacher
British Sign Language (BSL) teachers teach sign language to children, young people and adults, and teach other subjects using sign language.
Working Hours
16–30
hours per week
Day-to-day tasks
Your daily routine will depend on the age group you're working with, but you may:
- plan and prepare lessons
- teach students sign language
- teach curriculum subjects to students, using sign language
- check and record students' progress
- work with staff teams to develop new courses and teaching materials
- talk to parents and carers about students' progress
Skills needed
- knowledge of teaching and the ability to design courses
- the ability to work well with others
- knowledge of English language
- sensitivity and understanding
- the ability to understand people’s reactions
- patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
- to be flexible and open to change
- the ability to create the best conditions for learning or teaching new things
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
How to get into this role
You can get into this job through:
- a university course
- a college course
- working towards this role
- training with a professional body
Career progression
You could:
- become a British Sign Language (BSL) teaching co-ordinator in a school or college
- take on responsibility for building links with employers to offer work experience opportunities to students
- do further training in lipspeaking, deafblind communication and deaf awareness
- work freelance
- set up your own BSL teacher agency