When I tell people I'm looking to move into learning design, instructional design or content design, the response is often the same.
"So you're leaving teaching?"
I don't think that's quite true.
What I've realised over the past year is that I haven't spent twenty years simply delivering lessons. I've spent twenty years designing things.
Sometimes those things were curriculum pathways. Sometimes they were vocational partnerships with local organisations. Sometimes they were visual resources, assessment systems or digital learning experiences. The classroom was where those ideas were used, but it wasn't always where the real work happened.
The projects I enjoyed most all had something in common.
Someone had a problem that couldn't be solved by buying a worksheet or following a scheme of work. They needed a system that fitted the people using it.
At the time, I just called that "teaching".
Looking back, I think it was design.
Looking for the pattern
As I started putting together this portfolio, I noticed that my favourite projects looked surprisingly different on the surface.
One involved redesigning an entire Preparing for Adulthood programme so that learners following different qualifications could work together without anyone being left behind.
Another grew from a partnership with a community farm, where the environment itself became part of the curriculum.
Another involved facilitating workshops so a group of young people could shape their own visual identity instead of having one designed for them.
More recently, I've been exploring how AI can speed up illustration and production without replacing editorial judgement.
Different sectors. Different outputs.
The same kind of thinking.
Every project began with understanding people, identifying constraints and designing something that would continue to work long after I'd stepped away.
A different way of describing my work
For a long time, I described myself by the subjects I taught.
English.
Maths.
Catering.
Care of Living Things.
Now I describe my work differently.
I design learning systems.
Sometimes that means creating resources.
Sometimes it means designing experiences.
Sometimes it means helping other people deliver something consistently.
The format changes. The thinking doesn't.
Looking ahead
Building this portfolio hasn't felt like reinventing myself.
If anything, it's helped me find the language for work I've been doing for years.
I'm not moving away from education because I dislike it.
I'm moving towards the part of the work that has always motivated me most: understanding complex problems and designing practical, human-centred solutions that make things work better.
Looking back, the projects never changed. The way I describe them did.