JOANNE Dunleavy-Nelson is used to the glamour world of television and has worked on Coronation Street and World in Action.

Kathryn Fraser, a laboratory manager used to work on an oil rig.

But both are swapping their very different careers . . . to become school teachers.

The Teacher training Agency is currently running a drive to lure professionals who are willing to give up high salaries and perks in return for a career in the classrooms.

Bolton trainee teacher Joanne is a prime example of this unconventional career switch.

She has quit her job as a television assistant director and an undercover researcher, to train to be a drama teacher at Rivington and Blackrod High School, Horwich.

After graduating with a degree in Theatre Studies from the University of South Wales, Joanne worked on TV programmes including Brookside, Coronation Street and World In Action.

She worked undercover with controversial TV investigator Donal McIntyre, secretly filming drug dealers. For World in Action she filmed GPs in a bid to uncover a contraceptive pill scandal.

Joanne, aged 33 of Edgworth, said she decided to become a teacher after she gave birth to a daughter. "I couldn't continue to work 14 hours, days seven days a week."

After leaving Brookside last August, Joanne started training at Rivington and Blackrod. She is earning less than half her previous salary and she has even had to take a break on her mortgage payments.

But she added: "It's been great and I have really enjoyed it. It's been very fulfilling. I can't really say whether it is more fulfilling than my old job as they are just so different you cannot compare them."

Kathryn gave up a lucrative career as a laboratory manager for an environmental consultancy firm in Edinburgh four years ago and says she has no regrets.

The Rivington and Blackrod teacher used to work off shore on oil rigs monitoring oil levels in the sea.

Kathryn, aged 31, said:"I was getting no job satisfaction from the big oil companies so I decided to do something that I found fulfilling.

"I think that teaching is the best job in the world. The holidays are great, you really appreciate the amount of holidays teachers get after you have had a career in another field.

"I love working with the kids. The job is always interesting as you never know what each day will bring."

Former Canon Slade pupil Kathryn has a degree in environmental science and a masters in marine resource and development protection.

If she had stayed in her original career Kathryn would probably have been earning substantially more than she does now but she insists she is glad that she became a teacher.