AS the Government continues its crusade to recruit more people to become teachers, JANE BULLOCK speaks to someone who, at the age of 41, came out of retirement to join the profession

WHAT would possess a father-of-two who has earned enough money to retire by the age of 36 to go back to college and become a Maths teacher?

Graham Wilman, from Westhoughton, has the answer and is proving to be an ideal example of the Government's campaign to encourage mature students to become teachers in a bid to cope with the national staffing shortage.

Mr Wilman, aged 41, had pursued a successful career with Norweb before retiring five years ago and taking up his cycling hobby as a full-time pursuit.

He had never considered becoming a teacher and was happy to dedicate his days to training at the Velodrome in Manchester, part-time consultancy work and spending more time with his two children.

During his year off from the rat-race, Mr Wilman became such a dedicated cyclist that he scooped first prize in the World Championships' 35-40 age group and won the North-west regional finals.

However, Mr Wilman had started to yearn for an intellectual challenge, a move his wife supported.

But becoming a teacher was still the last thing on Mr Wilman's mind when he enrolled for a Maths degree course at Bolton Institute.

Mr Wilman, of Sanderling Close, only started to think of teaching when he became a regular coach at the Velodrome and dealt with children from difficult backgrounds who had come from pupil referral units for expelled youngsters.

He says: "Some coaches had a problem in handling the kids but I loved working with them and that got me thinking that teaching could be an option. When I achieved 89 per cent and 91 per cent in the Maths modules, the penny finally dropped that I would become a teacher."

Despite having the background qualifications to teach Science, Maths or Craft, Design Technology, he chose Maths after his own experiences as a pupil.

"You never forget a good teacher. I was never a good pupil but my Maths teacher allowed me to get where I am today so there was no choice but to do Maths" he says.

Mr Wilman, who is from Gloucester originally, enrolled at Edgehill Teacher Training College in Ormskirk last September and loved every minute of the one-year course.

He was paid £6,000 to do the course by the Government as he had enrolled in a subject which is short of staff and he will receive a £4,000 "Golden Hello" on completing his first year of teaching.

His experiences in the world of industry made him more confident than 21-year-olds fresh from university and he had no qualms about standing up in front of the other trainees to give presentations.

But getting to grips with explaining the Maths proved trickier than he had imagined.

"The Maths wasn't stressful or unfamiliar but breaking it down for an 11-year-old was difficult" he says.

Despite having notched-up long working hours when he was employed by Norweb and had to travel all over the world, training to be a teacher took up even more of his time.

"It did take up more hours than a normal job as there were eight hours a day at college, school placements and then reading, preparation and assignments to do at home.

"One of the classes that I taught on a placement was particularly difficult and I could understand why people think they want to become teachers and have to give up because of difficulties in the classroom."

Mr Wilman completed his course in June and was immediately snapped-up by Turton High School to teach there next term.

But as he was keen to start as soon as possible, Mr Wilman has spent the last six weeks of the summer term at the Bromley Cross secondary school which has allowed a senior Maths teacher to take time out out from his classes to co-ordinate timetables for the entire school's autumn term.

Mr Wilman is confident that he has chosen the right career path and is already finding the job enormously rewarding. He says: "Teaching is fantastic and I'd recommend it to anyone who is even slightly thinking about it.

"It's a different set of stresses and I'm only earning a third of what I was on with Norweb but it is so much more rewarding.

"I think coming into teaching later in life can help the children because I always try to back-up the more abstract Maths by making it relevant to a problem they might find in the world of finance or industry.

"Sometimes you might have a day when you feel like you've failed but then the next day it's amazing when a class finally pick up on something you've been trying to explain for ages -- even if it's something as simple as realising that a half is the same thing as 50 per cent."