BBC News Online is following the fortunes of three would-be teachers beginning their one-year training to qualify for the classroom.

Click the quotes below to read about their experiences so far and their hopes for the Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course - and beyond.

Robert Waiting St Mary's College, Twickenham "Teaching has always been an ambition but I begin to question whether I have made the right choice" Gary Haines London Institute of Education "The workload is daunting, the level of commitment required mammoth" Joanne O'Keeffe University of Central England "My hopes for the course are that I get through it - and learn the skills to make me a fantastic teacher"

Robert Waiting left Cambridge University this summer with a first class degree in English and drama with education studies and is training at St Mary's College, Twickenham.

Teaching in a primary school has always been an ambition of mine.

Following various placements at local primary schools, involvement with youth groups and summers working for children's holiday camps I have realised that I enjoy working and being around young people.

Consequently, when most of my friends were asking the dreaded question "What next?" after finishing university, I was able to state fairly confidently that I would apply for a PGCE and go into teaching.

I want a job that will be challenging and stimulating and allow me occasionally to play with Lego!

However, once I had graduated and was just a few days away from beginning the course, I began to question whether I had made the right choice.

For the past few weeks I had had a number of unexpected encounters with school friends. A similar dialogue took place whereby I enthused over their plans for a gap year adventure or novel money-making scheme, but when I revealed that I was about to begin a PGCE they stood aghast.

"Are you sure about this?" "Are men allowed to be primary school teachers?"

My attempts to reassure them proved futile and consequently, as I stood embarrassed, they wrapped their arm comfortingly around my shoulders, reassuring me that "at least with teaching you are always guaranteed a job".

This confident assertion, however, no longer seems to be accurate.

News reports have revealed that many newly qualified primary school teachers in England and Wales have been unable to find a permanent job.

This was perhaps to be expected as the number of primary school pupils dropped by 43,000 this year.

In addition, incentives to resolve recruitment shortages have been so successful that in many areas the pendulum has swung the other way, with too many professionals for the number of children.

Some 15,651 people were on primary school teaching courses in 2003 (an increase of 8% from 2002) which might suggest this surplus of primary teachers will only get worse.

Intensive course

If these predictions are accurate and the reactions of my friends are typical, I wonder if I should escape while I still can and find an alternative career path?

I am fairly confident that my answer to this question is "no", as I want a job that will be challenging and stimulating and allow me occasionally to play with Lego!

The PGCE is clearly an intensive course but promises to be rewarding. Students are required to learn a tremendous amount in a year and consequently have to be well organised, enthusiastic and committed if they are to prove successful.

This is particularly true for the primary PGCE as trainees are expected to teach all areas of the national curriculum.

I will rediscover subjects that I have not studied since I was at school, such as geography and art, and develop the skill of changing smoothly from a lesson on place value and ordering to one on pointillism in Monet's paintings.

This flexibility is perhaps one reason that so many people are attracted to primary teaching, as they know that every day and every lesson can be a new adventure.

Although it is clear that I may face strong competition to get a teaching post, I am confident that this will strengthen my determination to succeed.

At the moment my ambition to realise this goal remains strong and only time will tell whether, as one current teacher confided to me about the PGCE, "only those that can (survive), teach".

Gary Haines, London, has spent the past year working as a learning support assistant.

"Those that can teach, teach" proclaimed the advertisement.

Teaching? Long hours, poor money, high stress, and tweed jackets - you must be mad, I thought.

However did teachers not have considerably long holidays, great job satisfaction, and a dynamic working environment? Maybe I'll have a look on their website.

I was forewarned that the course was heavily oversubscribed, with many good candidates turned down

The rest, as they say, is history.

After graduating in 2001 with a rather nondescript degree in modern history with international relations, a period of wandering in the wilderness ensued, including a stint backpacking, a variety of uninteresting jobs, and returning to live with my parents.

I don't know whether the moment of clarity occurred before the advert or after it. Either way, it was clear I needed to establish myself into a career, and settle down somewhat.

After much reading and deliberation, I applied for a PGCE in secondary history to the well-renowned Institute of Education, a graduate college of the University of London.

I was forewarned that the course was heavily oversubscribed, with many good candidates turned down without even an interview. Therefore it would be advantageous for me to obtain some experience working with young people.

This I achieved by working as a learning support assistant (LSA) at my old school, a challenging mixed comprehensive in east London.

My year as an LSA completely opened my eyes to the wonderful world that is teaching, and reaffirmed my desire to belong to it.

It also went a long way to dispelling the myths and misconceptions surrounding the job.

It allowed me to observe first hand a variety of wonderful teachers with contrasting styles.

It taught me how to build rapport with young people and gave me some excellent strategies for dealing with misbehaviour.

It gave me a belief in my own ability to do the job, and gave me an opportunity to work with a range of kids of different ethnicities and backgrounds, from young people with special educational needs (emotional, behavioural, or literacy) to those who in our politically correct world are labelled "gifted and talented".

Mischievous

The classroom environment was dynamic, the young people refreshing (if testy!). I was certainly ready to become a successful classroom teacher in my own right, and having been accepted for an interview for the PGCE course, there was only one barrier.

The interview consisted of a written paper, a group exercise and an individual discussion. Interviewees sat around the long conference room table, using nervous chitchat to help ease the tension. The arduous process had begun.

After sitting a horrendously mischievous paper, followed by the group interview, it was time for the individual interview, time for my limited sales background to come to the fore.

The opening of the letter confirming my admittance to the course was like receiving my GCSE results, the joy equally comparable. It was the start of a new fresh direction in my life.

Making a difference

The year ahead promises to be one full of highs and lows, peaks and troughs.

I anticipate a very difficult year financially. I possess a degree of anxiety when thinking about learning how to organise lesson plans, presentation, creating a positive classroom environment, and having a thorough level of subject knowledge.

The workload is daunting, the level of commitment required mammoth. But most of all I am looking forward to teaching offering the personal and professional satisfaction few jobs can beat.

As realistic as I am about the difficulties and pitfalls of teaching, I still possess a strong sense of idealism. I do wish to help children and young people to achieve.

As a black man I desperately want to see more black children in university and put an end to the current trend of catastrophic underachievement.

As a teacher I feel I will be in the front line, helping to instil a sense of moral and social responsibility which will benefit them as individuals, but more significantly, society as a whole.

Joanne O'Keeffe, Birmingham, describes herself as an "eternal student extraordinaire".

Having achieved a grade C in sports science at A-level at age 19 I decided it was time to take a break from education and gain some work experience.

So I organised some voluntary work with the Community Service Volunteers and off I went to Nuneaton to look after two young boys, with very differing and sometimes challenging needs, in their own home whilst their father went to work.

I had considered social work as a career, but after speaking to some social workers I realised that the red tape and bureaucracy involved could be both distressing and disheartening.

Coming to the conclusion that office work was not for me I began to look for a new challenge

Not one of them sounded happy in their work, in stark contrast to the teachers I know and others I've managed to speak to.

While my partner attended uni in Leicester I moved in with him, completed an Access to Humanities course and moved back home to attend the University of Central England (UCE) and complete my BA in sociology.

At the same time I worked in a city centre hotel. Sometimes the hours were long - very long - but I managed.

In 1999 I graduated from UCE with a 2:1 but with no idea of what I wanted to do, just that I needed a wage!

Temping for an agency, I landed a job with the NHS, where the boss was so impressed with my work I was invited to apply for and was successful in being appointed to a post in the HR office. Still no monies, but a great pension scheme!

Aiming to set up my own business I completed a nine-month hypnotherapy practitioner course.

This aroused my interest in complementary medicine and the holistic approach to health. I now hold qualifications in Reiki, reflexology and auricular therapy (getting wax out of your ears) - all of which I gained by attending weekend or evening classes while continuing to work full-time in the NHS.

Coming to the conclusion that office work was not for me I began to look for a new challenge.

An opportunity came up for me to join the training team, still in the NHS, but with better money and two minutes from home. This was one of the best teams I have ever worked with; I loved the design and delivery of training. I once had to teach CPR (coronary pulmonary resuscitation) to a group of consultant psychiatrists.

Taking the plunge

My partner and my cousin are teachers and they enjoy their work.

Teaching: could I do it? Of course you can, they said.

Taking the plunge I contacted my old primary school seeking to do some - you've guessed it - voluntary work.

I was impressed to find my old headmaster and some of the former teachers still there - and they remembered me. Sitting with them in the staff room was quite weird.

The week I spent in the school was amazing. I went home each day, buzzing from the excitement of my achievements and those of the children I had been working with.

For the next school year I attended the school one day a week. I had a very understanding and helpful boss who arranged my hours at work to suit.

Encouraged by her and the teachers at the school, I applied to UCE.

The intensity of the PGCE programme makes it impossible to work, even part-time. The day my vision blurred I knew it was time to hand in my notice.

My hopes for the course are that I get through it - and that I will have learned the skills to make me a fantastic teacher, able to inspire young minds to develop their skills and see learning as a life-long experience - and that I can eventually earn some money doing a worthwhile job.