Oranges are not the only fruit

I am a statistic - one of the 1 in 4 who left the profession within 4 years of qualifying. Maybe it was because I did post 16 but taught mostly 16-17 year olds who hadn't actually been taught for 3 years that 3rd year of teaching that broke me, maybe it was because FE teaching paid 15% less and had half the holidays to school teaching. So I'm very biased. If you find you are still seriously considering it in 2 weeks see if you can shadow some of the different teachers you know for a few days/hours each. If you are still considering it put in the PGCE application for next year and get yee some volunteering with youths in the meanwhile - you can always back out up till september. Previous times of recession would suggest PGCEs are likely to be over subscribed next year due to the economy so noone will mind that much