Oxford graduate Alice Clay entertained the Easter conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers with her thoughts on teaching as a career. We asked her to set them down for a wider audience.

I think the public image of education needs addressing.

Alice Clay, 24, teaches history in an Essex comprehensive

Many tend to see it in a purely functional light: jump through this hoop, and you will get this reward.

Both government and teachers need to play their part in portraying education as enjoyable and enriching, not just useful.

A major question is why young people are not going into teaching?

I think these are the main reasons:

Twice the money

• For graduates, there is the comparison with their peers - firstly, financial. My peers have become accountants, consultants, lawyers, doctors ... often earning twice the money I do and receiving a company car. It is not hard to see why this appeals to graduates.

• The low status of teachers. It matters that people should respect what you do and this is often not the case. I am often asked: 'Why are you doing this?' and told: 'What a waste.'

• Training and development within the job. For teachers, this is so under-funded that it can be hard to be trained for new skills. While my peers are getting information technology training in Paris, I have to beg to get Key Stage 3 history training in Clacton.

Spontaneous vomiting

• The image of teachers. Apart from the "No-one forgets a good teacher" advert - which I must say often produces spontaneous vomiting from my jaded colleagues - what is there?

  We are portrayed on TV and film as incompetent, Victorian sadists, women with petticoats at least three inches below the skirt line and lipstick on the teeth.

  How about the recent TV sitcom Chalk - doing about as good a PR job for teachers as Fawlty Towers did for restaurant managers? This negative image needs addressing, and teachers must play their part as well as government.

• Teaching cannot compete with glamorous careers. Go to any university recruitment fair, and the Teacher Training Agency is rather outshone by the £40,000 packages from the assembled organisations of Mammon.

'Challenging'

• It is a challenging job, and more needs to be done to smooth the way of students on teacher training courses.

  During my Post-Graduate Certificate of Education year on a challenging teaching practice in Wakefield, I did occasionally ask myself why I was running up student debts for the pleasure of being called a "posh bitch" by an 11-year-old.

  Perhaps, as with nurses, more funding could be made available for those studying to become teachers of all subjects. Teaching may never command executive salaries, but it could certainly be made more appealing in this way.

'Enjoyable and vibrant'

I feel that teachers need to be more positive in their self-portrayal, taking an increasingly active role in government legislation.

Teaching is still an enjoyable and vibrant career. We must act to get more young people into the profession.

Remember: ours is a job worth doing.

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It takes all sorts to make an education system. This is our space for those involved to sit back and reflect on how it is going from their corner of the world.

The views expressed here are personal.