Public relations guru to retrain as a history teacher

As life changes go, the decision by Trevor Morris, the chief executive of Britain's largest public relations group, to quit his job and retrain for the classroom is one of the more drastic. After 21 years in PR, Mr Morris, 47, is turning his back on a six-figure salary in favour of a new career teaching politics or history.

"To be honest I just want to look afresh at my life and to see my kids while they still want to talk to me," said Mr Morris, who has two children aged 11 and 14.

Mr Morris will leave his post as chief executive of the PR businesses owned by Chime Communications, the PR and advertising giant run by Baroness Thatcher's former adviser, Lord Bell, at the end of June. He had been inspired by the career of his younger brother who teaches drama at an Oxfordshire comprehensive, he said.

"He has had what anybody would consider to be a very fulfilling life," Mr Morris said. He hopes that some of his public relations skills will help him to build a second career as a teacher. He is also considering working for a charity or non-PR business.

"I think that one of the things that I have been good at in business terms is managing and motivating very talented, but sometimes very difficult, people," he said. "Those skills can be brought to bear in teaching.

"Everybody has been to school but not all teachers have been in business. I do think that you have to understand life on different levels in business. I have a clear idea of how the world works.

"I have also seen some very successful and powerful people and have a good understanding of their motivation and their strengths and weaknesses. For something like history that could really be quite valuable."

Mr Morris, who has done PR work for Acorn computers, Royal Mail, British Gas and the Government's campaigns on the millennium bug and road safety, originally wanted to be a teacher and spent a year after leaving school teaching English in Paris in 1973. "I have enormous respect for teachers and I've had some teachers who made an enormous impact on my life. My degree was in history and politics so that's the obvious area for me to go into. I am also a voracious reader of contemporary fiction and would like to teach English – although that would probably require more retraining than I am prepared to do."

Mr Morris said he was not deterred by teachers' salaries, which are up to £35,000 for a classroom teacher. "I am very lucky in that it's not an issue," he said. "I have some money in the bank and want to do something different."