Ged, a former ice cream van-driver, worries he will say something politically incorrect in front of a class, while 21-year-old Paula is only too confident of her teaching success. But will they get jobs?

The pair are among a group of PGCE students whose fortunes are charted in Class Act, a new BBC series starting on Monday.

They were among 500 students who began the teacher training course at Manchester Metropolitan University last September.

It soon becomes clear that some have more idea of what they are letting themselves in for than others.

Twenty-one-year-old Paula was several thousand pounds in debt when she graduated with a music degree. For her, teaching is a more practical career than pursuing her dream of becoming a pop star.

“I have no idea why I want to be a teacher, but I am absolutely sure that in 10 months’ time I will be one,” she says confidently.

Ged, a 43-year-old ice cream van driver, regards the course as his last chance to get a proper job. He wants to teach history but worries about the political correctness of modern education: “I could say things that will get me into real trouble.”

Meanwhile, Ian, 34, is turning his back on a decade working as an industrial chemist in an attempt to become a science teacher. He would like to work at a “more traditional school” like those from the 1950s and 60s.

While few teachers would relish the idea of having their first attempts at taking a class broadcast to the nation, the seven featured in the programme had no such qualms. The six-part series follows their progress through school placements to their attempts at finding jobs - and earning their PGCE.

Before they set foot in school, after just two weeks on the course, Anne Colley, a deputy head, tells them that while no one supposedly forgets a good teacher, “no one forgets a bad one either”.

She gives the new recruits some valuable advice about staffroom etiquette: take your own mug. “I have seen some major scraps develop over someone taking someone else’s mug.”

Paula does not get off to a good start. One of her first classes is a disaster and to add insult to injury, a cheeky Year 8 student tells her she has “got no tits”. After a few months, Paula reaches a crisis point and confesses she does not want to be a teacher. Her boyfriend, also a trainee teacher, is not sympathetic and says he will put his career before her.

Ged fares better at adjusting to the strain of being in the classroom but, by the end of the course, has still not found a job. His age makes him expensive and there is no shortage of history teachers. He ends up signing on at a supply agency.

Despite passing the course with flying colours, former hairdresser Lisa fails two interviews in her search for a full-time art post and ends up taking a three-month contract.

Ian, however, fails to make it that far: the new father decides to leave the course when he realises he will not reach the required teaching standards in time. Much to his wife’s annoyance, he returns to the chemical industry to work with pesticides.

Baby-faced 21-year-old Lee from Wigan, who barely looks older than his students, fails to find a position in his home town but does not want to leave. Fortunately, the school he has been training at is so pleased with his performance that it creates a job for him.

Class Act begins on Monday on BBC1 at 7.30pm.