FORMER city council leader Carl Minns is appealing for people to become teachers as he prepares to train in the profession himself.
Carl, who the age of 30 became the council's youngest leader yet, will start a course at the University of Hull in September to become a maths teacher.
His tenure in charge at the council, which began in 2006, ended in defeat at the local elections in 2011.
"We need good teachers," he said.
"I'm not saying I'm going to be a good teacher or not, that's what I'm doing the training for, but the city is screaming out for good teachers especially with the core subjects.
"If there is anyone else reading this wanting a career change I would encourage them to contact the university, especially in Hull."
GCSE performance tables released in January placed Hull fifth from the bottom nationally with 47.8 per cent of pupils gaining the Government benchmark of five A*-C grades, including English and maths.
The Liberal Democrat, who had planned to become a teacher before entering a career in politics, said he hoped to work in the city once qualified.
"It is what I was going to do 13 years ago before my life took a bit of a detour," said Carl.
"I'm just picking up where I left off really. The plan was always to leave uni and pay off my debts, go back to university and become a teacher. I am getting there eventually.
"I'm going to the University of Hull so I'd like to stay local, I don't particularly want to leave the area.
"I love this place. I've been here almost 20 years now.
"It's a great city and it's a shame a lot of people live here and bring it down. I don't think they realist how lucky they are to live in a city like Hull."
Before deciding to embark on the two-year training course, Carl sought advice from contacts in education he made when he was council leader.
"I thought long and hard about it," he said.
"It was inspiring just as a council leader going round schools and seeing some really good work.
"I've always said there is no reason why Hull should be any different to any other city. We need good people to make that a reality.
"There are a lot more people going into teaching later in life and a couple of headteachers said to me that they found that it brings a different mix to the school environment.
"I volunteered doing basic numeracy for adults for a little while and it's when the light goes on behind the eyes and you can see someone has grasped it, it's great."
A well-known face who led the council through the worst floods in living memory, Hull City's historic promotion to the Premier League and budget cuts that ultimately led to him losing his seat, Carl said his profile had not been a hindrance so far as he embarks on a change of direction.
"When I started speaking to the university last year through emails to the course tutor, he asked for my CV to be sent through and he said "oh, you're that Carl Minns" but in a way it's been a help because my contacts have enabled me to email headteachers direct and just say I am thinking of doing this we've worked together, what do you think? Having that level of informal contact was a help in terms of getting it right in my mind.
"I'm a much different person to what I was 13 years ago, when I was planning to go back into this and I wanted to make sure I was doing it for the right reasons, which is why I didn't apply after I left the council.
"I left a good year to get it right in my head to make sure it is something I want to do."
Carl, who plans to find a part-time job to help fund his studies, said he was looking forward to focusing on maths but did not rule out a return to politics.
"I'm really looking forward to the change of direction," he said.
"It's another chapter in my life and it wont be the last but it's the next.
"I've always been one to look to the future. You have episodes in your life, you enjoy them sometimes, you don't enjoy them and you move on to your next adventure.
"I'm young, I could take 30 years off politics and come back and still be technically young compared to most of the people that hang around.
"You've only got one shot in life, you have really got to live it to the full and if you are not waking up and trying to life your life and try to do something with it, it's a criminal waste."
Carl's photography features in July edition of The Journal CARL has revealed how a photography hobby helped him through his years in charge at the Guildhall. "I was in such a public-facing role I needed space just to be alone, just to be me," he said. In an interview in the July edition of the Journal, pictured, he talks about walking around the city early in the morning or late at night to capture its landscape. The piece also features a series of shots by Carl taken over the past few years. "What you've got in that series is a mixture of the old and the new," he said. "You've got the mills in there right through to The Deep to the Humber Quays and the history of Hull is about its relationship with the sea and that will always play an important part in the life of the city even if that relationship has changed over time. "We used to export cotton, then it was whaling, then it was fishing. "We used to export coal out of Alexandra Dock and now we're exporting wind. "The relationship with the sea, with the dock has changed over the centuries but it will remain central to the identity of the city."