According to research from the AMP Foundation, 68 per cent of education workers clock off from their primary job and move on to their passion after hours.

The research involved 1000 people and found that money, a lack of time and work commitments are preventing people from pursuing their side projects as a primary income.

Charles Sturt University's Therese Moon works full-time as a technical officer in the teaching laboratories, but has a passion for the arts and crafts.

"I make handbags and jewellery through recycled jeans and I'd love to do more of it, but it will have to wait until I retire as I am really busy with work," Ms Moon said.

"I'm not too sure if I would want to take this up as a primary job as I find it very isolating sewing by myself.

"I also couldn't live on what I am earning an hour and I think this is the case with most hobbies."

Ms Moon said her occupation always comes first and at times, when her workload increases and outside commitments, she has had to take a break.

"I made dolls' clothes for about 11 years, but I've been wanting to do this for about six years and halfway through last year I made it happen," she said.

"At the moment I'm not getting a lot done and have limited my orders, but it also fits in with my passion for sustainability."

The research found that if money were no object, the top three societal issues that education workers would tackle if given the opportunity are education, the environment and health.

Ms Moon said that living in a regional area is also a factor that prevents her passion from becoming a viable financial option.

"I know that I could demand higher prices in the city as opposed to Wagga," she said.

Wagga Christian College court teacher Kyle Moffit said he has had a passion for archaeology since he was a child and still completes projects for a Canberra firm in his spare time.

"I've worked for a Canberra firm since the mid-1990s and I still have links with them and do local projects," he said.

"It's all about timing for me; I said no to work last week because it's school term, but if it's the summer holidays and there is six weeks available then there's plenty of time to do projects.

"Teaching is interesting because you get a lot of people later in life who have had other careers and they often bring their passion into their teaching."

Like Mr Moffit, the college primary school's PE teacher Blake Cunningham said basketball provides an outlet from his work.

"The ability to go and play basketball is sort of my way of relaxing and it completely takes my mind off things and so it's been a good stress relief for me," Mr Cunningham said.

"My biggest amount of time with basketball isn't spent on myself but more coaching kids and this is a double-edged sword as it takes a lot of time and effort to coach, but then you reap massive benefits from the kids who are enjoying that sport.

"I think the love of it and the teaching relationships and mentoring that grows in the classroom outweighs being paid for it.

"Money would be great, but it's just not the world we live in," he said.

High-school teacher Russell Avery is passionate about outdoor education and camping, but said other factors determine the amount of time he can dedicate towards it.

"If I could go camping more often I would, but there are things that keep me from doing this and that is largely time," he said.

"I wouldn't simply put that down to work commitments; for example, I'm part of a church and we're pretty involved, we want to be and we think it's a good thing to do so we put a fair bit of time into it.

"I think there would be plenty of people who would have their job and who are enthusiastic about something but for whatever reason it's not their income."

Disability support worker Shantala Beelagi is an example of a worker, from another industry, who's passion has been turned into a form of income.

"I like my job and I love caring for people and being with them but I will paint or do my henna business any chance I can get," she said.

"I have loved painting and doing henna since my childhood and so I turned this into a side business about three years ago.

"I've done my henna at multicultural events like Fusion and International Women's Day as well as at the library and with my staff and clients."

While Mrs Beelagi agreed that money, time and work commitments were factors that prevented her from turning her passion into her primary income, she argued that living in regional areas also poses a challenge.

"I think we can't survive just with our paintings and hobbies in regional areas as opposed to those living in the cities," she said.

"I can't depend on painting or henna, however in cities people can turn this passion into their primary income."