TEFL courses and jobs for teaching English abroad

Living and Working Abroad

Posted by Jennifer MacKenzie - 10:59 on 21 August 2009

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Living and working conditions

One of the most frequent questions I get asked as a TEFL advisor is how much will I get paid? Followed on quickly by ones like, will accommodation be provided? Is this enough to live off or will I be able to save money? Or even, will I be able to make mortgage payments on my house in the UK?

Another very common question is, how long will it take me to get a job after completing my course? What is the average time your students take to get a job and also is a job guaranteed?

All of the above questions are very reasonable queries to make but unfortunately, the reply to nearly all of them is 'it depends'...Not the most helpful answer I know.

Let's start with the more clear cut. Paying off mortgages and saving up money to send home is unlikely except for possibly somewhere like South Korea where pay is good and living expenses low (also a couple of Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE but these are not on the whole viable options for first time TEFL teachers and require much more experience and qualifications).

Second clear cut question is, are jobs or 'placements', as many people frequently term jobs (I'm going to go through our site with a fine tooth comb regarding that one, I don't like it as a term and feel it is slightly misleading), guaranteed on completion of a course? No, they are not. All the jobs we have on our site are through partner organisations and need an interview, the same as any other kind of job. Some are with the recruiter working country/city wide some with the school directly. But it is the same as any other job - you have to get it. TEFL organisations offering guaranteed jobs are either lying or not being fair to you and the English Language School/students where you'll teach. You may just not be suitable or what they are looking for. On the other hand they may well think you're the best thing since sliced bread and just what they are looking for! Many others just need English language speakers and lots of them, the interview process is just checking you do know how to speak English, smile and not have two heads!

Now, we're heading into the world of 'it depends..'.

How much will you get paid? It really does depend. It depends on which country you are going to for example. Then within the country it depends upon the region and then finally the English Language school. We generally work in the currency of the country because once you are out there and keeping in mind the fact that generally you don't make enough to send home, then the currency of the country is what will be relevant to you and not it's conversion rate to British pounds and pence. My first three months in Greece, the Greek government took action to stabilise the drachma by reducing it's value against the pound. I'd gone to bed one day with it worth 350 drachmae to the pound and woke up with it being 500 drachmae to the pound. Not great, but actually apart from the odd trip home, irrelevant.

Yes, the wage you get will be enough to live off and is generally a good local wage but you need to manage your money appropriately. You're not out on holiday and probably shouldn't be going out every night though this always has to be taken in context. Some countries, the evening meeting at cafes etc is very much part of the culture and to integrate and meet people it is a really important thing to do.

How long does it take to get a TEFL job? This really does depend. It depends upon where you want to go. Is this the time of year when the main recruitment for that country is ? Are there many positions in general in this country, does it have a big TEFL industry? Somewhere like China seems to recruit year round but it is both a massive country and has a huge TEFL industry. But somewhere like India which has a large population has a far lower number of TEFL positions and a lot of it is volunteer work. After deciding where you want to work it is then really down to application both the number you send out and the effort you put into it. I've seen very ill written CVs being sent in to us to put to our partners and I would be surprised if the person got offered a job. Check your CV and application over. The English in it needs to be correct, no spelling mistakes, no typos. Also state what TEFL qualifcation you have, how many hours undertaken. I had somebody recently who sent through a CV with no mention of any TEFL qualification anywhere though I knew they'd done a 20 hour weekend course. This seemed a little bit remiss! Within this question comes the whole thing of timescales. UK timescales are generally completely different to anywhere else. Isn't that one of the reasons you want to go abroad? To experience a whole different view of the world? You just have to accept everything will be done more slowly than you would like. Wherever you are going.

As to accommmodation, it generally depends on the country for example, here in Greece where I am writing from, accommodation is nearly always provided but I'm not sure how long this will continue to be the case with the rise in flat prices here. Nonetheless, it is currently the case. In France you get no accommodation and no help. In Spain you quite often get either help finding accommodation or sometimes even a stipend towards your flat.

For the countries where we have TEFL positions we will be able to give specific answers to questions and we have a good general knowledge of many other countries with all the TEFL experience available to us. Do ask us questions but just remember that a lot of the time the answer may well start with 'well, it depends...'

Your Comments

Comment by Lorna at 13:25 on 24 August 2009.
Where abouts in Greece are you? Im in the process of contacting language schools in the Athens area for work. Any tips? Lorna :) Back in the uk now, I have friends who have taught in Athens, you'll be able to find work easily. Also, better if you are on the ground in Athens and schools will be looking to start the second week of september, so get applying! Joe

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