Teaching English in Turkey

Posted by Erin MacKenzie - 16:58 on 25 March 2010

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Teaching English in Turkey can be a great place to start out considering the abundance of jobs and the fact that many schools offer great packages which include free accommodation and free flights on completion of contract. Most schools of good standing will require you to have a university degree and a TEFL certificate and you will certainly need both of these if you are seeking a work permit. Some teachers do work on a tourist visa but as most schools employ teachers for a year this means that they must leave the country every three months in order to renew their tourist visa, otherwise they face large fines if trying to leave the country on an expired visa!

In private language schools the average monthly salary is about $1,000 and an hourly rate of pay is fairly uncommon as most teachers are employed on a contract. Being employed on a contract means, technically speaking, you cannot legally teach private lessons. However, the majority of employers tend to look the other way as long as these private lessons do not snatch away students from their school.

Working in Turkey means that you probably won’t save a huge amount of money but you will almost certainly have a fantastic experience. Many teachers – even those on the lower end of the pay scale – spend their free time travelling around due to the cheap public transport in the country. While women can expect to receive a level of harassment from some Turkish men (the best way to handle it is to ignore it), the majority of Turkish people are very friendly and most people who have gone out to teach in Turkey consider it a great place to live and work.

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Your Comments

Comment by Angela Docherty at 13:44 on 24 September 2010.

Hi I am looking for advice on the degree that i would need to have for teaching in Turkey. Is this absolutly neccessary as I do not have one I want to eventually reside permanantly in Turkey as my daughter is engaged to a turkish man to be married in a few years time. My ultimate goal is to live and work in Turkey but need advice as to how best go about this please if you can help it would be much appreciated

Comment by Jennifer at 12:45 on 12 November 2010.

Hi Angela, Sorry for the delay getting back to you.The degree is needed for the working visa. It may be the case that you can move out to Turkey on some kind of family Visa. This would be worth investigating with the Turkish Embassy in the UK.

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