Job Discussion Forums

[nilsson]

I'm planning to move back to NZ in the next year or so and trying to get a sense of the job market in Christchurch. I have an CELTA, an MA in TEFL and 14 years experience - what are the chances of getting regular work? What are the typical rates of pay like? While I'm not expecting to make huge amounts of money, I'd like to be able to pay the bills Auckland obviously has more opportunities but I'd prefer to live in a smaller city if possible. I've been looking online and the openings are few and far between in Christchurch, but not sure if that represents the reality on the ground. Any advice you could give me would be great - thanks!

[daryl_ks]

Hi Nilsson,

I'm currently based in Christchurch at a university and on the TESOLANZ board. Opportunities are few and far between. There is a bit of casual and fixed-term work going around. But permanent positions are very hard to come by as the sector hasn't really recovered since the earthquakes. As an example, we saw steady growth post-earthquakes through to about 2014. From that point on the size of the market has been very stable. The tertiary market is probably more robust, but the language schools have not really come back. I'd suggest keeping tabs on Seek.co.nz as well as the individual tertiary sites (Uni of Canterbury, Lincoln, and Ara polytech).

Happy to answer further questions.

Cheers,

[nilsson]