Job Discussion Forums

MrBart · Joined: 03 Jun 2008 Posts: 12

Hi Everyone,

I'm seriously considering moving to Bogota to teach English shortly. I just have two questions for anyone who's taught English in Colombia:

1) How easy is it to find jobs teaching English?
2) Was it easy/difficult to obtain a work permit?

Muchas Gracias!

Bart

JDlive · Joined: 07 Feb 2007 Posts: 1

I know this question has been asked before, but could anybody give an update? How hard is it for someone who has a TEFL certificate and degree, but no teaching experience yet? How about cities other than Bogota, specifically Medellin and Bucaramanga?

Jyulee · Joined: 01 May 2005 Posts: 81

The short answer is that it is not easy.

Most places would love to have a foreigner working for them, but are unable or unwilling to sort out a work visa.

In Bogot�, International House and Berlitz hire foreigners - along with a handful of other language academies. You might try some of the more prestigious universities (like the Javeriana, Los Andes and La S�bana) as well - they occasionally hire foreigners for ESL positions.

eric blair · Joined: 02 Mar 2006 Posts: 16

It is difficult to get working visas here, as you probably know, you get a job and the organisation that you're working for applies for the visa, which often involves you leaving the country for either equador or venezuela and coming back into the country on your new visa, the beauracray is that ...the law is that they have to prove that a colombian person can't do the job, which give companies problems when trying to get visas for staff, Los Andes are one of the biggest Universties in bogota and they have problems.

However many organisations work around this, and you could always do so yourself by doing a spanish course and getting a studend visa.

I know there is more work in Bogota than anywhere else, can't really comment on Medellin etc......

IH are the best of the institutes, see www.ihbogota.com