Job Discussion Forums

[Calimom78]

Is it possible to get a TEFL job in Australia or New Zealand with just a TEFL certificate and a B.A. I will not have a teaching certificate or any experience.

[bule_boy69]

A first degree and a TEFL/CELTA/TESOL is the minimum any NEAS accredited school is going to accept.

I'm not in Australia now, but I hear things are pretty tight there for ESL teachers, so you might find it tough to get in without experience.

But that's just what I've heard

Anyone got any up to date info?

[PelemPelem]

Many students from overseas came to Australia with the intention to enrol in vocational studies and eventually obtain a job and perhaps citizenship. Australian tertiary organisations have a minimum English proficiency requirement - so the students usually studied ESL for a year or two before being accepted into a local course. Over the past couple of years the ESL sector had grown very quickly and many organisations were having problems finding enough ESL teachers to cope with the demand.

About 7 months ago the immigration laws were changed, resulting in fewer students coming into Australia to study English and fewer jobs for ESL teachers in this environment.

The government has, however, increased funding to migrant and refugee English language/numeracy programs, and teaching academic/numeracy skills to people who have difficulty finding a job. Most job postings in this area require a minimum CELTA and B.A. degree, and a Certificate in Adult Teaching and Assessment. This latter certificate is expensive and offered by many TAFE colleges and private businesses.

The job website SEEK seems to be popular with ESL businesses in Australia.

Opportunities may change in the next few months - there is a Federal election tomorrow in Australia (21 Aug)!!

[mmcmorrow]

It's possible to get jobs in private language schools in New Zealand with a degree and a TEFL cert. CELTA is the most-widely known TEFL Cert here - it is offered at 10 different centres in NZ. Trinity TESOL Cert is also well-known and several universities and polytechnics here also run certificates and diplomas in English language teaching. Whether other certificates are accepted would depend on the particular policy of the employer.

You'd also need to have the right to work in NZ first and generally you'd be given work on a short-term contract basis. Mostly, if you don't have Australian or NZ residency, this means coming on a working holiday visa if you qualify for the scheme - otherwise, it's unlikely you'll get a working visa. Though there is a reasonable demand for ESOL teachers here, it's not as if any employers need to look overseas - there are plenty of ESOL teachers locally as well as a steady stream of Kiwi returnees, who have ESOL experience gained on their travels (at any one time, a fifth of young Kiwis are overseas!). Google English New Zealand for the main association of schools or TESOLANZ for more info.

International student numbers are pretty high at the moment and have recovered well from the 2004 - 2006 slump. Altogether 93, 500 international students studied in New Zealand in 2009, paying a total of $NZ 650m in tuition fees and creating employment - directly and indirectly - for 32,000 people (English New Zealand figures.

In 2009, in Auckland, there were 4342 international students in English language schools - and in addition 12, 146 at private colleges (eg studying vocational or foundation courses), 7420 in secondary schools and another 10, 000 at universities - out of the 17, 000 at universities across NZ.

After Auckland, Christchurch has the second highest proportion of international students and the other cities and regions have smaller numbers, particularly in the language school sector. The top language schools in Auckland tend to have 250 - 400 students at any one time and have 20 - 40 teachers on their rolls, many of whom work part-time and / or on fixed contracts. But as I mentioned earlier, most of these are locally-employed teachers - no institution here needs to recruit English language teachers from overseas, so openings are only available for those with the right to work in NZ.

Hope that's useful,

Martin McMorrow
TESOLANZ Executive