Job Discussion Forums

[jacannella]

I have been to Albania 4 times since 2006. I have an MA TESOL and over 20 years experience teaching English. Am considering buying an old traditional house in Berat, Albania (a UNESCO heritage town) and starting a guesthouse, but with a twist. I would be offering an immersive English and American cultural experience to my clients on a weekend, weekly, perhaps even a monthly basis. Berat is an hour and a half from Tirana now with the new road. My target would be university age and older students from Tirana and other parts of Albania, but mainly Tirana. I would also be open to the idea of possibly having guests from other parts of Europe who also may be interested in brushing up on their English, while experiencing Albania and the town of Berat.

I would love to hear people's thoughts on this idea, especially from those who are teaching in Albania or who have taught there. Maybe there is no market amongst the locals for this sort of thing, but I thought I'd put it out there on this forum anyway to gauge potential interest and get feedback on the idea.

[spiral78]

The most famous and successful such school that I know of is CERAN, in Belgium. You can certainly find out a lot about the school online, if you think the info might be useful to you.

There are some of these guesthouse/immersion schools scattered about Poland and the Czech Republic as well, but I don't know of any particularly successful ones.

I have always resisted opportunities to teach in such set-ups when invited because they tend to pay very poorly, but if you're running it yourself, it will obviously be more practical in terms of remuneration.

I think you could market this on the angle that it's likely to be far less expensive to study in Berat than in Belgium, for example.

[diced260]

I think it sounds very interesting. Good luck!

[scot47]

is there a large enough market within Albania ? What percentage of Albanians have money to spend on this kind of education ? It sounds to me lime a risky venture.