Job Discussion Forums

[rafaella]

Hello,

This is my first post to ask for advice although I have been lurking on Dave's for far longer than I care to admit.

I've been teaching English (all ages, levels, general and business) in Europe for 10 years now. I'm very happy in my current job but I've realised that if I stay where I am, I will be exceedingly poor in my old age. (No debts but not much in the way of savings either). As things stand, the only two options I can envisage for my retirement are doddering into the classroom at 80+ and explaining the present perfect for the millionth time or setting up home on a park bench. Neither option holds much appeal!

As I don't want to stop teaching, the only way I can see of providing for my retirement would be to move to a job/country where I could actually start saving money and that is where I think I'm going to run into problems.

1) I have a recognised degree from a UK university but I completed it by distance learning. I'm sure I've read that some countries will not accept degrees completed in this way. Is that true? If so, which countries would I have to rule out?

2) I have a TEFL certificate but it is not CELTA/Trinity/SIT. I'm not suggesting that I couldn't benefit from taking the CELTA course but it is pretty expensive and the idea of having to spend that sort of money on an entry-level course (no disrespect intended) after teaching for 10 years is painful. Given my teaching experience, do I still need to do a CELTA course? Could I study for the DELTA without having a CELTA? Even assuming I could, would potential employers still want to see a CELTA on my CV? If I have to do a CELTA, so be it.

3) What other qualifications should I think about taking? I'm serious about teaching and I'm interested in professional development as well as the chance to improve my financial situation. I imagine a Master's would be on the list but would a Master's completed by distance learning be accepted?

I appreciate that the answers will vary from country to country but I've posted here as I'm willing to consider almost any location that would enable me to start getting some money together for the future.

Thanks for reading and apologies if I've missed the answers to any of the questions above.

[spiral78]

I can only speak to a couple of your questions, but for what it's worth, here goes.

Yes, I think that you can indeed do a DELTA without having done a CELTA.
Your generic cert shouldn't hold you back in most places - depends - but if you make it clear on your CV that it was an onsite course with supervised teaching practice (if it was) you should be ok.

There are some highly reputable distance and blended learning MAs offered by UK universities (Birmingham, Surrey, Leicester, Edinburgh and others I've no doubt forgot at the moment) which are accepted almost everywhere. My Bham MA does not state that it was a blended programme (partly on campus, mostly distance).

Some also give credit towards an MA for a DELTA.

[tttompatz]

IF you are willing to move out of Europe you can do well in Asia.

The money is good enough in many places that you CAN save for retirement (to the tune of 6-10 thousand quid per year) and still enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle (40 hour week, 20 classes, 10-16 weeks of paid annual vacation, medical, etc).

.

[artemisia]

[Zero]

It would help to know your general timeframe, as in whether you want to retire in five years versus 35 years. That will help you to figure out how much investment to put into additional qualifications. I believe that because of the priorities you have stated, financial return on investment is the key factor.

For a short time frame, there is a country in East Asia where you could probably start working right away for good money. Additional qualifications may not be necessary at all. The country is not China, and it is not Japan. It is on a peninsula. Its northern neighbor is run by a kind of wacky dictator.

If you want to invest a bit more time and money, get a master's degree and head for the Middle East. The earnings will be higher. I do not know how they view online master's degrees. Others could tell you. The trend right now is for the degree itself to give no indication of whether it was earned online or on campus.

But there's another consideration when thinking of retirement. Probably more valuable than anything you could save up is the retirement benefit you may be entitled to from your country of origin. Nothing beats a monthly check for life. If you are American, you need to find out how many credits you have in the Social Security system. Find out if you'll qualify for Medicare, too. I think the British have it easier and better, but I don't know the details.

Maybe you've also built up retirement credit in the countries where you've taught these past 10 years?

[naturegirl321]

the Middle East seems like the best way to earn money. With an MA you could work there. Even without an MA you might be able to work there due to your experience.

[Teacher in Rome]

I did a DELTA without previously having done a CELTA. You can also do them distance. There's an earlier post started by Naturegirl about whether a DELTA was worth it - with some input from a DELTA examiner, I think. Might be useful reading.

Long term, I wouldn't be so convinced about the ME. Instability, the oil running out, their economies being overtaken by other places... Maybe they're still good for another few years, but a lot of people on this forum have been saying how good the money is elsewhere - particularly Korea. The expanding economies right now seem to be Brazil and China, though I don't think this is matched by higher salaries. Maybe look at what you'd need for plum jobs there, and decide on which qual to get based on those criteria.

[rafaella]

Thank you all so much for your replies. I'll do some more research based on the info you've provided. No doubt I'll be back with more questions!

[Perilla]

Have you considered the British Council? Especially if you're a Brit, judging by your posts it sounds like it might work for you. See the BC thread below. You would have to do the CELTA to go down that route, but I think it might be in your interestes to do that in any case.

[rafaella]

First of all thanks again to all of you who took the time to reply to my original post.

Having taken your comments into account and done some more research, I believe it would be possible for me to apply for either the DELTA or Trinity Diploma, without doing a CELTA course first.

For a number of reasons, I'm looking at doing the Trinity Diploma rather than the DELTA. From everything I've read, the Trinity Diploma is seen as equal to the DELTA but before I finally take the plunge, does anyone think there is any reason to go for the DELTA instead?

Zero - I've still got about 20+ years to go before I retire so the situation isn't dire yet but I've realised time seems to be going faster lately which is a bad sign! I'll definitely look into how the contributions I've made in various countries so far stack up. Thanks for that tip. I've been mulling over the country you suggested for a while now but I still have some doubts.

tttompatz - Apart from the place we can't mention, which other parts of Asia offer the potential to save the sort of money you quoted?

[tttompatz]

[rafaella]

Yes, I'm beginning to realise that Asia is the place to go if you want to save money but I had no idea that it was possible to save so much through working in Thailand. I'd never seriously considered Thailand before so I'm going to head over to that forum to find out more about it. I'll probably show up there with some more questions!