Job Discussion Forums

[itinerantman]

This is my situation:
I was educated in the UK and am a native English speaker but have an Indian Passport.
I'm 55 years old and in good health.
I have a Bachelors in History but I teach English-I also have a Bachelors in Education.
For personal reasons I need to settle in SE Asia.
I have about 10 years of part time undocumented Home School teaching experience & another 3 years of documented International School teaching experience in Bali.
I would prefer a school teaching job over ESL but am willing to try ESL if required. Online teaching is also an option. I would need at least US $ 1000 + accommodation from my day job.
What would you suggest I do to land a job in SE Asia, particularly Indonesia? I'm aware that many countries will only accept native speakers so I'm looking for any loopholes ie some schools bring in non native speakers under the category of Social Science Teachers and then get them to teach English. Lastly do I need a TEFL Certificate or is my Teaching degree enough? If not,which is the cheapest online recognized TEFL Course?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[PattyFlipper]

Are you looking for a job in Indonesia or Cambodia? This is the Cambodia forum. Can't help you with Indonesia; if you want to go there you should post your question in the Indonesian forum.

As far as Cambodia is concerned, there are a number of first and second tier international schools in Phnom Penh and a couple in Siem Reap. I know for a fact that they will employ non-Westerners. and feel sure that with your qualifications and experience, you will be a possible candidate for any positions they may have available in your subject. (Not everyone wants to come to Cambodia). The only sticking points may be your age and your Indian passport - the latter mainly because the Cambodian government no longer permits people from the Sub-Continent to obtain a visa-on-arrival, and it is much, much easier to find a job if you are already in-country.

First tier, internationally accredited institutions include International School of Phnom Penh, Northbridge International School and British International School of Phnom Penh.

Second tier schools which often also have 'international' in their title but generally have local ownership and management and a higher proportion of Khmer students, include Hope, Zaman, Western, ELS, East West, New York and American Chinese. You might also try contacting Newton Thilay, as they sometimes have well-paid senior positions available for experienced educators. Check here for a more extensive listing:

http://www.yellowpages-cambodia.com

You should easily meet, and probably exceed, your salary expectations if you obtain a full-time position with any of these schools; certainly those in the first tier. You will need to 'cold-contact' them via email or possibly telephone. (As an aside, I would suggest you avoid any school with 'Christian' as part of its name, as a couple of them are appalling places to work).

With regard to becoming a TEFL jobber with the language institutes and universities, your age, ethnicity and lack of TEFL qualifications will put you at a definite disadvantage, though perhaps not insurmountably so. The biggest sticking point is that you have to actually be in the country to find this kind of work, which might be difficult as you are unable to obtain the visa-on-arrival. You will need to check on the visa requirements for Indian citizens, and perhaps try to get a tourist visa, if you wish to go this route. Until you can prove your value to one or two schools, you will be grubbing around for part-time hours in competition with Native-speaking Westerners, Cambodians, and Filipinos. It will likely take you quite sometime to build up enough hours to earn $1000 (if you ever do). Also bear in mind that you will not receive any other benefits whatsoever apart from your hourly rate (about $6 to $12 before tax depending on whether they look at your ethnicity or your qualifications and experience), nor will you be paid for public holidays - and there are a stack of them.

My suggestion would be to try the international schools first. You might also try posting your question on the khmer440 dot com (I can't post the full link here) forum. They have sections for teaching and several regular posters there are involved with TEFL or education.

Good luck.

[itinerantman]