Job Discussion Forums

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Empire has gone and London has deteriorated into a Third World craphole.
There must be simlarities with Madrid after Spain lost its Empire and when Portugal lost Brazil.

France seems to be coping better, but I am not sure I would want to live in Paris on a low salary.

ChrisLV · Joined: 10 Feb 2013 Posts: 4

Hi Dana,

I've worked at 3 UK universities within the last 10 years. My experience is:

A) For someone with the preferred quals (CELTA+DELTA+MA + previous uni teaching experience), getting a job on the summer presessionals is easy. The further away you get from the preferred qualifications, the harder it gets. In terms of pay, 700 per week for 4-12 weeks total is probably about average for London on these courses (as long as you're going with genuine unis and not private TEFL organisations running the presessional for a uni, e.g. ASPECT/INTO/KAPLAN).

B) Outside the presessionals, there's plenty of part-time work available, typically paying 40-50 quid per hour, but this work can be harder to come by if you haven't previously done a presessional for the uni in question (not impossible, just harder), and it's often not enough to live comfortably on.

C) Full-time contracts (with pay of 33-38K probably being typical for London) are not horribly infrequent but they tend to go to people who've been working part-time for the uni for a year or two, or who have at least done a presessional for the uni in question.

So, pretty much like Australia from what you describe.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I'm not a big fan of living in many places in the UK, but I think London's a fantastic city. I think whether or not you'll like it comes down to personality.

sprightly · Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 136 Location: England

right. i'm not in the uk at the moment, but up until christmas was working in international schools, full time, for 7 yrs. (up until my last year, i was living in and eating for free in exchange for hours in the boarding house.) many of these were desperate for qualified teachers with academic experience, but most applicants only had language school experience and maybe a celta. maybe.

at one place--a good school, with good reports and a long history--they advertised for an esl HOD and got 100 applicants. about half of whom had no teaching experience. in the end, they made a short list of 3, and two were internal--one of whom was only interviewed as a sort of goodwill gesture.

is the money 50k/yr? no. it's standard independant school salary, but it's better than 10/hr with no guarantee of full time work and no hols.

and now, i'll stop overposting and get back to work.