Job Discussion Forums

[Marcoregano]

Unfortunately this thread has gone the way of others and been hijacked by inaccuracies rather than objective comment . "In developed European countries there is little or no effective demand for native speaker teachers of English at university level." This is infact nonsense. There certainly are, but they are less abundant than most teaching jobs....hence some assume that they don't exist at all. Nor, from what I have learned elsewhere, are such jobs always secured by people with native teaching qualifications...such barriers rarely apply at the tertiary level. As for ""Alas, the attitude of many is that "THERE MUST BE A JOB IN ABCania FOR ME !" Anyone who says I acnnot have a job there is wrong and wicked and hates me. Is there something about TEFL that attracts the infantile ?""...nothing I posted deserved this kind of crap. But hey, the fact is that within ESL teaching there usually is a job just about anywhere and you don't have to go beyond this forum to realise it. BUT most of these jobs are admittedly poor and only attractive to the footloose and fancy free, which unfortunately at 41 isn't me anymore....which is why I posted this discussion up in the first place. Still, it certainly hasn't been a waste of time.

[Shaman]

You appear to know the answer to the question you posed, marcoregano. Why did you ask it in the first place? Obviously everyone in assorted countries who replied to your query are out of step. You speak of objectivity, but take a look at ALL your posts. They reek of subjectivity.

Shaman

[Marcoregano]

Er, no I don't know all the answers but i have learned quite a bit over the last few days, most of the useful stuff coming via private mail. But yes, I do know a fair bit about the ESL sector having worked in it for a while. Subjective? Certainly there is a lot of it around, though I disagree that my postings have a subjective bias. Whatever, there is little point in rattling on about all this. Hopefully we can go back to having some discussion about good jobs in Europe.

[ejw]

I cannot speak for Europe but I can speak for Sweden. Here is what I was up against. I have a Bachelor's degree and have taught ESL with over 10 years of experience in Korea, Iran, Sweden and even in the US. I married a Swede and have been living here for over 23 years. I wanted to get certified to teach English in schools here in Sweden. I went to the local university and was told that I basically had to do the entire five-year program at the local university in the English Education Dept to qualify. In other words, I had to start all over again! And this was to teach English to middle-school students!

If you can teach Business or Medical English you might be able to get on at some institute that teaches English to businessmen. That is the market here in Sweden but we are already flooded with qualified teachers here for that.

EJW

[go2guy]

In my experience working in France (2 years in Avignon & 4 years in the Lyon area), I would say more than 50% of the people I worked with were over 40. I worked for "ecoles superieures", which pay the best but tend to be glorified babysitting at the entry levels (though I had some great "Master" groups -- a slightly older bunch -- that made up for the nonsense "teaching" the 1st & 2nd year babies). YES, you CAN work for universities in France, you just have to be aware that they only pay you every 3 months and require proof that you have a consistent income base from other sources (it's France, nothing's easy!). Lyon 3 and INSA are two locations that hire in this way. I know Jean Moulin does as well. I also worked for the Chamber of Commerce in Villefranche (sur Saone). Lower pay but the best "stagiaires", we're talking company people with focus, motivation and maturity. Most of these people would probably PREFER someone more mature for their "prof". (By the way, I am now 43 and I know that when I -- most likely -- return to France later this year I will easily find work.) In summary, as I have said before in other posts, if you have a well-rounded "package" to offer schools, you're personable, approachable, adaptable, etc. there are many opportunities out there. Best way to find out is to take the plunge! Bonne chance a tous et a toutes.