Job Discussion Forums

zack · Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 7

I am a retired teacher from usa. My teaching certificate expired about 4 years ago. Is it a requirement to have a current certificate in order to secure a teaching position in Mexico? Or will the fact of having 10 years teaching experience and a currect tefl certificate be sufficient? Secondly, any negative impact on a work visa or fm3. Thanks for your help.

PlayadelSoul · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 346 Location: Playa del Carmen

Unless it is a requirement where you work, I would say it would matter very little. Certainly not when it comes to your FM3.

Ben Round de Bloc · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946

I agree with PlayadelSoul on this one. An up-to-date state teaching certificate won't count for much of anything here. Degrees, documented teaching experience, and a TEFL certificate are the important things. There's no reason I can think of for taking courses to renew your state teaching certificate to teach in Mexico . . . unless you plan to teach in an international school.

FreddyM · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 180 Location: Mexico

My teaching certificate expired a couple of years ago also. I was planning on looking for a job at an international school (colegio). Given that the cert. I had applied to only one particular state in the U.S. (even if I were to try and teach in another state in the U.S., and even if it were not expired, it would still not be valid), what would be the point of trying to update it (with more fees and courses, especially since I am already living in Mexico). I can document experience while it was still valid (they changed the laws a few years ago in the state where I taught, and instead of handing out lifetime certificates, you have to renew them every five years now).
Hmm...so, I guess my question is, could I present an expired certificate (in ESL even), documented work experience, a graduate degree from the U.S., and could they then overlook the fact that it expired only a couple years ago?
What about if I can document work experience in Mexico as well?

Just wondering.

MELEE · Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 5:32 pm Post subject:

Most Mexicans don't think about a state "licensing" someone to teach, if you have a degree in something, that must give you the knowledge to teach it. Don't worry too much about this. If you have taught somewhere and you are a Native English speaker, that all most jobs will look for. I don't have any direct experience with true "international schools" but most private collegios are more or less free to hire who ever they want to teach (you'll find lots of nieces, nephews and godchildren of the director in these positions) with the public primarias and secundarias, they mostly just hire graduates of the MEXICAN teachers colleges, and they pay peanuts so I don't think you'd be looking to work there. "High school" is beyound the minimum required education level in Mexico so high schools have more freedom in curriculum and staff than primaria and secundarias.