Job Discussion Forums

clearvue · Joined: 11 Sep 2006 Posts: 6

Hello!

I am a 22yr old, in *sunny* California, and I will be graduating with my BA in History in December. I am also TEFL certified, and have done some teaching in China a few summers back.

I am interested in teaching overseas, peferrably in Sweden/Poland/Italy. I want to focus primarily on Europe, and ideally would like to start in January.

The problem that I have is I have *no* idea where to start. I can't find any proper websites to point me in the right directions.

Any help at all is much appreciated.

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

For jobs in Europe, you should first find out if you can work legally. A scan of European jobs on tefl.com will show you that about 99% of them prefer EU passports. It's not impossible, but it is difficult. Seems they don't want us over there! Sad

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clearvue · Joined: 11 Sep 2006 Posts: 6

Do you reccomend just emailing the schools?

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

You have very little chance for Sweden or Italy. There is little demand for teachers in Sweden, and for the few posts available, EU citizens will be preferred. There's a demand in Italy, but it's honestly 99% impossible to get work permits if you are not an EU citizen.
Poland is a different story. You CAN get legal working papers (though there is some hassle). The pay will be enough to live on fairly well, but you can't expect to fund extensive travel outside the country or pay off any debts back home.
It's very little use to email the schools directly. In all of Europe, you usually have to be here on the ground, nicely dressed, CV in hand, standing in the office of the school to get a hearing. Almost nobody hires from abroad - this is because so many people don't actually show up, or, when they do, they prove to have misprepresented themselves in some way.
The demand for teachers is there, in Poland (as in most of Europe) but it just isn't as strong as in Asia, where you can land a contract from abroad.

luckyloser700 · Joined: 24 Mar 2006 Posts: 308 Location: Japan

Clear,
If you have no luck with Europe, try Japan for a year or so. Save some money, fly to Europe with your CV that lists your experience teaching English abroad, and see what happens. A good, solid year of teaching abroad is excellent experience in TEFL.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

luckyloser, experience makes no difference in EU hiring laws. You can work in Japan for 20 years and have 10 post grad degrees and many EU countries still aren't going to hire a North American.