Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

Does anyone on this forum work or have worked at an International School?
What are the usual qualifications?
Would I stand a chance with a BA not in education, a TEFL Diploma, and a couple years experience teaching English in various countries?
How could I up my chances of getting a job at one?

[Gordon]

I think you need an education degree, similar to that of teachers in N.A. I know that in Canada, it would entail an extra year of full-time education to complete a BEd, assuming you already have a teachable major in your BA.

[Roger]

Working in an international school means you submit to international standards, which puts these schools miles ahead of Chinese school, and especially of training centres.
Exams for example have to meet objective criteria. Students have no automatic right to pass them. Targets are defined in specific curricula.
Teachers have to be suitably qualified. Mere English teachers are rare, and those who do get hired in that capacity have to have a very high educational background that is not normally necessary for jobs in Chinese schools.
It is sometimes a conditon that you can teach a variety of subjects besides English.

[guest of Japan]

Basically you need to have a teaching certificate, a masters degree, and two to three years teaching experience in your own country. They are very difficult positions to get. There are recruitment services and job fairs that you can use. There is also a magazine called International Educator which lists job postings around the world with hiring stipulations. Certain countries have easier requirements because of the desirablility of the location.

[Will.]

I would suggest replying to an advertisement from one of the schools the application 'pack' alone should discourage you. Yes a Post grad is helpful one in secondary or primary education plus experience in a 'school situation' ie in a pastoral role.
Jobs, in most European capitals, for teachers of EFL do appear each year. The selection criteria are not in your favour as everyone and their brother is looking for that job and believe me they have the experience. The pay scale leaves the gulf in the shade.
Keep applying for experience and understanding of the system if not for preparation for later. Who knows take up main stream education later on.
The consideration to your teaching experience, would be Teaching EFL, not teaching English as you are not in a state maintained sector of education following a nationally accepted curriculum..
They are highly sought after jobs. They seek high calibre employees.

[naturegirl321]

Well, looks like I'll be teaching in language schools for a bit longer.

[wanderlust1066]

I've only read a few of your questions NatureGirl321, but already I can see that you are a calm, balanced person. However, I must say that sometimes your questions can be (frustratingly) naive. But, since you ask in a nice way, I will try to thus answer.

Look at the international schools here in HK, for example (only used as an example since I know about at least one of them through previous experience). There is one here, the name does not matter, it is a fairly 'well-to-do' private international school catering mainly for the children of executives who stem from and who may return to, the R.S. Africa. I remember one man had 4 children, all of whom were enrolled at this school. The tuition fees PER MONTH were 8,000 HK dollars PER CHILD. That means he was paying a total of 32,000 a month for his 4 kids. This sort of option is only open to those that can boast of a healthy income, right?

Well, do you not think - (imagine you were that parent) - that he, and everyone else, expects their children to only have very well qualified, very experienced, professional teachers? As a very bare minimum, teachers at that establishment required at least (as dictated by the Immigration dept.):

a) a full-time, on campus BA (Hons) from a recognised university - (though this could be in any subject)

and

b) a full-time, on campus B.ED, again of course from an internationally-recognised university - (or a similar regional variant)

and

c) a full-time, on campus PGCE - or a similar variant

and, for the English component:

d) a cert. in teaching English as a second or other language to at least Diploma level.

I say "for the English component" as I have NEVER heard of a straight teacher of English as a second language working in ANY international school. Indeed, the one I worked at for one year did not actually, as such, offer 'English classes' per se. Instead, as is often the case in Scandinavia, Maths, Geography, Chemistry, etc., were all given in English from day one. After 6 months even the weakest child would sail through an English lesson in any subject with relative ease.

The point is, however, that you would have to be experienced and qualified enough to teach both English and at least one other subject.

Also, you could not be newly qualified. A minimum of 6 years authenticated and documented full-time experience WITHOUT BREAKS (! I'm not totally sure why this was their policy but it was) was also required. Obviously it goes without saying that those with any criminal records could not be employed as full poilce checks were conducted by the authorities - at the applicants own (not inconsiderable) expense. (I understand they used and continue to use the British Police Force's database for this procedure.)

Believe me, there was no shortage of applicants, most of whom had vastly more qualifications and experience than that. In fact, most of the teachers had 20 or 30 years experience as they were mainly ex-pats. They would typically be the wife of some high paid business-type person and had been teaching and accumulating experience and qualifications for decades. They also had two or three old boys who were retired from a 30-year teaching career and who used to teach just two or three periods a day; most were real experts in their relevant fields and could offer a host of skills to the headmaster and other teachers; I learned a lot from them, anyway.

The salaries are high as a result of such staffing policies, but, when you have that much coming in in the way of tuition fees, you can afford to take the teachers you want, right? In fact, you can't afford not to as if you begin to employ substandard teachers, the pupils will stop being enrolled by their parents, who, believe me, DO research the schools' teachers.