Job Discussion Forums

TG12345 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 41

I will be getting my Bachelor of Education in May of 2008, and am looking at different job opportunities. I am interested in doing some teaching in Latin America but would first like to earn some money at a higher paying teaching job before doing that, and was wondering what England would be like.

I am from Calgary, Alberta and it seems that many people I know who graduated are not able to find full time jobs, they are either subbing the whole time or teach short terms, maximum a few months at a time. I have heard that there is great demand for teachers in the UK, is that true?

I have experience teaching EAL learners, and have an English major and a Math minor. I have student taught, worked as a teaching assistant, and volunteered in public schools as well as a private Christian school. In addition to that I have tutored adult learners. I am prepared to work in either a public or private school setting, hopefully at a high school level but also can teach adults or middle years. I would not want to teach at a level below grade seven. I have lived in Canada for most of my life, but do have dual Canadian and Polish citizenship.

Do you think that with my qualifications it would be possible to get a job in the UK?

What is the pay like? Is the cost of living high? How much money can be saved?

Is it possible to obtain long term teaching positions? What is the longest amount of time you can stay there? Are there any permanent teaching jobs that are offered to teachers from North America or do you have to be a British citizen? Would being an EU citizen make a difference?

If you have any ideas/feedback I would be glad to hear it. Thank you.

My email is [email protected].

Regards,
Tomasz Glowacki

bigbadsuzie · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject:

Not high paying.

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

Lots of competition from highly qualified and experienced Brits.

ktodba · Joined: 02 Aug 2006 Posts: 54 Location: UK

Got to agree.
Lots of competition and as a result not huge money. The well qualified people may stick to the 'higher' end of the market allowing some scope for you but the 'good' jobs will be very difficult to get.

canadashirleyblue · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 162

You need to get a teaching agency (Timeplan for example) to get you a work permit. You need to be under a certain age (30 or something like that).
Not sure about the Polish thing. There are an amazing number of Poles there though.
If you get a job it will be in a crap school in inner London. There used to be a teacher shortage in the Uk but that has more or less passed. You will only be able to sign a contract for one year.
You would really need to get QST (qualified in the UK) asap. It has to happen within 4 years from the day you first teach there (regardless of whether you have been somewhere else in the interval). It can be done on the job. If your 4 years are up and you haven't done it you would have to go back to a UK teacher training institution.
English high schools start at year 7 and generally run to year 11. Having taught in both systems I can tell you that they are very different. English education is curriculum centered and run from the top down. You get minimal say in what you teach compared to Canada. Basically you do what you are told. If you like that sort of atmosphere it's the place for you.
Pay is lower than in Canada but the cost of living is WAY higher. It would be impossible for you to afford anything other than a bedsit in London close to where you would probably work. Even then it would be difficult to afford a safe area. You would probably end up travelling at least half an hour on the train and then the bus or underground and then walk to your place of employment. I know I did it. My daughter is travelling 2 hours each way every day now because she cound not find anything decent she could afford any closer. You would NEVER be able to afford to buy a house anywhere within commuting distance of London on a single teacher's salary unless you had a very large deposit. Housing north of Birmingham would be affordable but you would have to have QTS to get a job there because they don't generally have a shortage in the areas where teachers want/can afford to live.

England is a very run down place. Crime is rampant. Drugs and booze are a serious problem. Anyone from Canada would be quite shocked. The train stations and city centers on a Sunday morning are covered with vomit and thrown away food and used condoms. Many of the smaller train stations are not safe even at 4 in the afternoon. They don't have 3 types of recycling bins like in the subway in Toronto! The lovely picture postcard places you see in calendars and books are for the rich.

There are lots of other places in the world where you could easily get a job and live safely and comfortably.

Yorkshire Ian · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 22

TheLongWayHome · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi

Check out http://www.tda.gov.uk/Recruit/thetrainingprocess.aspx It's all about QTS etc.

And http://www.naric.org.uk/ is about getting your foreign qualifications recognised.

jammish · Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 1704

If the poster has a B.Ed, won't they already be a qualified teacher? That's a bit different from just an ESL teacher. While the pay isn't great, as I understand it, temporary foreign (qualified) teachers in the UK sometimes get much better pay than the local full timers. The poster ColinA/ESLStudies said that when he, as a qualified Aussie teacher, was teaching in London, he was taking home 800 pounds a week, which works out to a pretty nice amount - you would certainly be able to afford better than a bedsit on that kind of money. And I'm not sure that a (western) teacher already qualified in their home country would have to get qualified all over again.

I also remember an aussie colleague in my old job who had friends teaching in London as temps for similar kinds of amounts.

jammish · Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 1704

TheLongWayHome · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi

jammish · Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 1704

canadashirleyblue · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 162

Agencies will hire you if you are a qualified teacher in your home country. If you work in a state school you are not paid on the salary grid. You are paid on the unqualified scale.
You will have to get your QTS within 4 years.
Perhaps the person who made 800 a week was teaching in a private school (they set their own pay scales) or not including the weeks he/she was not working? Are you sure he said 'take home'? I did supply in the UK for about 10 years for about 6 or 7 different agencies and I never, ever heard of anyone who made anything like that much money. It 'might' be possible to make 800 a week on a good week and then pay tax. Although when I left the pay was between 95 and 118 quid a day (depending on the agency) and then pay tax. That was 3 years ago so maybe rates have gone up dramatically.
If I was the poster I would look at Poland. He can speak Polish. They often recruit in TES for teachers at private schools in Poland. I once had an interview for one (but I got another job first). That was 3 years ago and the pay was 1800 US a month. Our poster would know better than I if this is reasonable for Poland. The money would have been paid into an offshore account which I could have accessed with a plastic card from the cash machine. This way you avoid Polish taxes which, I gather are quite high. There are other schools that pay better than that one I'm sure. I don't know if the poster's place of birth would make any difference.

9/11/07 - I have just looked at the TES website and there is quite a lot of information there. It says that the current rate of pay for the unqualified scale is �14,751 to �23,331 for England and Wales (depending on experience). It's around �4000 more for inner London. It also states that EEA citizens (which Poles are) have the same right to seek work in the UK as British citizens. The cheapest 2 or 3 bedroom house you could buy within an hour commuting distance would probably cost about �200,000. Rent for that type of accomodation might be just under �1000 a month. You might get an appartment for around �600 a month. You also have to pay electric, gas and council tax (similar to the property tax which the owner pays in Canada). My daughter pays �350 a month for a room in a shared house and around �250 a month for a monthly pass on the train into her job in central London. About a quarter of your pay would go in income tax. You can look at the TES website where it says Pay Scales explained and figure out what you might make. Then go figure.

Another option might be to go to Scotland. The information on the website for the teaching council there seems to indicate that Canadian qualifications could be fairly easily transferred. If your qualifications are recognized in Scotland it looks like it is a matter of filling in the forms and paying to have them recognized in England. I don't know why you would do that though. The cost of housing is cheaper there and I believe wages are better and the style of teaching more like what Canadians are familiar with.

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

There is a shortage of school teachers in secondary schools, depending on the subject(s) you can teach. The subjects you taught during your BEd are likely to be important: maths (or do call it math like Americans? if so, convert to maths!) and sciences are shortage subjects. English might put you at a disadvantage.

Definitely consider Scotland as well as England.

Think carefull about whether or not to apply to teach adults. There is great competition with native speakers in further education colleges, and the pay in language schools is a joke. As for the living conditions in the UK, it depends both upon your own standards and the part of the UK you're in. I do think, however, that you may find student behaviour in schools rather problematic.

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

Think carefullY, I meant.

ktodba · Joined: 02 Aug 2006 Posts: 54 Location: UK

I've just reread this thread and think I may have missed the point first time round, sorry. If you have a teaching qualification in Canada or such like then it is perfecrtly possible to get work in the UK in secondary schools. the pay range in state schools will probably not be available for the first year and there may be certain hoops to jump through but a lot of it is at the discretion of the school. Look in the TES or on their website to find schools looking for teachers and contact them directly. EAL is becoming a big topic at the moment especially with Polish speaking students. Catholic schools are particularly affected by the influx of Poles to the Uk and may well be worth investigating.
Hope this helps more than my first post.