Job Discussion Forums

cptundies · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9

Hi,

My girlfriend and I are heading to Vietnam at the end of Jan/start of Feb are were going to travel around for about a month and then look for teaching jobs primarily with young kids.

We both have a TEFL certificate and a years experience from Korea with kids so what are our chances of getting a job? Are jobs in kindergartens avaliable? Which cities are best to try? Is it easy to find an flat in the cities should we need one?

Thanks. Any help is much appreciated

UpScope · Joined: 31 Jul 2007 Posts: 82

Lots of options at the end of Feb and start of March. The start of Feb is Tet, Chinese new year, so pretty much the whole of Feb will be down time, no schools will be hiring.

March will see all schools putting on ESL teachers. One thing that might help is to spend a day or so in HCM or HN (depending on where you land) passing around your CV and meeting some people in schools and give them your dates for return. That would give you a chance to see the country and then come back for an agreed upon start date.

Kindies are in abundance and easy to find, cities, really only two with lots opportunity, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

cptundies · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9

how lond so contracts tend to be. If we only wanted work for a couple of months would thatbe a problem?

UpScope · Joined: 31 Jul 2007 Posts: 82

6 months is the normal minimum, but places may take less, just shop around and make sure that schools know what you want up front and you should get some commitment of hours.

Do realise though that most of these places want some continuity, some stable base for their students. Two months is not really any sort of commitment.

A six month commitment will get you a good block of guaranteed hours and some fair income.

cptundies · Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 9

right. thanks very much for that.

what about privates? is that a common/ easily got thing in vietnam? And has anyone heard of anyone getting short term contracts?

Thanks

jestert79 · Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 44

I've been approached twice by people for private lessons. Once I was getting an eye exam and the eye doctor wanted private lessons. Another time, right before a kids class, a mother approached me and asked if I could do private lessons with her son and his brother. I'm sure if you found the right channels to advertise you'd find some.

I know some people who have come to work just for 3 months, but I don't know if they got a contract...

UpScope · Joined: 31 Jul 2007 Posts: 82

Short term contracts are not that easy to come by and really will just depend on how short a school is for teachers at that time. Right now there is an oversupply, generally, of teachers in Vietnam leading into Tet. Post Tet the market will again thin and schools will be looking for teachers.

Privates tend to be the sole domain of those who go seek them, the longer you are here the more you are going to have. Previous post is spot on though, you will pick up privates in the most unlikely places. I have been asked on ferries and traffic islands.....

Committing even to 6 months will give you a hell of a lot more options.

Micro67 · Joined: 29 May 2003 Posts: 297 Location: HCMC, Vietnam

I've seen ads on this site for short term contracts at ILA and a couple of others. It sounds like you will be settling in to work at a good time as things are slow from December until after the Tet holiday.

fischerles_hump · Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 19

Yeah, after TET is a good time to come, student numbers are down before the holidays but shoot up immediately afterwards. Yeah, worth putting in some thought about which city you want to work in. Hanoi and HCMC have quite different characters and the market for English schools in other cities is starting to take off. For that reason it might not be worth sorting something out until after you come. There is loads of work here especially if you are certified and have experience. I would say try and get some sort of short list together for cities you think you might be interested in, get into e-mail contact so that you have some idea about how suitable you think they are, and then drop by the schools once you are here.

I don't know too many kindies, you might try

http://www.kinderworld.net/vn/kik.htm
www.stamfordgrammar.com

For guaranteed hours though your best bet might be one of the bigger language schools.

ilavietnam.com - I know their kindy program is pretty big

or apollo, I think this is the website but it is taking ages to load

http://www.apolloedutrain.com/vn/

Good luck