Job Discussion Forums

[Mapleleaf]

Does anybody know if Global Teachers is a credible organization or not? I've sent them two e-mails already but have only received form letters in response, which makes me leery. There are several glaring English errors on their site, which also makes me think they may not be as professional as I would hope. (That and the 100 euro �application fee� have me balking.) Has anybody worked with, for, or around them? Thanks!

[spiral78]

It's not clear whether you are Canadian or from the US, but unless you've also got a citizenship in an EU member country, it's HIGHLY unlikely that any company can get you a legal working permit for France.

You are right to be suspicious of a fee.

In case you are not aware of the general situation for hiring of language teachers in Europe - it's rare to find any job from abroad. You usually have to be here, on the ground, standing in the office, before you will get a hearing.

I suggest you may want to read through some of the threads on this board...there are some ways to work legally in France, but most are work/study schemes and you would need specific connections to land one of those.

Otherwise, regardless of qualifications and experience, non-EU citizens can't get legal work permits for most of the 'old' EU member countries, including France. I myself have 10 years experience and MA TESL/TEFL, AND am married to a Czech citizen (hence, spouse of EU citizen), but I would not be able to get legal work in France.

[Mapleleaf]

Thanks Spiral! Would anyone else have heard specifics about the company? Thank you for being concerned- but working papers for teaching are not an issue.

[spiral78]

Sorry if my previous post was off-target - this forum gets lots of newbies who really aren't aware of the legal red tape.

I'll bow out now, as I don't know this particular company.

However, the point stands regarding application fees - it's shady and you are right to be concerned.

Hope someone will know specifics.

Best of luck!

[thainar]

im pretty sure this company is sketchy. If it looks too good to be true, it usually is.

Also, they used to have the same website, under a different URL!

www.teach-abroad.eu

they have the exact same jobs, just one year behind...sketchy.

[Teacher51]

I paid the application fee for Global Teachers, hoping to land a job in Europe. (I'm American, and I was told by my Oxford Seminars instructor that it's almost impossible for an American to secure legal employment within the EU.) I'd read a few posts on other message boards that made me believe Global Teachers was worth the risk, so, against my better judgment, I paid the high application fee.

The message prior to payment stated that several schools were already interested in interviewing me, so I entertained the possibility that it was a credible recruiting agency. Unfortunately, I believe that I was had. I got one email citing that a school wanted to interview, and then received a generic email with generic information about this supposed school. I was told to email a central address with an expression of interest to interview. I did this about a month ago, and haven't heard anything back.

After paying the fee, I came across a post on another board that included information about a teacher who dealt with Global Teachers, heard nothing back, investigated, and, according to the teacher, found out that it was basically a scam.

I'm not willing to go so far as to say that it's a total scam, as I don't have solid proof yet, but I would strongly advise against paying the application fee. The fact of the matter is that you can, in fact, find legal employment in Europe without paying some outrageous application fee to a recruiting agency. Later on, I learned that a willingness to spend money on travel to the desired country and interview in person is the main factor in finding legal employment within the EU (assuming that you're a qualified professional). I did eventually get offers to interview in Europe, even France, just by sending in a CV via email, but all of the schools requested that I travel abroad and interview in person, something I couldn't afford to do at the time.