Job Discussion Forums

[BenE]

There is still work here in the UK. I'm still getting called up about jobs every few days and I attended an interview today. I think a lot of people will stay here for now and won't fly abroad.

I'm still considering whether to make the big jump or stay here.

[Stephen Jones]

[Kootvela]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Stephen Jones]

[BenE]

[Marcoregano]

[spiral78]

I think it's going to be the same in North America. The international student numbers are going to drop, jobs will become more scarce in the 'domestic' markets, more teachers with some quals and experience are likely to be looking abroad for work.

AND people from other fields (or just out of university) who've heard that persistent myth that teaching English abroad is easy to get into and somehow lucrative

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[spiral78]

Yeah, I know. But we also often have those questions about paying off university loans or debt back home - not so easy in most places...

The next step is the questions regarding feasibility of raising/educating children abroad, saving up to buy houses and cars and a decent retirement.

..all with newbie quals...

There have been a few more than usual of these kinds of inquiries in the Europe forum lately, and I suppose it's likely also starting to happen in the Asia boards as well.

[Marcoregano]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[spiral78]

Yep. That's totally clear to me (having them myself)

I'm just expressing amazement that the myth persists that stronger qualifications aren't needed. I suppose I'm getting a bit tired of talking to wanna-be teachers who imagine that they will get professional benefits without professional qualifications.

I should take a break from the forum:)

[spiral78]

Here they come....CNN givin' them the idea:)

Student loan fugitives
When faced with unaffordable monthly payments and relentless creditors, some see leaving the country as their only way out.


NEW YORK (CNN) -- Carl, a Florida native now living overseas, is afraid to move back to the United States. That's because he can't afford to pay his student loans.
Carl (who doesn't want his last name used) stopped making his $450 monthly payments after his family incurred some unexpected medical expenses, and his $55,000 private loans went into default. That's when the phone calls from debt collectors started, and Carl decided not to come back.
"It was made clear that if I ever came home, I'm screwed," says Carl.
Today, he estimates his private loans are more than $70,000. Though he hopes to move home one day, for now, staying abroad is the only option he can see.
"If it means I have to live in exile from friends and family...well, that's the breaks. So be it. But I won't put my family in a situation where they are afraid," he says.
While most Americans are burdened with debt of some kind, student loan repayment can be a particularly scary prospect for young people struggling to start a career. Payments are often higher than expected, and the loans can't easily be discharged. Added pressure from debt collectors causes some grads to flee their loans by fleeing the country.
"These are people new to borrowing and they didn't understand what they were getting into," says Mark Kantrowitz of Finaid.org, an online student loan information Web site. "It's a very sorry situation that it comes to students feeling they have no option than to leave the country," he says. "It's a sign the system is broken."
To date, there is about $60 billion in defaulted student loan debt according to Chris Lang of the New York-based debt collection agency, ConServe. But while skipping town to avoid paying student loans isn't very common - Lang estimates that only about 2% to 4% of delinquent student loan debt is owed from students abroad - for some, it seems like the only way out.
International addresses make it more difficult to find people, and collection companies would usually need to hire an international counsel or a third party collector to recoup the debt, cutting into their profits and reducing their incentive to go after a debtor.
"It increases our expenses to go overseas," says Justin Berg of American Profit Recovery, a debt collection agency in Massachusetts. "Our revenues are cut by more than half," he says.
Very little relief
Chris left the country to help pay his debt, not to avoid it. But when that didn't work out, he saw his foreign address as the only way to escape.
Chris (who doesn't want his last name used) graduated with about $160,000 in student loan debt with a master's degree in music.

[rusmeister]

Sounds depressingly true, Spiral.
It makes me think of all of the stuff I've read by Chesterton over the past couple of years on the war on poor people (called "the war on poverty" in the media).