Job Discussion Forums

[Solar Strength]

[deessell2]

The British passport is probably required for full-time teaching contracts.

They are probably more 'flexible' for part-time hires, which is the case with other branches.

[PattyFlipper]

The British Council is a UK government organization, subsidized by the British taxpayer - though since the reforms imposed by the Thatcher administration in the early eighties, their Direct Teaching Operations overseas are supposed to at least break even or preferably make a profit. Full-time staff on an expatriate contract are almost always recruited through central office in London according to fairly rigid recruitment procedures regarding qualifications, experience, and as eddie rightly said, whether or not they think your face will fit. Preference is naturally given to UK citizens and this is arguably a legal requirement, as overseas contracts are written under English law which requires that preference is given to EU nationals.

Local hires (which are often, though not always, part-time) do not necessarily have to be British, experienced (BC Hong Kong used fresh graduates from their own CELTA courses for years), or even native speakers of English, depending on how desperate a particular centre is for a warm body to place in front of a class. Local management have a great deal of discretion in setting their own criteria, in order to ensure that the "bums on seats" policy which has obtained since the above-mentioned reforms, keeps the money rolling in. From what I hear, recruitment standards at the BC in Bangkok are particularly lax, and the salaries much lower than those in most other locations. Whether the latter situation is responsible for the former or vice-versa, is up for debate.