Job Discussion Forums

[rayman]

It may seem really obvious, but completing a PGCE (or equivalent) and teaching ESL in the school system within your own country would probably be the most practical option. Or teaching another subject if your passionate about art, or science for instance. In my home state of Australia,with 8 years teaching experience, I'd be on US$88 000 (+9% retirement). Given the high cost of living, it's not great, but certainly comfortable.

If you're not particularly passionate about Speech Pathology either, a teaching qualification would be a much quicker route (1 year compared to 4 or more) to finding a job in your home country. That said, from what I'm hearing out of the US, teaching jobs, even in public schools may be hard to find in certain states. So if you're from that part of the world, there may be some complications.

That said, having a PGCE also allows gives you the flexibility of easily returning to the international circuit with a decent salary package, should you choose to.

[demitrescou]

Been in contact with tutors from a university regarding qualifying as a Speech Therapist. Thought I'd share it on here in case anyone's interested.

An MA in Applied Linguistics should suffice to get one on the MA for Speech & Language Therapy (2 years FT) providing you complete some relevant work placement before hand (voluntary work placements available at various health organisations). You would then be qualified and able to register as a Speech Therapist.

Otherwise, you'd have to go the route of a 3-4 year undergraduate degree.

Following this route one could obtain all the benefits of having the mentioned MA in the ESL field, confident (fairly) that the said MA will be of significance upon returning home.

Something that confused me was that Speech Therapists are in short supply (according to the tutor and the UK National Shortage Occupation List) yet she said that competition for the MSc is extremely fierce and lots of applicants are rejected every year. The tutor said it's because the NHS pays the entire tuition fees for this course. I still don't get it though - how can the profession be in short supply when the universities are turning people away from the course?

[rayman]

Interesting. Maybe there's a shortage of Speech therapist academics as well?