Job Discussion Forums

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

It might. Why don't you ask ?

voodoochild · Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Posts: 80

I have always found people from the British council to have their heads up their jacksy's.....also you need a 'BBC accent' to work there.

Ben Round de Bloc · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946

The British Council and the national government of Mexico have had a formal liason regarding EFL in this country for years.

Based on what I've seen here in SE Mexico, which is a long ways from Mexico City, where the British Council headquarters is located, it appears that about 3/4 of those in administrative-type positions are from the UK. The other 1/4 are mostly from Mexico or other Latin American countries.

This is only my own perception, as I said, based on what I see on those rare occasions when people from the British Council come to our part of the country. Mostly, they're sent here to do teacher training, to give Cambridge exams, or to present workshops on how to utilize certain textbook series which are published in the UK.

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy

From the advertising I've seen in the UK press they stress that they want people to reflect the diversity of Britain etc (this might be on their web-site as well).

Don't know whether this reflects the situation on the ground, but if anyone doesn't apply because of their Dudley or Paisley accent it's never going to change is it?

Organisations do change, and one of the Further Education colleges where I occasionally teach was criticised a few years ago by the BC for having too many middle age (middle class?) women teachers. Now they've increased recruitment of younger males ho-hum, which doesn't help me!

Sue

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

In all fairness, the guy I met from the Council a few weeks ago had an extremely strong Glaswegian accent.

Made a refreshing change Cool

rogan · Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Posts: 416 Location: at home, in France

The British Council has a centralised on-line application which is very comprehensive and takes ages to complete.

Vacancies are listed on their site and the application process is centralised.
The Recruitment Office in the UK forwards "interesting" applications to the local office. The local office then shortlists candidates that they find especially interesting and arranges a telephone interview - usually with 2 people talking down the 'phone at you. This interview lasts up to 45 minutes and the have some sort of grading system which gives an assessment of you based on buzz words or something.

If you are selected travel arrangements etc can be made by the UK office or you can make your own travel arrangements and reclaim the costs.

The general BC package, including accomodation allowances, employment opportunities for spouses and UK N.I. and tax payments are generally very good, although they do vary. Avoid, for example, positions that are "locally recruited".

Most BC centres DO appear to be rather self-satisfied and inward looking, but once in there you can actually develop that elusive TEFL Career as well as having a more than reasonable salary with protected pension and social security payments.

Hope that helps.