Job Discussion Forums

[Vanica]

Has anyone gone through the application process or is working in the Calgary system? The website shows a lot of ESL openings, and they appear to accept foreign degrees (as opposed to Quebec, certainly, and Ontario, from what I hear). But you need to get out your Visa or Mastercard to find out for sure, and also to find out the salary! Is anyone here teaching there?

[canadashirleyblue]

You have to be certified by the teacher's association in Alberta to teach in a public school there. If you are not don't waste space on your plastic.

[Vanica]

Thanks for the tip, Shirl.

Is the Alberta certification two years at university? Do they have work-while-you-get-it, tuition-paid programmes as in some US places; eg., New York, New Orleans, and Memphis (they don't even require education degrees, but the schools are rough)? Do teachers get paid the big bucks that construction workers and all the other lads are making in Alberta, and in line with the housing costs there?

At least Alberta considers foreign degrees, or so they say.

[Vanica]

Here's the quote from the Alberta Teacher's website:

The Registrar may issue an Alberta interim professional certificate to an applicant who: ... holds an acceptable degree in education from an approved institution outside Alberta and completes any additional work that may be required by the Registrar.

You don't know if your degree is "acceptable" or what the "additional work" is unless you pay $250? Can the "work" be done at the same time as a job?

If I go to Calgary, is there somewhere I can visit to ask?

[Jetgirly]

To be a certified teacher with the Calgary Board of Education (CBE), you need either a teaching certificate (lower probability of being hired) or a teaching certificate AND a Bachelor of Education degree (higher probability of being hired). The CBE's pay scale reflects years of professional experience AND years of post-secondary education, so people who choose to do two separate bachelor's degrees get paid more. Approximately 90% of the graduates from the University of Calgary's Bachelor of Education program are hired annually (though many start as subs and on temp contracts) so the two-year, post-degree B.Ed program kind of sets the standard. If you come from say, BC, and do only the teaching certificate program you're at a competitive disadvantage.

They definitely don't have any tuition-paid programs here! However, the tuition for the B.Ed program at U of C isn't too bad- about $5500 per year for two years. You already ahve to have a degree to be in the program. For someone with a prior four-year degree AND a B.Ed the starting salary with the CBE is $51,323. For someone with only a four-year B.Ed (like the ones offered at the University of Alberta in Edmonton), the starting salary is $45.594.

BUT you don't have to be a certified teacher to work as an ESL teaching assistant in the Calgary Board of Education (CBE). As you can see on the CBE website, you only need to have a high school diploma and some kind of ESL certification (I'm not clear on their requirements for this, though I'm guessing the program run through the Continuing Ed department at U of C would suffice). The pay isn't great, but it would be a way into the school system. These may be the openings you're seeing, as the CBE doesn't really advertise the number of proper teaching positions they have at any time (www.educationcanada.com is a good resource to see specific job postings- you'll see that the CBE generally just says they need 200ish teachers to start at the bottom of the ladder, with no more specifics).

The CSSD (Catholic School Board) is really desperate for Catholic teachers, and if you have the paperwork to back up your Catholicism then you should consider applying there first.

[Vanica]

I have a Master's degree in TESOL but not from a Canadian university, and many years experience in the US. I have a temporary certificate from New York City.

I was baptised Catholic, if that helps.

[Jetgirly]

If you have a Master's, I'm assuming you have a Bachelor's. ESL isn't really a teachable major; most teachers who actually lead full-size ESL classes have another teachable major (like Language Arts or Math) and teach a block or two of ESL to fill their schedules. Last year I visited about fifteen schools in the CBE and CSSD and I didn't meet a single teacher who was hired only to teach ESL. I met lots of people who were hired to assist ESL students in normal classrooms- again, they are TAs, not teachers. As a teacher, you would probably be looking at teaching the subjects related to your Bachelor's degree, with ESL on the side until you were able to pick up a full schedule of ESL (this wouldn't happen for years and years... like, a decade, unless you were to work in some of the rougher parts of Calgary like Forest Lawn). You would need to have your certification recognized in Alberta through the Ministry of Education - information is at http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/k_12/teaching/Certification/ . Once they determined that you were eligible for temporary certification you would be considered on par (theoretically) with any other teacher holding Alberta certification. In terms of jobs, I'm sure priority would be given to people with experience with the Alberta curriculum and you would have to work you way up through subbing (like all teachers).

[Vanica]

Thanks, Jetgirly,
Sorry to be obtuse, it's just that every school board uses the term certification in a different way.

I have a BA in Languages, MEd in TESOL, MA in Translation, Interpretation School at the UN, and on and off 10 years experience teaching parttime in HS, college and adult ed.

In NYC, you need the BA in Education or a BA plus a Master's in Education, PLUS a two year university certification programme. So are you saying that in Calgary, I can get by with the BA and Masters in Education? Since I have another two degrees in FR and SP languages, maybe I can get into French immersion or Spanish bilingual.

By the way, what are the public schools like in Calgary? In NYC, they can be scary

[Jetgirly]

There are two normal routes here:

ROUTE ONE
- Four year undergraduate degree (BA, BSc, BFA, whatever)
+ plus +
EITHER
- A ten- or twelve-month certificate program (leading to eligibility for a teaching certificate, which is issued by the province, not the school)
OR
- A two-year (sixteen months of class time) university program leading to a Bachelor of Education degree (issued by the university) AND eligibility for a teaching certificate (issued by the province)

ROUTE TWO
- A four-year Bachelor of Education program leading to a Bachelor of Education degree (from the university) and eligibility for a teaching certificate (from the province).

I don't think that a Masters in TESOL would fulfill the requirements for teaching certification here, but you'd really have to contact the people at the link above for info, because they issue the certificates. Second-language teachers are fairly in-demand, and you could probably get hired with just a certificate program (like the one at the University of Victoria) rather than a full, two-year B.Ed program. So, if they don't accept your qualifications think about going that route instead.

I know the Catholic School Board here is absolutely desperate for French and Spanish immersion (not second language) teachers and they might be able to bend the rules for you. The boards in Ontario are doing a lot of rule-bending because of a lack of "qualified" candidates... perhaps the same could happen here. To teach in a Catholic school you need a letter from the ummm... paster? priest? at your church saying you attend... mass??? regularly. Sorry, I don't know know much about Catholicism. You also have to have your baptismal certificate.

[naturegirl321]

probably need your confirmation cert. Have you though about teaching at a uni?

[spiral78]

Uni jobs are rarely full time/salaried/with benefits. ESL depts. depend on contract staff. Vanica's quals would be sufficient, but there aren't many job openings around.

[Vanica]

Here we are in Calgary and no headway on teaching positions. The Calgary Board of Ed (CBE) recruitment office said I could leave all my docs and application, but they have no idea when anyone might look at them! None of the schools will look at anything personally, referring me to the CBE. Catholic school board doesn't respond at all, and even though we are francophone, my daughter is not eligible because it is for French Canadians, not immigrants like us.

I know it's summer, but I thought there was a shortage here. On the other hand, we haven't seen another child in a week -- we haven't seen any children's parks built into the new subdivisions either. Housing costs are unbelievable, so that may dampen the desire to reproduce.

Banff was nice.

[spiral78]

A shortage of what? Teachers?

A couple of years ago they were laying teachers off - I know several people who lost their full-time jobs in the system due to lack of seniority and ended up doing subbing only.

I don't know whether the boom over the last two years applies to the education sector: you'd think it would as people moving to Calgary presumably often have children, too.

In any case, I assume that the established teaching workforce would have been pulled back into play first, before considerations of hiring outsiders.

[Vanica]

Yeah, Spiral, I don't get it. I see all the construction of new housing in Calgary, but someone told me they are closing schools. They don't offer full-time kindergarten, either, school starts at six years of age here.

[spiral78]

Vanica, I think the timing might just be unlucky for you - it seems to me that enough Canadian-qualified teachers were probably laid off two and three years back to fill whatever new positions are created to meet the needs of the current economic boom...

I'm absolutely sure that you could find work in Calgary. I honestly think that if I weren't picky about what I wanted to do, I could have a job within an hour in the city centre. But it would probably involve making coffee and pay peanuts. Lotsa those kindza jobs around....

But jobs that match your quals and would pay enough to be worthwhile and provide decent benefits take some time/local references/connections to find. It's very difficult to walk into them.