Job Discussion Forums

[restlesstraveler2]

Merhaba from ANkara,

I am looking for a new job and have had an offer for Portugal.......one being in Porto and the other in Set�bal.

Although I have checked the consumer living index, I am not sure that it is realistic to live on 1000 EUROS net. Accommodation is included.

How about the cities>
cultural activities (Ankara is a cultural desert)?

cosmopolitan touch?

receptive to foreigners?

Thanks for any info or comments or suggestions.

Barbara

[Insubordination]

I would also love to know about Portugual. Can anyone share experiences?

[ghost]

There are few jobs, and after your salary (500-600 euros) and your rent, 800 euros, you will actually have to dig into your savings to teach there!

I have been there and see how it works.

You will essentially be teaching for no money there, in most cases.

You will make no more than the natives, and they live at home, so have no accommodation.

Lisbon accommodation is now very expensive. Minimum 300 euros for a tiny room per month, if you are lucky to find one.

Ghost in Korea

Portugal used to be cheap, before the euro. The euro has made disposable income much more tight.

[Zajko]

Quite a number of years ago I worked in Portugal (Porto) as a teacher, earning around EUR 1000 per month as a teacher and paying my own accommodation on top of that. I have to say I found it fairly easy to live on that, and live reasonably comfortably. I wasn't able to save anything, of course, and I appreciate the cost of living may well have risen a fair bit since then. Nevertheless I'd say, based on what I've heard from friends still working there, that EUR 1000 with accommodation included is manageable providing you don't have unrealistic expectations or very expensive tastes. It's not a bad salary package by Portuguese standards for a regular teaching job.

Generally Portugal is a very pleasant country to teach in: great quality of life (Porto is a fantastic city with loads to see and do and a wonderful area down by the Douro River - the Ribeiro - where everyone goes to eat/drink/party in the evenings. Setubal is much smaller but very pleasant also and close to Lisbon). Really nice students, varied work, not over-hard or over-taxing, and if you're looking for a generally good travel/work teaching experience for a relatively short period, early on in your TEFL career, I'd recommend it highly.

[john_n_carolina]

little bit warmer than Novosibirsk?

i've seen a bunch of ads over the years for private high schools. www.tefl.com, www.esljobfeed.com, www.seriousteacher.com, etc

or, you could use a placement agency that recruits for that area and has conventions.....in the US, i've seen some Portuguese schools present at the FL conventions..

[isaac]

Hi I was wondering about teaching English in Portugal as well. I don't have a teaching degree or a 4 year degree either. I am from U.S. and I want to spend some time in Europe working. I have done some research online and it seems that the programs for TEFL connected/recognized by Cambridge University are the best. Is this true? Is it really worth it to take the training to teach if I don't have a college degree? Also, what web sites/organizations are the best for finding a job without being in Portugal? Thank you for your time and any help you can give.

Isaac.

[spiral78]

A couple of points for isaac - US citizens can't work legally in most of the 'older' EU member countries, including Portugal (and Spain, Italy, France, etc). You CAN get a work permit for 'new' EU member countries, like the Czech Rep, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, etc.

Yes, European schools all generally want an on-site certification. Generic ones are usually acceptable, and CELTA is the most recognized of the name brand certs. The basics for a cert include 100+ hours on site, including supervised teaching practice on real students.

Finally, most European jobs are not found from abroad. The region is desirable in general, and good schools want to see you standing in their offices, looking professional and reliable, CV in hand, before they will give you a second look. Beware of a school that will offer you a contract sight-unseen - this can mean that teachers in the area are avoiding the school for some reason (non-payment being the most common).

There are no legal requirements for university degrees in most European countries. However, as you'll be competing for jobs against the vast majority of newbies who do have them, you'll need to be sure that you've got solid certification and play up any related experience.

[isaac]

Ok. I have more questions, sorry. I happen to be living in Brazil at the moment and that is the main reason I want training to teach English, I am not fluent in Portuguese yet.
I found a school here that is an authorised Center for University of Cambridge ESOL exam. Also the school is a member of the Assoc of Language Testers in Europe. The program meets once a week for 3 hours and the whole program last for one complete year. At the end there is a TKT Teaching Knowledge Test. Since I don�t have any teaching experience I thought this longer course would be good for me. I�m only worried about the program being recognized in Europe because I am interested in working in Europe if possible. Again, a huge thank you to everyone who is summiting information.

Isaac.

[spiral78]

The training course sounds fine, very credible. I think you can be sure your qualification will be recognized.

However - You'll still have the problem of not being eligible for working visas in Portugal, though... qualifications won't make any difference to that.

[isaac]

Well my wife is Brazilian so I'm going to be getting Brazilian residency/citizenship. So since there is an agreement with Brazil and Portugal, I'm going to try to use that if I can. I looked up some information on here about Czech and that sounds like a royal pain. But who knows. Thanks again to everyone for your help.

[spiral78]

Sorry - I'm not clear about what's a 'royal pain' about Czech. I happen to be a dual national of the Czech Rep/US - so it's kind of a personal question to me.

But, good for you if you can go with a Brazilian citizenship to work in Portugal.

And, again, the qualification you are talking about sounds quite solid. Probably a good choice.

[isaac]

Actually I'm not completely sure me getting Brazilian Citizenship will help me be able to work in Portugal. I've tried and tried to look up information online and I can't find anything. I guess there was a new law the Portugal government passed to let Brazilians work in Portugal, but there isn't any information online in English. If anyone knows anything I would appreciate it.

Thanks very much for the opinions about the TEFL program I'm going to take. I'm a total newbie at this. Thanks so much.

[Zajko]

Whereas the Cambridge TKT course you mention is a recognised qualification, it's at a much more basic level than a 4-week CELTA/TEFL program and was actually designed for non-native speakers of English wishing to gain an introduction to teaching the language. It can usually be done in 2 weeks intensively and whilst it will certainly be better than nothing from a training point of view, it isn't going to be recognised in Europe as an equivalent to a CELTA or similar generic TEFL certificate.

I may have misunderstood you: if you mean that you're planning to take this course prior to then going on to take a standard TEFL certification, that's a different matter - and though it may not be strictly necessary to take the TKT first, it certainly can't do you any harm.

[ratsareeatingmybrain]

Back to the job, rather than the admin, it's not easy to get work in Portugal, or at least Lisbon, from outside the country. I got a job last summer here and had no choice but to have face-to-face interviews. Not one school offered me a phone interview, make of that what you will.

If you decide to try it, I'd strongly advise you get the CELTA before you do. The schools I applied to required it. Best would be to contact the schools direct and ask I guess, though I wouldn't advise emailing if you want to know soon...

As for 1000euros. Is that for you and your wife? I live with my wife and 1 1/2 year old daughter and we spent about 1500euro a month. That includes about 300 a month on babysitting, meaning you can manage for sure, though there'll be some limits. All depends what you want.

[MissCreoula]

I taught English in Portugal (Lisbon) in 2006. My advice is have the CELTA certificate, I didn't. I have a TEFL certificate (one of those weekend courses) which wasn't seen as very reputable. But having a B.A & holding a EU passpost (I'm Canadian but thanks to parents was able to get the EU) I eventually got a job. That being said it took about 3 months to finally get a job & I only taught for 3 because money was low & because I had no income for the 1st 3 months put me into debt. Also, I was lucky enough to stay with friends & relatives. I worked freelance & only about 10 hours a week...so it wasn't worth it for me at all. However, the experience of being there was amazing & I wouldn't change a thing.
I had tons of interviews but not having the CELTA certificate & in some cases a British accent was a negative.
Lastly, if I had planned on returning I would've begun working more hours (as the company I was working for wanted to offer me more work) & I was offered more freelance work from another company. That's also another thing to consider is working for many companies on a freelance basis. Ok & last thing....although I had a EU passport I had a hard time trying to get what's called "recibos verdes"=green receipts. If you had a contract I believe that this doesn't apply. Ask!! And 1000 euros with accomodation is actually really good (if your single). Minimun wage there was about 450euros a month/40hr work week.
Hope that helps!!!