Job Discussion Forums

[dostogirl]

Hi everyone

I have some questions about teaching in UAE and thank yall in advance for helping answering them.

Now that the situation with jobs on the US market is really bad, my husband and I are considering going back teaching abroad. We've taught in Asia before for about 3 years.

My husband is a lawyer, and I am a certified ESL teacher (MA in ESL).
1. Would my husband experience difficulties finding a teaching job since he doesn�t have a degree in Education and a TESL certificate?
2. I am a non-native English speaker. My degree is from a non-English speaking country. I have a slight accent, but most people can never guess that I�m not from the US. I am a US citizen. I�ve been teaching ESL at a public school in the US. Would I have problems getting a job in UAE?
3. We have a child (1 y.o.). What options would we have in terms of day care/babysitter? How much does it cost?
4. How difficult would it be for both of us to get a job at the same school?

Thanks

[adorabilly]

dostogirl

a few facts for you.

With your MA and experience, you should be able to get a job teaching at one of the universities here in the UAE.

With your husbands qualifications and degrees.... He'd be out of luck, unless he was teaching for a local language school. There is VERY little demand for someone to teach LAW (besides for sharia), and w/out a degree in english, a education degree or being a liscensed teacher NO SCHOOLS will touch him. (I know, I am in the same boat, I have several undergrad degrees, but not content for the universities, and not in ed so none of the universities will hire me until my MA is finished (in ed tech) and none of the english speaking schools will either)

As for your being a nonnative speaker... I think that would be fine w/ the MA and experience.. but maybe not.

How difficult to get a job at the same school? See above.

[homeless vet]

Actually, people with law degrees have an easier time getting teaching jobs than those with Masters' degrees. I've turned down subject matter teaching offers in the UAE and elsewhere because I didn't want to get tied down to a three year contract like my husband has done. With a JD, one is credentialed to teach a broad variety of Business, Law, Criminal Justice, Political Science, and Ethics at both the graduate and undergraduate level. HCT made me a very generous offer, pretty quickly, but the "three year term" wasn't something I wanted. With elderly parents and two kids in college in the US, we felt that one of us needed to be able to fly home if needed without worrying about breaching long-term contracts.

[veiledsentiments]

[renate]

Not to put a damper on things, but more and more schools are only excepting qualified teachers and are not looking for celta or tesol, esl teachers, most schools will only hire non native speakers in september when they are short handed and tend not to give you a contract for the following year. I am saying this as i work in the uae and have seen this several times. As for childcare, it is very difficult to find a good centre and they start at 1000 dhs a month and hours are 9 till 1, and as a teacher you will be working from 7:30 till 2:30 so you will have to pay extra for those hours. You can hire a maid from 600 dhs a month. Childcare here is nothing like in the west.

[helenl]

Is your experience at the adult (or at least high school) level? That would certainly give you a leg up in the screening/interview process. There are a lot of people out there in your situation with similar or better quals in terms of experience.

Not sure why your husband can'tget good work in the US but he won't qualify for anything even remotely challenging or attractive.