Job Discussion Forums

[ktkates87]

My husband and I are currently teaching in South Korea and really liking it. We are considering places to teach in the future and I would appreciate some advice about Oman!

I will start with a bit of a background:

We both only have BA's. Neither of us have a degree in teaching, but have a bit of experience. He was a TA in university and I have a fair bit of experience as a social worker in classroom settings. We are both currently working at a hagwon working with children aged 6-15.
Neither of us hold teaching certification such as CELTA, etc.
We are rather young (23 going on 24). We plan to finish our contracts here in September, go back home for a bit and then explore other options to teach ESL abroad. We are both Canadians.

a) Are there age restrictions for us? Some countries require you to be a certain age in order to obtain a visa, or at least this is discussed in some ads. If it's not a restriction, will there be alot of people hesitant to hire people in their early 20's?

b) What certification is the standard? CELTA? We are thinking we'll probably go home for a solid 4-6 months after finishing with Korea. Is CELTA the good route to go or is there a better program? Do we need it?

c) Some of the ads mention "married couples are encouraged to apply." Is it harder to find jobs for a married couple in comparison to finding a job as a single person? In Korea we had alot of difficulty with this one.

d) What types of things should we be doing in the meantime if we are interested in teaching in Oman in the future?

I did my best to read through a bunch of the threads on here and appologize if theres any overlap.

[veiledsentiments]

BA+CELTA + experience is the absolute minimum in the Gulf and Oman. If you look at the ads, they usually say something like 3 years of experience. More is better, and I have read here that they are really requiring more.

Unfortunately, experience with children is pretty useless in the Gulf, as are conversation classes. The vast majority of jobs are at university level and that is where they want to see the experience. They also like to see the teaching of Academic English... especially writing and reading.

There is no minimum age, although they tend to hire older rather than younger. But, since you are married... their concern about causing social "issues" is moot. Most places will hire a teaching couple as long as they have need of two teachers. That is rather what would limit your possibilities at the lower level "International Schools" that may hire a native speaker without an education degree and certification/license from home, but are unlikely to need two.

If you want to get into the good jobs in the Middle East, you need to work on an MA, but you have time to consider that later at your age. One advantage of these ME jobs is that you have enough pay and enough free time to do an online degree if you are interested.

VS

[waterman]

[Shanganah]

I'm in the same boat as the OPs. I'm 35, have an MA and in history, TEFL and 5 years teaching in Korea just finishing up in a public school. I've worked in e-learning for seven years before that writing and designing IT, uni, and business courses.

I'm really keen to work in Oman for at least two years to get uni experience and to save money to go to teacher training college. I'm wondering how I should go about applying for jobs in Oman. Do I cold call? Do I send in my CV by email to the various dept. heads of colleges? I'd like to start in February or March but if I got no offers by January I'm prepared to do a CELTA in March. If I did when could I expect to get a job from after the start of April. I don't want to miss the Oman boat and end up back in Korea.

I'm really, really keen to live in Oman as the reports of living and working there seem really positive. I don't drink or smoke so I'm looking for a quiet environment where I can exercise, hike and study.

[veiledsentiments]

Probably not, an MBA is for working in business and has nothing to do with education or teaching English. None of the better tertiary employers will accept it as a substitute. In the past, they used to accept any old MA, but no longer. They may still hire you, it would just not jump into the higher pay scale

As to CELTA substitutes, they accept those that have supervised classroom teaching to real students. They might look a bit askance at one from Chang Mai.

You would just have to apply and see what happens.

VS

[Shanganah]

Thanks for the useful info VeiledS. Would you have any advice on actually getting a job? I've seen elsewhere where you've stated that it can take time for them to get back to you but do they mind unsolicited resumes or calls about available positions.

[veiledsentiments]

Both the Ministry of Higher Education and Ministry of Manpower are constantly hiring through their various recruiters. (all of whom are variously sleazy... ) Making an unsolicited call to either Ministry or the recruiters would be a total waste of your time and money. Finding anyone who could actually answer your questions is highly unlikely. Sending an unsolicited CV (as resumes are called there) is a crapshoot. But... this gang is constantly advertising as turnover is pretty high because of a combination of bad vetting of candidates and candidates who are unable to cope with the situations that come up at these places. One can't expect good organization or efficiency... nor high academic positions with experienced management. You need to be a go-with-the-flow kind of person. Lots of patience is needed along with the ability to nod in agreement when you want to laugh out loud or run for the hills.

Personally I would watch the ads that come up here regularly and on the other TEFL sites that list openings. And then you wait to see if they ever respond.

VS

[waterman]

[veiledsentiments]

Most of the universities in Oman have a foundations program that teaches both English and Math. So... they might be interested in your math education experience. My English/business education degree is a BSc too as is common in the US. I never found that Gulf employers were bothered by that minor distinction.

When you get to the point of applying for these colleges in Oman, emphasize both your math and EFL background. In EFL they like to see experience in Academic English and especially writing. There are some smaller private colleges like MCBS that uses an American style curriculum and also the University of Nizwa, both of which hire direct. You might fit into either of their Foundations programs.

With your background, it may be worth your while to attend TESOLArabia (see their website). They have a conference every year - usually in March - with a job fair. A face-to-face interview always gives you a better chance.

VS