Job Discussion Forums

[australianlawyer]

Hi All,

I'm new to this so after a bit of advice. I'd like to teach English in Europe (France, Italy, Portugal, Spain or Greece, preferably) but I am a third generation Australian (native English speaking, if you can call 'Aussie' english!).

I have a law degree with honors and postgraduate study under my belt, and I have been working as a lawyer for several years. I don't imagine getting teaching work would be too difficult, but I am concerned about the VISA situation.

I'm also looking to do a CELTA before I get work and I'd love some pointers on a good school to do this through. It would help if the school provided job and VISA assistance.

I've heard it's fairly easy to pick up work in Prague, but I'm more excited about the culture of the warmer European countries. It's the sun loving Australian in me, I'm afraid.

Cheers, I appreciate any help.

[naturegirl321]

You might try looking into the MInistry of Education language assistant programmes for France and Spain. Pay is about 700 to 1000 euros a month and may or may not include housing.

Though if you're a lawyer, it might be easier and more lucrative for you to get transferred over there.

[spiral78]

As an English teacher: your law background might make you a bit more attractive than the average candidate, IF you can find a language school that has contracts teaching the staff of law firms, but otherwise it's not very applicable, and therefore won't give you much of an edge over other newbie-level English teachers.

The problem getting a visa for the nice, warm countries you mention is that, to hire a non-EU member citizen, a school has to petition its national government, claiming that 'you' have qualifications that no EU candidate for the position can offer. At the newbie (CELTA qualified) level, this isn't feasible. There are loads of qualified UK citizens around.

Private language schools pretty much never even try such petitions. International schools and universities can. I think your best bet, with your background, is to apply for any open positions in law faculties in universities in the regions you mention. The problem will be that, without local language skills in addition to English, you are limited to schools that do all their teaching in English only - just a few universities do this.

International schools generally require one to be certified to teach in one's home country and to have experience doing so. Highly competitive market.

Prague is, in fact, also quite a competitive market. You would need the certification and plan to arrive in time to market yourself to schools during one of the peak hiring seasons: usually early September and a bit in December/January. The market is so competitive because Prague has five or six well-established teacher training centres, all turning out newly-qualified teachers on a regular basis, many of whom stay in the city for some time. If you read up on the Czech Rep forum below, you can get lots of relevant info on this.

[australianlawyer]

What if I went to prague, took a TEFL course with one of the reputable schools and landed a job that way? If I take this path, what are the best schools there that can help with work and visa (you mentioned 5 decent schools that pump out the grads and essentially have the market cornered)? Would really love to crack into the field.

[spiral78]

I'd recommend that you go to the CR forum below and read Chris Westergaard's very useful post on getting your first job in the city. It's got all the info you need!

[australianlawyer]

Thanks, I've had a read through his info and it was very informative. I've been in Europe now for about 3 weeks and I think I might be cutting it a bit fine to do a course, secure a job and get the visa organised in what is remaining of my 90 days before I start having Schengen problems... Might have to head out of the zone for a while so that I have the full 90 days to get this done, as there seems to be alot of hoops to jump through. No worries though, I am motivate. I really appreciate your help steering me in the right direction.

[australianlawyer]

I meant 'motivated.' Hmm, grammatical errors aren't a good start for an aspiring ESL teacher!

[DLat]

You could look into Working Holiday visas. I think Australians can work in France or Italy for a year with this kind of visa. I'm no expert BTW, I read about this in Wikipedia.

[spiral78]

australianlawyer: you're right: timing is everything in this game! I hadn't realised that you're already in the Schengen zone - technically, you need to leave for at least 90 days to recharge your 90 day batteries. Good luck to you!