Job Discussion Forums

[steen]

Hi im a newbie here in this forum.
I�ve looked for the answer to my queries in the forum but i cant find exactly what im looking for.

My question is simple.
Im an aussie who has worked in Spain as an ESL teacher for the last 12 years. I dont have a tefl cert nor a degree. but i could get a tefl cert.

I want to go and live in Melbourne in the future but im not sure if i could find some work.

Could i find work having 12 years of experience and a tefl or celta cert but without a degree?

any info is appreciated

[Grenouille]

I'm pretty sure that you need a degree in Australia to teach ESL. Why don't you contact some language schools in Melbourne and ask them what qualifications they require from their teachers?

Sorry I can't help more than that.

Good luck.

[sistercream]

Realise also that while there is definitely a demand for TEFL in Australia, most of Australia's population are native English speakers and they do not appear to have any shortage of home-grown qualified TEFLers.
Do you have something special to bring to the table that would give a potential employer any grounds to request a working visa for you?

[spiral78]

OP says he/she is Australian.

[sistercream]

Whoops - sorry, missed that obvious bit!
I have friends working at various TAFEs with just TEFL certs. If you want to work in a regular school as a teacher rather than as an EA or TA then you would need a B.Ed.

The other option - if you're prepared either to jump through all the fiery hoops of red tape involved in getting/ maintaining an ABN or working on a cash-only-and-hope-the-ATO-doesn't-find-out is to do private tuition: get yourself a reputation as someone who is reliable and knows what they're talking about, and you'll find people queueing up for your services.

[steen]

thanks for your replies.

So I understand that i could work at TAFE, teaching english. is that right?

and could someone make enough teaching privately?

and how much does a private tutor charge in Melbourne ?

thanks

[sistercream]

The TAFE TEFL tutors I know are on casual rates.

For private tutoring, if you want to do it legally, for heaven's sake get yourself a good accountant / tax advisor first - the red tape is pretty horrendous (at least to someone as administratively challenged as I).

Whether you do it legally or not, unless you have someone to drum up business for you before you arrive (or if you can take over from a full-timer who's moving on), the first months can be pretty slow. A lot depends on where you live or how far you are prepared to travel: obviously there's not much work in suburbs where 95%+ of the population have been in Oz for 3 or more generations! But if you settle somewhere with a high proportion of new arrivals - specially those who have children attending local schools - you'll have a waiting list within 6 months (at least that was my experience in South Brisbane).

The year I was doing it (1996) I was doing a balancing act with the ATO & Centrelink - I could have charged more, but was asking AUD20 per hour for private students; no idea waht the going rate is these days.

[steen]

so TAFE offer ESL courses and the teachers qualifications are less important ?

Also are most ESL students in Australia there for the sole pupose of learning english and then go back to their own countries or are their more immigrant type students who are there to stay and intergrate?

Which group ( the travellers or the immigrants ) would study at TAFE ?
Is TAFE cheaper / more popular than a private academy?

Im really out of touch with the australian labour situation as i havent worked there for nearly 20 years and never in ESL, so please forgive me.

[sistercream]

Well, my own most recent experience is 15 years ago, but I still have a few friends in the trenches there I hadn't even considered the private language colleges simply because they didn't yet exist in the "olden days" - as you already know.
The TAFEs cater for settlers (refugees, families of those who qualified to come on working visas, etc.) Being state run, I gather that the TAFEs are quite a bit cheaper than the private places.

It's a gross generalisation, so I'm certain there are exceptions in both directions, but what I've been hearing is that the private college students are often from rich families, not terribly motivated, and often fail happily for years until they have put in the time to get Australian passports (often what the parents sent them there for), while the TAFE students tend to be people who are glad to be in the country and determined to make a good go of it for their own and their families' benefit.

[GMark]

To get a real job in Australia teaching ESL you will need a B.Ed, or a degree such as BA, along with a TESOL cert, and a certificate IV in Training and Assessment.