A teaching qualification is your passport to a world of travel opportunities and career development. Working in schools overseas gives people of all ages a different perspective on life, children and global education. It’s an invitation to experience first–hand the sights, sounds, people, culture, language and local customs of another country. But beware: it can become addictive!
A world of opportunities
There are around 6,500 international English speaking schools spread across the globe, employing over 100,000 UK trained staff. The opportunities for employment within the international schools’ market are excellent, with qualified teachers from the UK held in high esteem, whether experienced or new to the profession.
International schools, many of which function much like private schools, exist to educate both local children and the children of English speaking families living abroad. In addition, every continent has many TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) schools, where local people of all ages, backgrounds and professions learn English.
Whatever the school, English speaking or TEFL, positions are usually for fixed contracts of one or two years.
Rewards and benefits
Teaching at an international school comes with a number of advantages, including:
– the opportunity to teach children from a diversity of nationalities, which can be intellectually stimulating and richly rewarding on personal and professional levels.
– higher salaries than the UK, often tax free, with additional benefits such as accommodation, flights, health insurance and better holidays.
– smaller class sizes.
– incredible resources and facilities, such as pools, theatres, gyms and dance studios.
– schools with autonomy over their choice of curriculum, giving staff more flexibility and freedom over what they teach.
– more chances of higher-level responsibilities earlier in your career.
Skills, qualifications and status
For English speaking international schools, applicants need to have recognised qualifications and meet the person specification for the post and visa requirements. For TEFL posts, certificates from CELTA or Trinity TESOL are highly respected.
