TEFL Jobs for qualified teachers

Whether you've just made it through your TEFL qualification, or you've been teaching for some time, we hope you find these pages useful. If you are just starting out, be reassured that it's generally easier to find work than it is to get through the course! Coming soon is a whole new section on the working conditions and requirements around the world. Before it arrives, simply contact us for advice.

If you're not yet qualified, but eager to secure work for the future, you can get the ball rolling right now by thinking about your dream destination, and for certain options you can start applying so that your job is getting lined up whilst you're on the course.

Below you'll find useful help, info and articles on the different approaches to finding work. On the right you can go directly to TEFL Job Opportunities.

:: TEFL in the UK What are your prospects of finding work after qualifying?
:: Find work before you go abroad
:: Find TEFL work in-country - Tips on preparing your departure

:: TEFL Adventures - 4-12 weeks volunteering experiences in exciting locations worldwide
:: Travel & Teach - Perspective of how you can work your way around the world

:: Cactus Teachers Humanitarian Project in Tibet - A unique opportunity to make a huge difference

:: TEFL Jobs in Australia
:: Classified TEFL Ads

Links - Other TEFL job sites
Post a TEFL Job ad
TEFL - back to home page

Within the UK there are relatively few possibilities to start your EFL career.

The key to securing work is to have a number of years of TEFL teaching experience behind you, ideally gained in different countries around the world - such that it is clear to your employer that you are a career TEFL teacher, rather than a gap-year TEFL teacher.

If you really are unable to get abroad, there are three main alternative routes you might wish to consider:

First, temporary English teaching positions are usually available over the summer in established year-round schools, or in summer schools which spring up only during the busy season. It may be that if you can first secure work there, the school will be so impressed, that they will feel they can offer you a year round position. Websites such as www.englishinbritain.co.uk will provide useful lists of summer school providers to contact.

Second, if you can claim to have a substantial amount of relevant work/life experience which might be of interest to language students and schools. This might include a background in business and finance, working with younger learners (under 16s), a career as a state school (PGCE trained) teacher or a lecturer in FE or HE. With such skills, you might also be able to pick up occasional freelance work by registering with sites such as www.cactuslanguagetraining.com but this largely comes down to being in the right place at the right time, and having the right background to match a client’s particular needs.

Third, if you have a home spacious and comfortable enough to welcome international students, you might be able to sign up to teach English from your home, offering both accommodation and tuition for (typically) executive or company sponsored clients. There are a number of registered providers of this sort of service, with whom you can register once you have gained your basic teaching qualification. One of the better quality providers can be found at www.intuitionlang.com

More information
Helen Barker - UK TEFL Jobs post-CELTA

top

Many people successfully secure work abroad through websites and job ads in newspapers, and through hearing of vacancies from friends already abroad. Whatever the method, it's important to remember that it is not the school which has to like you - you also need to feel comfortable that the school, staff, students, facilities, location within the town, contractual issues and policies seem right for you. Here are some questions you might want to put to a potential employer...

Lesson preparation & materials
- What are the resources like in the school for lesson preparation?
- Is there free email and internet access for teachers to get resources online?
- Do students have coursebooks? If so, can you give some examples of materials you use?
- Do you have a photocopier in the school? Is its use restricted? [If students don't have books, you're likely to spend a lot of time photocopying and preparing materials]
- Is there academic support/help with lesson planning for newly qualified teachers? [At first this can take an awful long time, and it's useful to be able to run your ideas past someone competent]

Your timetable
- What would a typical working day be like? How many hours per day?
- Will lessons be blocked together, or spread out over the day? [Lessons completely back-to-back can be tough at first, but these give you much social time]
- What times of the day do lessons take place? [i.e. could you be teaching at 7:00am and 10:00 pm on the same day?
- Are there lessons out of school (e.g. in companies)? How far away are these and how would I travel there? [Do they expect you to drive? How much of your week are you going to spend travelling in addition to your teaching workload?]
- Do you have groups of younger learners [This could be anything from 4 to 16 yrs olds - its good to be mentally prepared for this]
- What is the proportion of 1:1 and group lessons on the timetable, and what is your maximum group size?
- Do you teach English for Special Purposes (ESP), such as medical English, Legal English, Business English

Support
- Do you have a Director of Studies/Assistant Director of Studies in the school?
- Does the school give help in finding accommodation? If so, what sort of help and do you need to pay a huge deposit when you move in?
- Does anyone pick you up from the airport on your arrival [The more unknown the local language and culture, the more invaluable this becomes]

Remuneration
- Are you paid an hourly or monthly rate? [An hourly rate can be good if you're busy, very bad if the school is quiet]
Do I get paid in (local currency)? [Important if the country is experiencing rampant inflation]
- What is the holiday entitlement? Can holidays be taken at any time?

Other
- What are the other teachers like? Where are they from? What sort of background? [This can reveal plenty about the relationship between your employer and the employees]
- Is on-the-job training and development offered?
- What scope is there to take on additional responsibilities?

top

Increasingly, people are heading off in search of work, rather than trying to do it from home. It might seem a bit of a risk, especially if you're on a tight budget, but we really think this is worth considering - particularly for the more competitive destinations, including southern France, Spain, Italy etc.

If you're planning on teaching in Europe, the abundance of cheap flights makes this more accessible, and by having enough money to survive the first month or so, you should be able to source work fairly quickly, possibly by working part-time for a couple of schools. Our CELTA & CertTESOL graduates report that it's important to try and hit the country at a time when schools are recruiting - in Spain, for example, the best time to arrive is in September when the private schools have a large increase in student numbers and need new teachers.

Possibly the best option is to take your TEFL course in the country you'd like to work in. Although you'll be too busy during the course to look for work, you will finish the course already familiar with the location and have a feel for the place. Also, you will have gained experience in teaching a monolingual group of the nationality you'll be teaching in your regular job, which may be seen as an advantage.

Some schools in Spain are offering very interesting packages much more focussed on actually helping you to secure work - their 8-week programmes combine the Cambridge CELTA or Trinity CertTESOL with a short "chill-out" Spanish course and extension courses in teaching Younger Learners or Business English. These build in time for you to look for work, whilst you still have accommodation taken care of.

The key to securing work out of season may be to head for places that are off the beaten track, such as more medium sized towns and provincial areas.

More information
Combination Course - CELTA + Spanish + Younger Learners in Seville Tooling up for the competitive Spanish Market
Taking the CELTA abroad and finding work locally Roger Hunt, Teacher Training guru looks at the advantages of this approach
TEFL Jobs in Australia It is easier than you might think to secure work as a newly qualified TEFL teacher in Australia.

top

A short experience of say 4-12 weeks, which would fall into the category of "responsible travel". You'll probably be going to a developing country, and let's face it, if you don't have much time, you might as well go to an exotic or unusual destination - one that you might never visit again in your life. You can expect to pay for this TEFL Adventure as you would a normal holiday. The fact that you are going to be teaching is not actually that significant - i.e. you are paying for the opportunity to have such an experience. However, as you are going to be doing something which can be considered as "humanitarian", and frequently for charities or non-profit organisations, there is a justification to raise money to sponsor yourself, and reclaim some or all of your costs. Some of these programmes don't require the full 4-week TEFL qualification, and often offer a shorter intro course. However, we feel that if you genuinely want to help people, you will be doing yourself a big favour to be properly qualified before you go.

TEFL Adventures in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Peru in association with i-to-i . If you have taken your CELTA or CertTESOL with Cactus, you will receive a £100 discount when you book.

top

You know you want to travel around the world, and you might need to stop off and earn some money along the way. This is where having the right qualification will maximise your chances of picking up work quickly.

Before you head out, it's useful to do some basic research into when certain countries have their high-season for taking on teachers. Some countries also require you to have a degree as well as a qualification, so you might want to pack a few photocopies of your university and TEFL certificates and CV.

There's very little you can organise beforehand, but that's the whole beauty of it. You hope to have enough money to support you, but if you don't, you've got a qualification which will help you earn in case of need.

Teaching in the Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. Carole Bartlett is now a teacher trainer working for Regent Language Training in Oxford
CELTA Regent Oxford for course details

top

Cactus Teachers is delighted to be associated with ROKPA INTERNATIONAL. ROKPA has been concentrating its efforts in the rural areas of Eastern Tibet: traditionally known as Kham and Amdo. These now extend over 5 Provinces: The Autonomous Region of Tibet, Sichuan, Qinghai, Yunnan and Gansu. In project areas, a high percentage of the population is of Tibetan ethnicity. Geographically, the land is on a high plateau; the average altitude is over 16,500 ft with valleys from 10,500 ft to 17,400 ft. 75-95% of the population are of Tibetan origin.

More details on TEFL volunteering in Tibet

top

Try the following sites if you are looking for a paid TEFL position. These are well-known sites, though Cactus accepts no responsibility for the positions advertised.

top

BACK TO CACTUS TEACHERS HOME

Advertise with Cactus Teachers TEFL Jobs