TEFL teaching jobs in Language schools in the UK

Tefl teaching jobs are easier to find with some helpful tips. Anyone looking for a well paid tefl job is advised to plan well and start looking early. Decide first of all, where you would like to work and then look to see if the qualifications and work experience you have, match the requirements.

The requirement for -Tefl teaching jobs- in many language schools across the country, peaks around the end of June to the middle of August. This is because many European schools break at the end of June and students will travel over to the UK at the beginning of July until mid August when it starts to go quiet again as many Europeans, particularly the French, take their annual break to the coast during August.

There are many schools too, throughout the country who are open all year long with students who take lessons and work at the same time.

These are perfect places to look for tefl teaching jobs as they are always working. Visa students -http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/working_during.php- must take a study course of a minimum amount of hours each week. For some nationalities, this will also entitle them to work for a small set number of hours a week too. Students within these all year around schools are there with varying goals in mind.

Check which language schools there are locally to see what -tefl teaching jobs- are available and go and visit them as a possible student if it is possible to do so.

Visiting a language school this way you will see what the school is like, how it operates, how nice, professional or harrassed the teachers are and you will get an idea of what type of students you will be facing in class.

Visiting the schools, even before they advertise any tefl teaching jobs for the year, will give you an edge over your competitors, you will understand what you want to gain from the experience months before they even start looking.

If you live in a town, you may want to look up -local organisers- as there will not be many language schools run in a town unless it is of particular interest to foreign language students. Cities however can offer a wealth of possibilites and some towns, for instance on the South coast, there are many language schools all based fairly closely together and nearly all of them will have on offer a variety of tefl teaching jobs at some time in the year.

Look up language schools in the Yellow pages, -Yell.com-, -ufindus- and other search engine directories. If you search under -language schools- on the internet you will also bring up schools local to you.

Speak to people you know who host students locally. Many foreign students stay outside of the language school with a host family. The host family will most probably be able to tell you a lot about the way the school or course is run and you may want to make an assessment of this when deciding whether or not you will apply, or not, to that particular school.

Language schools vary widely as to the way they are run and though it may only seem to be for a few weeks to put up with problems, when you are there and all is not well, six or eight weeks in a job teaching English, will seem like forever. Believe me!

Ask about the -tefl resources- used and see what the language school provides for you. Good language schools will provide well maintained, up to date materials including books, puppets and other useful 'props' which, well looked after, are a pleasure to use and make your job as a tefl teacher much easier and enjoyable.

Be wary of language schools who offer tefl teaching jobs without a proper application form or who don't bother to check your credentials. Good -language schools- will want the best teachers to maintain their reputation. They will want the best for their pupils and you. If you don't have to fill in an application form for a tefl teaching job, there is a possibility it may mean they are either desperate or just don't care!

If you do fill in an application form and get to an interview, pay close attention to how they treat you and other members of staff and how they perceive their pupils. Do they care about the welfare of the pupils, are the classrooms nice, bright and clean? Or is the centre dirty, dark and looks as though it has seen better days? Are pupils top priority to the language school and their needs well catered for just money machines to be pushed through the system and kept occupied only with no real thought of progress.

- Language schools- often have a lot of applications for each tefl language job and if they think they will fill the position easily without paying too much attention to you, how will they be as your employers be when you work for them? Consider, do they seem genuinely interested in you and are interested in long term or is your interviewer bored and are they just going through the motions of another interview?

Have questions ready to ask them and take a firm mental note of the answers, again, are they interested or just see you as a nuisance with your questions?

You may find that some of the smaller -language schools- which are often run by families or couples, have much to offer as a large global organisation when applying for a -tefl teaching job- but are value in different ways. With large organisations you can use the name of the company when looking for work the next year and it may yield results. Conversly, you may choose a small company who look after you well and get to know you, encourage you, spend time with you, train you and impart a huge amount of practical knowledge on you, something which is priceless and more valuable next time around than the name of any large organisation.

For -lists of schools-, look on the -British Council- website but again, just because a school has an accreditation from an organisation, this does not necessarily make it the best to work for though -accreditated language schools- should follow a strict criteria. As always, do your research, start in plenty of time and consider your gut instinct when deciding.

Don't be afraid of applying thinking you are too early. If you telephone in January to apply for the summer months, you may well get an application form through fairly promptly. If you do your homework well, you will know by the time you come to start applying for jobs, which type of school you wish to apply to and for how long you will want to teach for. If its just over the summer, you are going to have much more choice as there are more vacancies. If it is for a year or more, then your choices are more limited but you need to be more careful where you choose as once you start your new job, you will want it to be the right place for you to stay the duration.

Tefl jobs abroad

 

 

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