Overseas Teaching Opportunities

The sky’s the limit! There are opportunities almost everywhere in the world, especially if you’re a native English speaker. With so much out there, you really are spoiled for choice.

As an easy (and free!) beginning to finding your dream job, go to http://jobs.tes.co.uk (NOTE: no www. in this address). Here you can search for teaching and administrative jobs of any description, both in the U.K. and abroad.

Although you can register with them (see below), you do not have to do so in order to begin searching the site.

Use the "Quick Search" subject and/or location drop down menus at the left, or enter some key words to help your search. You can also browse by position desired.

Under location, the UK regions are listed first, followed by international options. You can choose "international" or a specific country. The number of jobs available will be shown, followed by details of the first few jobs in that category. Job summaries are given ten to a page; you can change this setting to five or twenty results per page. Click on any summary to link to a page with further information including details of the application process, the employer’s website, closing date for applications, etc.

Often the salary is not listed here. “Competitive tax-free salary” is a typical entry. It is always advisable to check the details of the position on the actual school website.

To keep track of the jobs you’re interested in, there is a “Save job” button. To make use of this function, you must register on the site first. Fear not: it’s free and easy too!

There are many agencies working in the overseas teaching field. Some charge the employers, some charge the teachers, and some even charge both. Of course, the level of service varies from company to company. In either case, to get started you usually have to submit your details according to their own forms and sometimes also send your CV and a digital photograph. References may have to be sent to the agency directly by the referees, so make sure these people know to expect a request.