What’s it Like Teaching Abroad? An International Teacher Case Study
Published on Thursday, November 05th, 2009
Did you know that there are over 5,000 international schools in the world? They are in virtually every single nation you can think of – what’s more, as education is a business just like any other, the number of international schools grows each and every year. If you have a teaching qualification, this fact means that there is a huge opportunity out there for you to go and live abroad, work and discover a whole new life for yourself.
In these 5,000+ international schools there are over 192,000 English-speaking teachers including 60,000 British teachers. The staff turn around at each school is far higher than it is in the UK because teachers who work abroad often want to travel, work at different schools and many only commit to being away from home for a set number of years. Therefore, whilst for the rest of us the global financial crisis means that it can be hard to find work overseas now, if you’re a teacher, you’re in a uniquely advantaged situation.
So, what’s it like teaching abroad? If you want to go and work at an international school we can imagine that you may have a million questions about what it’s really like, so thanks to the Teachers International Consultancy (TIC), we have an international teacher case study for you. Janice Ireland has taught abroad in locations as varied as Kuwait, Libya and the Netherlands, and she is typical of those who make the very most of their time overseas because she gained so much from her international teaching experience.
Anyone who lives abroad or who plans to go overseas to live and work has a very unique set of reasons for so doing. Reasons might include wanting to get out of your own home country and escape its failings, see more of the world, live somewhere where there’s better weather, better prospects and a better quality of life. However, for expatriates of working age, one of the strongest driving forces sending more people overseas is career advancement.
Thanks to the ‘Expat Mood Monitor,’ a survey by Halifax International into what life abroad is really like for British expatriates, we have been given a reality check to pass on to all would-be expats thinking about moving to work abroad. This couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time – because today we learn that the UK is the worst place to live in Europe – but before everyone packs their bags to leave Britain, they need to know that things aren’t perfect abroad either!
The days when Great Britain was an attractive nation for international professionals have long gone; no longer is the City of London a draw for high earning executives, and no longer is the UK a good place for families from abroad to bring up their children and earn a decent salary.
According to some media sources the recession in the UK is officially over – this is based on manufacturing output improvements largely, as well as positive data from the City. And according to HSBC’s economists, growth in the third quarter of 2009 could be as positive as 0.4%.
The Governor of the Bank of England has finally confirmed what many of us were fearing, that this recession is the worst that the UK has experienced in its modern-day history. Not only that, but it is going to take even longer to recover from this slump, and higher numbers of people are going to face unemployment.
