Employability and Teaching Abroad

Notes from the general manager by Diane Jacoutot

The BBC posted an article this week which interviewed several jobless young people, one of whom applied for 1,639 jobs last year and didn’t get a single one. Although the latest figures show a slight drop in unemployment in the UK in the first quarter, the rates still remain high and are not expected to fall significantly in the near future.

 As most western economies adopt austerity measures to counter the public spending that was a response to the global economic crisis, unemployment is bound to rise. If we are spending less, there is less money changing hands in taxes and company profits so companies and public sectors again tighten their belts, usually resulting in job losses. It’s a vicious circle that many great minds are trying to figure a way out of.   I hope they do, and soon.

I did a quick survey of unemployment rates around the world.  The rate of unemployment is the percentage of people who want to work and are able to work but cannot find a job. It’s usually a good measure of how well to capacity an economy is running.  It’s often referred to as a lagging indicator – because companies are often reluctant to hire even when the economy turns around. They hedge their bets.  Here’s what I found:

·         UK: 8.3%

·         US: 8.1%

·         Ireland: 14.7 %

·         Canada: 7.2%

·         New Zealand: 6.7%

·         Australia: 4.9 %

·         South Africa : 23.9%

And because so many people ask about working there and I get tired of telling them that there is little hope, Spain: 23.6%

If this makes you feel bad, perhaps you will feel better knowing that things could be worse. The unemployment rate in Zimbabwe is estimated to be 95%. Some countries, on the other hand, are looking quite healthy. Qatar is at 0.5%, Thailand, 1.2%, Kuwait 1.5%, Switzerland 3.5% and China 4.1%. 

As I always say to the Teachanywhere team, some people go abroad because they want to. They want the cultural adventure or the professional challenge that can only be had by teaching in another country. But many people go abroad because they need to, because they cannot find a job at home. Most of the time this latter group come to us insisting on familiar safe-sounding ‘holiday’ destinations such as Dubai, Spain or Singapore but this is exactly where they will face the most competition for jobs because everyone else is thinking the same thing. Or they will set their sights too high thinking, “well I’ll only go abroad if I can get super high money, a promotion or the best school in the best spot” not realising that they are in competition with many other people who have more realistic expectations, actually want to go abroad, and are more qualified for those jobs.

So what can you do if you are suddenly unemployed? Here are my tips:

1.    Act sooner rather than later. Having a gap of a year or more out of teaching severely affects your marketability. International schools want someone with up to date knowledge.  If it is unavoidable, do some supply (substitute) teaching ideally within your subject/level to keep current.

2.    Don’t restrict your search to only well known locations. Go where the competition is less fierce.

3.    Do your research. Understand how much money you can expect to be paid, and understand the cost of living against the employment package. Setting your sights on only jobs that pay the same or more than you are currently making is a false economy if the cost of living is high or the employment package sub-par. You an often save more in a country with a lower cost of living even if the salary seems less. Think savings potential rather than salary.

4.    Prepare yourself for a cultural journey. Psych yourself up for it – it’s one of the great benefits of working abroad. Teachers who are reluctant can’t answer the typical interview question:  “Why do you want to work at my school/in my country?”.

5.    Work on your CV. Check out our CV tips here.  Make sure you have a full work history and explain any gaps in employment on your CV. If it’s complicated, write a nice cover letter or introductory paragraph explaining anything unusual in a clear but concise way and keep emotion and (attempts at) humour out of it.

6.    Listen to our feedback. We are not infallible, but we are in a position to have an eagle’s eye view of the international school job market.  So if we say, “to teach in the UAE as a secondary teacher your degree must match your subject”, or “to teach in this school in China you need at least 2 years of UK or IB experience” or “You will only get considered by a local international school” then take that on board.  I am not saying that people have never proven us wrong, but I am saying that it doesn’t happen often.

7.    Finally, be prepared to play the ‘long game’ to achieve your goals.  If you don’t have a lot of the right kind of experience to get yourself the job you want today, take an intermediate step that will enable you to get there next time. When I was a junior engineer at IBM a senior manager once pulled me aside and told me that the best advice he ever had been given was to always think two steps ahead.  And he was right.

We are all hiking through the dense forest of life. We can only see the path to the next bend and have no idea what’s around the corner. Perhaps leaving your job at home which seems devastating now, will set you on a life changing journey abroad... but there’s only one way to find out.