Have Been Offered A Job In Teaching

[richb2004]

I have just returned to the UK from Thailand to do a few months work. I work here in Oil & Gas but my home is in Thailand. I start an Open University degree shortly with a view to eventually getting qualified to teach so that I can settle into a 9 to 5 job near my home. I wasn’t planning on doing this until I was qualified. However whilst in Thailand I called into a language centre to enquire about getting some Thai lessons. After sorting out prices and times etc the Thai teacher offered me a job teaching English! I explained that it was my plan to eventually move into teaching but that currently I am completely unqualified and inexperienced. She said that it didn’t matter and that they could still employ me without a work permit. She seemed very keen, especially as I live so close and that she finds it hard to find reliable people. I am now considering changing my plans and working here (UK) until Christmas and then going back to Thailand to do a TEFL course and giving the teaching a go. I was planning on taking a few months out to relax at home anyway. It will be a great opportunity to get teaching experience and one that I may not get again.

Is this normal in Thailand, and do you think it is a good way to break into teaching?

[Ijustwannateach]

"she finds it hard to find reliable people"="those who are really qualified and demand real pay for real work and real paperwork get fed up with this joint and are either smart enough to avoid it or quit pretty darn quickly."

If you're still in the U.K. and have a chance in Hades of getting a real qualification (don't know UK stuff so well and I don't know which qualification is most important) plus a bit of real experience, by all means STAY THERE!!! Get a couple of years in at a U.K. school so that you're a "real" teacher, and then come on over here (by invitation from an international school which'll pay you about 5 times what Mrs. Dodgy will probably offer you, and give you all the paperwork and benefits you could ever ask for).

If you're hot to trot, it's up to you, but you'll be working both illegally and unqualified. Would you rather live here on 120K (in a few years) or 20K and at risk of a few years of imprisonment (now)? The choice is yours, but the answer would be pretty clear to me.

It will be a great opportunity to get teaching experience and one that I may not get again.

These kinds of "opportunity" are worth less than the paper of the contract that you won't get printed. I could get 10 "opportunities" like this one by Monday afternoon if I really wanted them. Trust me on this- get qualified and have a *really* cushy life when you get here.

"Steven"

[Ajarn]

What about getting an oil job in Thailand? 200,000+ per month, minimum, for the Shell guys I know here working offshore...

Not the pump jockeys, though

Otherwise, if you're serious about a teaching career, IJWT has some good guidance, I feel

[richb2004]

That probably is good advice.

I will start me degree next month anyway regardless of what I decide to do. I will probably stick with my current career for a while longer and try to find work closer to Thailand with an agreable rota.

I would like to think that eventually I will become a qualified teacher, but there is no rush I guess.

Thanks for the advice.