Pattaya Schools

[Tom Kagai]

Hi:

We all know that the Pattaya area doesn't run short of native speakers ("Heineken please" etc.) but are there many/any teaching opportunities there?

I have a degree and TESOL, but no classroom experience too date as I am working in the UK.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[Wanraya]

I've lived in Pattaya and taught English for 4 and a half years.

If you want to work in Pattaya you will have to be prepared teach children. Theere are 11 government shools and numerous private schools that hire native English teachers.

The contract for the government schools is farmed out to one of the language centres in the Chonburi Region which then hire the teachers. In my opinion the government have an active rotational policy for this contract as I have never known a school keep the contract for two consecutive years (maybe someone can contradict me on this).

You will just have to find out when you arrive who has the contract - it will be one from ILC Sirracha, English Plus Sirracha, Burapha Language Centre or ECC Sirracha and Chonburi branches.

The private schools on the other hand hire their English teachers directly. Off the top of my head the private schools in Pattaya are; BEST school, Wuttichot Bi lingual school, International School of the Regents, Aksorn Group, Satit Udomseuksa Acadamy and International school of Pattaya -I'm sure I must have missed one or two out.

Within reasonable commuting distance of Pattaya is the Town of Sirracha. This has 4 private language centres ECC, Success, English Plus and ILC. These schools teach mainly to adults in the evening and at weekends. Having worked for two of the aforementioned schools full time and one part time I would say if anything there is a shortage of native teahcers in this area and you should be able to gain employment with at least obe of them on the day you start looking.

The only one of the language chains to have a branch in Pattaya is AUA situated near the dolphin roundabout. However the guy that runs this is unusually strict on the paperwork side of the business and insist on you having a work permit prior to joining them. That is you need to be working full time somewhere else before you can start working part time here which kinda rules it out as a first port of call.

Also within easy reach of Pattaya are a coupkle of massicve industrial estates Laem Chabang and Eastern Seaboard. There are often corporate contracts up for grabs in these areas.

You could also teach privately. Pattaya Trader(monthly), Pattaya Mail weekly) and Pattaya Today(bi weekly) all have education and training classified ads which you can place free of charge.

[Tom Kagai]

Thanks for sharing all that; I posted that question some time ago, and was just starting to think I'd upset everyone!

Blimey! That was worth waiting for though.

In general, have you found that your posts there during the 4.5 years have supported you on the work permit side, or have you had to keep nibbling at them to produce?

Also, where do they stand on the pay-scale, approximately? Although I fully understand if you don't want to disclose that.

Thanks again........and again, and again!

[jomama]

There's also a fairly large (relatively new) university near Laem Chabang (Asia Institute of Technology ???).