Job Opportunities (teaching English) In Chon Buri Province

[3stan]

Hi,

I have been living here in bkk for 6 months, teaching english. Being a little tired of the big city, I am thinking about relocating to chon buri province (si racha, possibly pattaya..). Are there any/many job opportunities over there? I do hold a B.A and am TEFL certified. Also, would anybody know of a good website to find accomodation in this area. It seems that some of the biggest apartment websites (roomfinder, thaiapartments..) mainly focus on bkk.

Thanks

[PeaceBlondie]

3stan, we don't post the URL's of other forums here, but you might try one containing the word 'ajarn' which has a jobs database by province.

Can't help you on the apartments, except to suggest that you check the Pattaya sub-forum on ThaiVisa.

[3stan]

Hi Peaceblondie,

Thanks for your reply. I am familiar with Ajarn. i've seen your name around there too : ).

I am looking for other existing sources; there are not that many job offerings on ajarn for this region. Anybody teaching in the Chonburi area??

Thanks

[Wanraya]

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.

Sirracha has 4 private language centres ECC, Success(www.successlanguages.com), ILC and Smart English(www.smartenglish.in.th). 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 one of them on the day you start looking.

Also in Sirracha is Assumption School which hires native English teachers. I've never worked for this school but have heard good reports from people that do.

In Chonburi there are ECC, Nava and Bas Basic (www.cholburi.com)

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 Sirracha/Chonburi are a few massive industrial estates Laem Chabang Eastern Seaboard. Amata City and Bo-win. There are often corporate contracts up for grabs in these areas.

These pay around 500 baht an hour and are usually serviced by one of the Sirracha language centres.

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

As for accomodation when I worked in Chonburi most of the other teachers lived in the Bang Saen beach area which is about equidistant from Chonburi and Sirracha.

Go to sirricha Chonburi and Bang Saen have a ride around thre are plenty of apartment blocks in the area and see which ones you like the best.

[3stan]

Wanraya, Thanks for your (extensive) reply. Much appreciated.

I went to sri rasha yesterday and found a very nice studio there. I can always relocate to Bang saen area later if i found it to be nicer and more convenient for me.

All the info you gave me will be very helpful. Thanks again.

[Neeranam]

ECC Sirracha

I worked there years ago - it was terrible.

[3stan]

Neeranam, why?

i know ECC in general are not the best places to work..starting with the low pay (around 300bht/hour i imagine)..

[Neeranam]

Part of the problem was that the couple who franchised it had studied in America. They wanted a US teacher. They also wanted someone who couldn't speak Thai. I guess they wanted someone just off the boat, which is fair enough. If I had an English school, this is the type of person I would employ.

[Ahnsahn]

Part of the problem was that the couple who franchised it had studied in America. They wanted a US teacher. They also wanted someone who couldn't speak Thai. I guess they wanted someone just off the boat, which is fair enough. If I had an English school, this is the type of person I would employ.

Talking about 'Right off the boat'... ... I'm planning to relocate to Thailand within a year, more or less. I have a Thai wife and lived in Thailand for 2 years, many moons ago and and have visited several times since. I'm interested teaching yet I don't have a college degree. I want to know if I complete an online TEFL or TESOL course (which one is better?), will I be able to teach in Thailand? I'm looking to settle in the south, outside of Nakhon Si Thammart but am open to any semi-rural, 'outside-the-big-city' area.

Thanks,

Ahnsahn

[PeaceBlondie]

Ahnsahn, good luck. The acronyms sometimes interchange or overlap, but TEFL means foreign, and TESOL means as a second language. EFL usually means you're in a foreign country, teaching the locals to learn English as a secondary or minor means of communication. ESL is usually taught in your home country to immigrants.

Completing an online course is better than nothing, but a residential course would be better, if any are available in your locality. Of course, you could supplment an online course with a shorter course after you get to Thailand, or even take a four-week course upon your arrival.

I hope that helps.