More people planning on waiting out the recession by teaching English abroad for a year
This is something I see in a lot of teaching applications – skilled professionals, saying that they want to take a year off, go overseas and relax, teach in Asia or Europe and wait out the recession. It does make sense, by the time you finish, say a year in Europe, the recession will just be ending. The industry is pretty much recession-proof, so once you do secure a job overseas, you’re set.
As unemployment continues to dominate the headlines, how to spend a redundancy package has become, for many, a pressing question.
It’s a good time to make people aware that there are alternatives to working in the world of finance.
Significant numbers faced with sudden unemployment have chosen to re-train as primary or secondary school teachers.
Others have decided to invest part of their redundancy package in learning how to teach English as a foreign language.
It may be that redundancy has proved a catalyst for the realisation of alternative career ponderings.
And for those hoping to use their qualification abroad, it is perhaps a chance to escape the UK and its particularly gloomy predictions for the near future.
The great thing about teaching English as a foreign language (Tefl) is that it does provide you with a “ticket to ride”.
Two industries hit especially hard in terms of recent redundancies have been finance and travel.
Elena Chetri was made redundant after working for the holiday firm XL Airways as a reservation agent.
Before coming to the UK, she had given private lessons in English in her native Russia, and helped English language students during her time in the USA.
She had greatly enjoyed both experiences, and had been considering training in teaching English for a couple of years before being made redundant. She now has the chance to pursue these projects, and hopes soon to gain a qualification.
She said: “When I gain this qualification, I will be hoping to teach English to people who have just moved from another country to the UK, or to go back to Russia and teach English there.
“I believe that with the qualification and, most importantly, with a better knowledge of the English language and how to teach it correctly, I could be a teacher who makes a difference in her students’ lives, just like my first English teacher did for me.”
Redundancy has also enabled Nick Melluish to follow a new path within Tefl.
Nick’s three-year stint in the City came to an end in August.
A visit to see a friend in Valencia gave him the idea of training to teach English as a foreign language.
Aside from providing a means to live abroad, he hopes that it will stand him in good stead when it comes to his ultimate goal of training to be a history teacher.
There are options of building a career in Tefl. If, however, your Tefl project remains short-term, Tefl will have armed you with transferable skills, useful to you in whatever new path you choose.
