{"id":113,"date":"2012-01-10T14:35:53","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T14:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/?p=113"},"modified":"2012-10-14T20:46:21","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T20:46:21","slug":"highlighted-article-teaching-abroad-in-american-and-international-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/highlighted-article-teaching-abroad-in-american-and-international-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlighted article: Teaching abroad in American and International schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are literally hundreds of overseas schools offering employment opportunities for those wishing to move abroad or those who find themselves in a foreign location in search of work. The first thing one must realize is that there are generally two classifications of employees at most schools: local hire expatriates (as opposed to host country national) and overseas hires. This is an important distinction to remember.<\/p>\n

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Local hire status usually brings with it (but not always) the same salary as overseas hire (O\/H) but without the benefits such as housing, airfare, etc. It is intended to take advantage of the fact that many qualified teachers arrive at post accompanying their spouse and thus receive housing and airfare as part of their family status, saving the school money. Anyone contemplating moving abroad to teach is advised to secure a job before moving: it makes a big difference in living standard. On the other hand, if someone needs experience and would not be competitive as an O\/H, it may be easier to find a job on a local hire basis and later parlay the experience gained to O\/H status at another school.(Most schools will not change someone\u2019s status once hired.)<\/p>\n

Schools determine the ratio of local to overseas hires based on how many qualified candidates areavailable locally, but the better schools keep quality the first priority. They like to maintain a surplus of local applicants to fill in as substitute teachers and when unexpected vacancies occur during the year. School directors eagerly welcome new local talent. While teaching qualifications and experience for local hires are mandatory at most schools, expediency rules at others and it is possible to work one\u2019s way into a full time teaching job through experience substituting or working as a teacher\u2019s aide. In fact, volunteering is a great way to become known and first in line when a job opens.<\/p>\n

Applying from overseas, however, the applicant needs to have at least a BA\/BS degree, a teaching credential and at least two years experience to be considered. There are many more applicants than jobs available and it is not uncommon for a school to have twenty to one hundred applications for each vacancy. A single parent with dependents does not stand much of a chance, nor does a retired teacher looking for an overseas experience. Schools prefer to hire teaching couples with no dependents, though most schools will hire couples with children and a few will hire singles with dependents. Almost all will hire single teachers if they cannot find couples.<\/p>\n

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Anyone applying will need to carry excellent recommendations, be healthy and energetic and willing to work in the after- school program. Flexibility and adaptability are key attributes for successful candidates. Prior experience living abroad or at least foreign travel and knowledge of another language are helpful. The bottom line is expertise as a teacher and love of kids and if an interviewer discerns that in a candidate, a contract offer is likely.<\/p>\n

So, how does one apply to teach overseas?<\/p>\n

The better schools insist on an interview if at all possible, although they will hire through one of the major recruiting agencies if they have vacancies at odd times of the year. Schools which have a high percentage of host country national students or that tend to have lower salaries may hire on the basis of correspondence and could be targeted by inexperienced teachers. Beware, however, that salaries in such schools might be at the subsistence level and working conditions less than ideal. Most international schools are exceedingly reputable: a handful are not, so investigate carefully.<\/p>\n

Applying directly to the better schools is a good way to establish contact, but most successful candidates use recruitment agencies which arrange Recruitment Fairs that attract anything from 20 to 140 or more schools for 3 to 4 days of marathon interviewing. A cycle has emerged as follows:<\/p>\n

September: the candidate selects and contacts a recruitment agency to register
\nOctober\/November: references are submitted and a dossier created.
\nDecember: the candidate is advised if they are accepted.
\nFebruary: interviews take place at recruitment fairs. Some contracts are offered on the spot.
\nMarch\/April: more contracts are consumated.
\nMay\/June: a few more recruiting fairs open for schools to fill last minute vacancies.
\nJuly\/August: recruitment agencies are requested to fill final vacancies<\/p>\n

There are several major sources to choose from:<\/p>\n

Search Associates: PO Box 2007\u00a0\u00a0 Minden, NV 89423 \u00a0\u00a0 Telephone (775) 267-3122\u00a0 Fax (775) 267-4122
\nStreet address: 2618 Fuller Avenue\u00a0 Minden, NV 89423\u00a0 http:\/\/www.search-associates.com<\/a>
\nA private agency comprised mainly of former directors of international schools, Search places around 500 candidates annually. Fairs are operated in Kuala Lumpur, Sidney, Dubai, Oxford, Houston, Cambridge, Toronto and Carmel, CA and Bethesda.<\/p>\n

International Schools Services, PO Box 5910, Princeton, NJ 08543 A non-profit organization witha wide range of services for international schools, ISS annually operates two large fairs each February: one on the east coast (Washington, DC in 1998), one on the west coast (San Francisco, 1998) plus a late one in Philadelphia each June. They place over 500 candidates.<\/p>\n

European Council of International Schools, 21 Lavant Street Petersfield GU32 3EL UK ECIS hosts a major recruitment fair in London early each February and a later one in April. A mix of American and British based schools attend.<\/p>\n

University of Northern Iowa This is the grandaddy of all recruitment fairs and the one that started them all back in the 70s. It attracts up to 700 teachers and 140 schools.<\/p>\n

Several other colleges or universities also sponsor recruitment centers:check with your university to see if they might be one of them. Which one is best for you? It may depend on location, time of the fair, whether you want a large one or one which is smaller with more personalized attention. ECIS London tends to attract a lot of schools from Europe; Search KL is heavy with international schools in Asia while Search-Houston focuses on Latin America and Search-Dubai is British oriented. UNI has schools from all over, as does ISS. All of the recruiting sources above have websites. Use a search engine to access them and learn more.<\/p>\n

The Office of Overseas Schools (U. S. State Department) maintains an excellent website with links to the above. Fees for the above are all moderate and should not be a determiner of which one is chosen. Sources for learning more include the ISS Directory of Overseas Schools; The International Educator (TIE), a newspaper of great interest (PO Box 513, Cummaquid, MA 02637 for subscription); or, visit the Teacher\u2019s Internet Pages (TIPS) on the world-wide web.<\/p>\n

Taken from the article summitted\u00a0 on overseasdigest.com<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

About the author
\nMr. Ambrose was named \u201cSuperintendent of the Year\u201d by the Association for the Advancement of International Education in 1997. He has served as the President of the Society Limited to Overseas School Heads; represented international schools on the Elementary Commission of the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges; was a long standing officer of the Board of Directors of the Near East, South Asian (NESA) Council of Overseas Schools; a member of the Board of Directors of TIE, for which he regularly writes articles, and; wrote, produced or directed a series of videotapes designed to train overseas school board members. During his 24 years overseas, he administered a number of schools and was most recently Director of the United Nations International School in Hanoi, Vietnam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are literally hundreds of overseas schools offering employment opportunities for those wishing to move abroad or those who find themselves in a foreign location in search of work. The first thing one must realize is that there are generally two classifications of employees at most schools: local hire expatriates (as opposed to host country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlighted-articles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2flVT-1P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1413,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/blogs-of-international-school-teachers-all-you-need-to-know-about-teaching-overseas\/","url_meta":{"origin":113,"position":0},"title":"Blogs of international school teachers: \u201cAll you need to know about teaching overseas.\u201d","author":"ISCommunity","date":"September 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you inspired to start up a blog about your adventures living abroad? Our 23rd blog that we would like to highlight is called\u00a0\u201cAll you need to know about teaching overseas.\u201d\u00a0 Check out the wealth of information in the blog entries of this international school teacher who has worked at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogs of International Teachers"","block_context":{"text":"Blogs of International Teachers","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/blogs-of-international-teachers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/screen-shot-2012-09-30-at-5-48-30-pm.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":288,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/great-resource-u-s-dept-of-states-information-on-teaching-overseas\/","url_meta":{"origin":113,"position":1},"title":"Great resource \u2013 U.S. Dept. of State\u2019s information on Teaching Overseas","author":"ISCommunity","date":"October 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Thank goodness for the U.S. Department of State!\u00a0 They seem to be keeping track of many international schools actually and helping out international school teachers at the same time. One way they are helping is by offering the \u201cFAST TRAIN (The Foreign Affairs Spouses Teacher Training Program)\u201d programme to teachers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Great Resource"","block_context":{"text":"Great Resource","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/great-resource\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/10\/screen-shot-2011-10-01-at-4-40-18-pm.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/10\/screen-shot-2011-10-01-at-4-40-18-pm.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1 1x, https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/10\/screen-shot-2011-10-01-at-4-40-18-pm.png?w=525&h=300&crop=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":178,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/educators-overseas-helping-teachers-secure-a-job-teaching-abroad\/","url_meta":{"origin":113,"position":2},"title":"Educators Overseas: Helping teachers secure a job teaching abroad.","author":"ISCommunity","date":"December 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There are many ways to secure a teaching job at an international school.\u00a0 The website Educators Overseas also offers such a service.\u00a0 Here is what they have to say about their philosophy of helping candidates find the \u201cright fit\u201d in their search to teach abroad (taken from their website): Honesty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Great Resource"","block_context":{"text":"Great Resource","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/great-resource\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/screen-shot-2011-12-07-at-10-32-01-pm.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/screen-shot-2011-12-07-at-10-32-01-pm.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1 1x, https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/screen-shot-2011-12-07-at-10-32-01-pm.png?w=525&h=300&crop=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4665,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/comparing-the-schools-and-comments-working-in-singapore\/","url_meta":{"origin":113,"position":3},"title":"Comparing the Schools and Comments: Working in Singapore","author":"ISCommunity","date":"August 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Around the world, there are cities that have more than one international school. Many times\u00a0there is an American school, a British School, and an international school that uses an international curriculum. Some cities, though, have MANY international schools! \u00a0When that is the case, how do the comments about each school\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comparing the Schools and Comments"","block_context":{"text":"Comparing the Schools and Comments","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/comparing-the-schools-and-comments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_0166","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_0166-300x197.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4024,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/expanding-opportunities-work-international-schools-prepare-teach-abroad\/","url_meta":{"origin":113,"position":4},"title":"Expanding opportunities to work at international schools: prepare yourself to teach abroad!","author":"ISCommunity","date":"November 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Who wouldn\u2019t like a life of world travel, acquiring new languages and learning firsthand about new cultures? \u00a0Many teachers find the opportunity of working at an international school too hard to pass up! Over the past 14 years, there has been a 35% increase in the number of teachers employed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Highlighted Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Highlighted Articles","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/highlighted-articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Screenshot-2014-11-30-00.13.20.png?fit=786%2C548&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Screenshot-2014-11-30-00.13.20.png?fit=786%2C548&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Screenshot-2014-11-30-00.13.20.png?fit=786%2C548&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Screenshot-2014-11-30-00.13.20.png?fit=786%2C548&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1520,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/survey-results-are-in-how-many-more-years-do-you-expect-to-keep-teaching-abroad-at-international-schools\/","url_meta":{"origin":113,"position":5},"title":"Survey results are in: How many more years do you expect to keep teaching abroad at international schools?","author":"ISCommunity","date":"November 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0survey results\u00a0are in, and it seems as if most visitors and members of\u00a0International School Community\u00a0who voted expect to keep working abroad at international schools for at least 1-3 more years. For many of us, I suppose teaching abroad at international schools is a temporary circumstance in our lives.\u00a0 Some of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveys"","block_context":{"text":"Surveys","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/category\/surveys\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/11\/screen-shot-2012-11-21-at-9-07-41-pm.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}