English childcare in Poland? Other work opportunities?

Hi everyone! I have been looking, and looking... and looking, to find employment opportunities in Poland - my main concern is that my education and experience is almost solely in the field of childcare. I am from Canada and studied Early Childhood Education, worked with a Catholic school board for three years and have now moved to the UK as an au pair. A friend of mine from Czech Republic told me that in her village they have an "English" daycare centre, where parents send their kids a few days of the week to be immersed in the English language. Does this type of centre exist in Poland?

I will gladly accept all help, be it finding work in childcare... or other fields that I could actually get hired in - my boyfriend suggests working in an English company, a company dealing with Canadian clients, or even as a recruiter. I just don't know how likely it would be that they would hire me without the experience.

@okfriend

As you are a non-EU citizen, an employer would have to get a work permit to hire you, and those are hard to come by. In order for you to get permission to stay, they would also have to give you a full-time position with a real full-time contract, which many employers are willing to go through the hassle of providing.

Positions like the ones your friend mentioned usually go to people who already have permission to stay in Poland. For real jobs in education, your qualifications will have to be recognized by the government, and that is a long, drawn out and costly process. Probably not even worth considering. Call centers might hire you, but they pay poorly, and the work is crap.

You should also be aware that positions in child care are extremely poorly paid. Even if you were to land a real full-time position, you would barely earn enough to survive, and would not be able to save up even a modest rainy day fund.

My advice is to take advantage of all the opportunities available to you in Canada to up-school yourself, get relevant and saleable work experience, and build up a network of real-life contacts who you can rely on to find better work. None of those opportunities will be available to you in Poland. Poland is not a nice place for those who do not possess a solid education and relevant work experience in select fields that are in demand (mostly IT and finance).

Why did you think of coming to Poland?

Sorry. That should be "not many employers",

Thanks for your response! I'm not currently living in Canada, I am in the UK, and I am quite determined to move to Poland (not just "thinking" of it) as my boyfriend is returning to Poland for work.

Another possibility is teaching English, whether it is with young children or adults.

If you're going down the English teaching route, there's a chain of kindergartens called Helen Doron which focus on pre-school education through English. They're pretty much always recruiting. Basically it's a franchise so the quality of the schools depends on the individual running it. They expect you to work pretty hard (quite a bit of out of school hours lesson planning etc) and they don't pay that well, but it would be a start for you. Do you have a full degree in Early Childhood Care and Education? As for teaching English to adults, you really need qualifications for that if you want to teach in a language school. You can do TEFL training and get your teacher's cert in Poland at the British Council but it will cost you a few thousand zloty. Once you've got that you can do the Young Learners diploma which would qualify you to teach English to children.

Thanks Atch, I had not heard of Helen Doron but it sounds interesting, and very suited to what I am looking for. Rest assured, I am accustomed to lesson planning out of school hours ;) typical in a professional childcare/school setting (at least from what I have heard and experienced). I will see if this leads to anything! I would prefer to take a route that doesn't cost me a few thousand zloty first, but it's good to know what steps I would have to take if I decided to go for the TEFL training and teacher's cert later on.