Would previous experience be necessary to teach english in poznan

Hi,

Im a brit currently living in the UK and I'm going to move to Poznan this summer with my partner. She is polish and has family there.

We both visited Poznan last year and really loved it so we are quite set on moving there, although, I have not seen the rest of Poland yet ; )

I have decided to enroll on a 4 week "cert TESOL" tefl course prior to leaving the UK, with intentions of getting work teaching English.

I also have a BA honours degree in fine art, I dont know if this would improve my employment chances.

My question is, will I be able to find work and live in poznan without previous teaching experience and just the TESOL qualification alone.

I have looked up some English schools within poznan on the internet and some of them seem to be asking for 1 or 2 years experience teaching. Have I misunderstood something? will there be more employment opportunities to find once I'm living there?

How easy will it be for me to get work and live?

Im planning on emailing and phoning all the schools that I can find to see what possibilities there are but any helpful information would be gratefully appreciated,

many thanks, mw78

p.s. I found this website while searching for advice and it seems like a great forum, I have already found some useful advice searching the boards. me likes : D

Hello mw78,
And welcome to the Polish Forum.
There are quite a few people on here in a similar circumstances to yourself.
Try using the search box, in the top right hand corner of this page, type in a key word like "TEFL" and you should find lots of info to help you.


This is the best idea, usually schools will want to do some teacher training with their new teachers, so before the academic year (October the 1st).

It is more difficult to find work during summer.

With third level education and a TEFL course, you should have no problem aquiring work, I do not live in Poznan but I would hazard a guess that you will have an option between several schools for potential work as demand is still quite high for native teachers of the the English language.

You should also check the Art galleries and Art communities, no point in letting your Fine Art degree go to waste.

thanks,

like you say myself and my partner had some concerns about finding work during the summer, if the worst comes to the worst I have considered staying in the UK until the new academic year, but I really want to go in june or july.

I have contacts for half a dozen or so english schools in poznan that i found via google maps. My partner and I will get in touch with them tomorrow, so fingers crossed I will have some luck there.

will check out these places

English Unlimited
Top English School
Native English
School of English
Miles English
Business English
English School
Happy English Centrum
House of English

anyone worked for these companies in poznan

will also try and find something via the art route but I think my very poor polish will be a problem at the moment.

Why not look for a TEFL course in Poland over Summer? that way you get to 'try before you buy'. Some of them are pretty good.

Otherwise, you may well find that teaching qualifications are not that necessary to get a basic job in a private school or even to find private lessons to tide you over - You can probably scoop up 2000 zloty a month on cash in hand privates and yuo can get by on that.

The better teaching jobs will go to people with experience and qualifications, agreed, but this is more because they have shown they are safe employment bets rather than that they are good at their jobs. Teaching in Poland is a price led market, not the qualiity-led market it should be.

Good luck!

PS All those schools sound pikey - I don't know anything about them but the names are just so .... pikey

heh heh... happy english centrum

will continue to look for more but beggers cant be choosers, I'm gonna phone everywhere up tomorrow will report back on the pikeyness

do you think doing my tefl in poland will be cheaper? I think the closest place I can do one here is in london (I'm based in colchester) and including travel costs I think its gonna cost me about £1100

and what do you mean try before you buy exactly? edit* you mean go an have look around right?

This is true of course but I believe mw78 is serious and wishes to work for better money.
I did a TEFL course years ago and it helped me a lot when I first came here to teach.


You are a native speaker with a BA and soon to have a TEFL course, I can also see you have gumption so you will have a choice of schools.

I would go for the better school rather than the one that pays better (if that is the choice), quality over quantity.


You can do a TEFL on the internet, I know a teacher here who did it.
So no travelling costs.

One last and very important thing is to learn Polish, it will make your life here easier and more enjoyable.


Please do, it is always nice to hear people's stories.

It could be. Let's see what's on the net

eslbase.com/courses/poland/

I see it costs about 800 pounds to do your CELTA at IH Krakow. Nice city and you'd be able to work on your Polish while you're over there. I don't gno if that covers acommodation but it shouldn't be that bad if you share with someone else for the month. Food's cheap

Unfortunately there are no links for Poznan courses from the page but maybe try IH Poznan?

Yeah sorry - when I said 'try before you buy' I meant you can get a feel for the job and the lifestyle before you enter fully into the white slave trade. You'll be able to get some pointers on what to look for and what to be careful of when signing up with a school. That kind of stuff!


And working as a teacher in Poland is probably not the best way to go about this...


Please...... don't. These courses are pretty much worthless from what I've heard. Some only allow you to teach the other course candidates in make believe lessons. NOTHING can prepare you for the terror of your first couple of weeks in the job better than getting your arm right up the didactic u-bend on a proper course full of real, clueless students. Don't touch the internet. you're throwing money away if you do.

thanks for the help,

I'm still trawling through the old threads on the forum, has been useful,

Do you think these online tefl courses are any good, how did your friend find it? The whole world of tefl courses I find really confusing I just want to make sure I choose a decent one.

have started to learn polish, I know quite a few words now but structuring sentences along with cases, gender and tenses is completely beyond me

will report back once I have phoned tomorrow, lets hope they aren't all pikey eh.

edit*


Thanks for the advice. I had come across the wroclaw school before, and you have a good point, im sure it would prepare me better for teaching in poland.

thanks for your opinions on online courses too

The online courses are better than nothing (although it can be a close-run thing) but any school which will hire you on the basis of your online TEFL qualification will also hire you without any TEFL qualification at all.

In Poland you will want a CELTA. These can be done in the UK (several places in London offer the course) or in Poland. IH Krakow run courses year-round. IH Wroclaw run a couple of courses in the summer only. ELS Bell in Warsaw also offer a couple of summer courses. I'd stay away from the Warsaw course because it is too expensive and probably do the course in Wroclaw (it's a cheaper place than Krakow and far less touristy).

BTW: I taught EFL in Poland for 12 years. It felt so damn good to finally get out of the profession!

Is this much more recognised than the trinity cert TESOL, which was my original choice.

I'm aware that the trinity and cambridge qualifications seem to be the only ones worth getting.

wroclaw sounds great from what people tell me and it does not seem too far from poznan.
I must say the idea of doing the course in poland is sounding more appealing.


what are you doing now if you dont mind me asking, are you still in poland?

thanks mw78

he wasn't a friend, he was a bit of an edgit to be honest, apparently it was very easy.


This is sound advise, you would benefit more from the real thing.


I don't know about this, I hear it is much better than a TEFL.
It was years ago since I thought English here, so my information is out dated.

It is more recognised but anywhere you want to work will have also heard of the Trinity and will accept it as being equal to a CELTA. I actually have a Trinity cert myself and have never had any problems with using it.


Damn right!


You could certainly get back to Poznan from Wroclaw for weekends. The courses here are cheaper and life is cheaper too. Plus you get a feel from the start for the specific problems that Polish speakers have when learning English.


I'm still in Warsaw and am mainly reading and writing.

thanks for all the advice folks, my phone calling has been postponed until tomorrow. got very very drunk last night, very hung over, kacur.
but I will get back as promised

Should be easy enough, Poznan is a big city with a lot of schools.


To be brutally honest, you won't find anything worthwhile in Poznan during the summer. Most schools effectively close down over the summer - they might have a few classes for those that really want to learn, but really, not much will happen. The best bet is to come in August - people are hiring then, ready to start the new year in September.


They usually do ask for that, but at the same time, a lot is placed upon being available and ready to work NOW, so to speak. To be honest though, a lot is about appearance and personality - I know teachers here who have got jobs by simply walking in with a CV and saying 'I want a job'.

But in all honesty, I would wait until you're here before looking for a job. You simply cannot get the 'feel' for the city over the internet. I live in Poznan, and it seems most people got their jobs by actually going and handing in CV's and talking to people. Of course, once you're established, you can look for work well in advance of the start date - but for a beginner, I'd recommend just hitting the ground after doing the CELTA. You don't even need the CELTA in all reality - although it does depend what kind of teaching job you want.

But...as I'm here, and teaching, feel free to ask any questions. What I know...

English Unlimited - Odd school. They're based in a big huge old building, yet I think they do most of the teaching elsewhere.
Top English School - I think this is a Callan school, though could be wrong?
Native English - I went past here a few weeks ago. They didn't appear to have much in the way of teaching facilities, but they apparently only use native teachers. Located in a slightly dodgy place, though.

Haven't heard of the others, though.

Harry's right. Trinity and CELTA are the way to go. I did my CELTA at Bell in Warsaw, much cheaper than in the US including accomodation, and I had a job six days after I finished the course. I had no teaching experience then, just a lot of real world business stuff. It didn't matter. A lot of the better schools want one or the other, unless you want to teach Callan. No thanks.

This is off subject but maybe someone could help me out? I am trying to take the CELTA in wroclaw, but I don't if they will take me without a BA. I do have a TESOL cert, but I got it on-line so I want something better. The only thing I have going for me is that I was born in wroclaw but moved to the US when I was 7 so I am fluent in English and Polish. Anyway if anyone has any info to share that would be great.

you dont NEEd a BA to do the CELTA,,,,they just prefer it. If you can show evidence of High school graduation/ further study//A levels, whatever, they should take you. Esp if you wave the money at them!!

As far as I know, Wrocław has a pre-entry questionaire combined with a possible interview - but a BA isn't a requirement. It's more about being able to pass the course - if you can show them that you know the stuff, they won't be demanding a BA.

It's worth calling them and talking about it - but I think they base it more upon actual ability in the language than qualifications.

To the original poster:

I placed some ads on gumtree (and other Polish classifieds sites) in November last year, after which I received some job offers (2 companies in Poznan) that wanted to hire me, regardless of whether I had experience or not.

Hi I am moving to poland soon, i am not planning on teaching english. I thought english in italy, from my experience you do not need experience once you have your Teaching cert.

Alot of schools have ther own material and you just teach from that. After your first month you will be a pro at teaching. There seems to be lots of work i have been offerd work teaching english, But it will be a last resort for me.Good Luck in your new career,

Firstly, sorry for not getting back sooner.

I'm now living poland and will be moving to poznań in august, gotta a kawelerka sorted in winogrady.

I ended up doing a 4 week TESOL course at ISIS Greenwich school of english.

Me and my partner are currently living with her mum in zawiercie, small town but seen some nice countryside over the last two weeks.

Haven't found a job yet, will try gumtree like you say nuncle, have got my resume on daveseslcafe and tefl.com.

think I will be cold calling all the schools I can find.

Is it the wrong time of the year or something, because I've had no luck finding teaching positions online.

there seem to be loads of crappy tefl websites all over the place that are doing my head in.

anybody think these tefl job sites are any good?

Hey ! I am Polish born in Poznan, I am wondering how did u get on with finding a job? and how do u like it so far?