Salary for Teaching EFL in Krakow

Sheesh! I'm really scared now!

Can someone give me the address of a school that pays upwards from 50zl per lesson?!!

I have a CELTA grade 'B' and 5 summers of teaching experience!!!!

Have a look at the adverts on tefl.com, and most importantly, think about somewhere other than Krakow. Because of the type of place it is, there's a glut of foreigners, mostly young, chasing the same work.

Most don't have a CELTA, never mind a grade B or much experience, and this should make you very employable. There's work in Warsaw, but PL is the kind of place where you often need to get a foot in the door and then move on from there.

350 big macs aren't enough?

I think there are two separate issues:

1. is 3000/mo is a good salary for an English teacher?

2. An English teacher salary may or may not be enough to live comfortably in Krakow, depending on the standard of living you're expecting. It's plenty to have a good time on, not that great if you have expensive tastes.

Not in a big city in PL. Or for an experienced professional teacher, who prepares lessons, understands learners needs, marks homework and expects to make a living. 3000 was the going rate in Warsaw ten years ago at a school who were not good payers.


Expensive tastes are one thing, living like a student when you're heading for middle age is another kettle of fish.

This job (paying 3,000/m) was found on tefl.com...there are only two Polish schools advertising on there at the moment.


I know it's cheaper to live in Lublin than Krakow, I wouldn't mind living there and I've been offered accommodation in the form of a student friend's empty room while he's in Norway for a few months...but I have no idea about schools in Lublin.


Where are the schools that pay more than this now?
I'm not 'all about the pay', I really love teaching! Plus I do not have expensive tastes by any means; but there will be things I'll need to buy that extend to a bit more than frozen pierogi :)

Lublin sounds interesting, and a place to stay that's waiting for you makes it exponentially more attractive. Most teachers in and around Lublin aren't natives, so you'd be at an advantage in the job market, and private lessons would be easier to get. Plus the fact that Lublin is a relatively cheap (and nice) city.

One problem is that in bigger cities like Warsaw, many teachers (usually the more experienced ones) work for several schools and have their own corporate clients plus private lessons - this often works out better financially, but you need to actually get there and build something up over time. For very sound reasons, a lot of schools (including most of the in-company ones) hire people who are here already, and on a lesson by lesson basis. This has been a developing trend for a few years now.

International House aren't wonderful payers, but the South West Poland franchise is well thought of and do hire from outside PL - plus their teacher development and training is respected.

edit

Some (especially Polish-owned) schools have scary clauses in the contracts about not leaving mid-term or working for rivals etc. These clauses mean very little, and should not stop someone getting a job at such a school then looking right away for other work. It is much easier to pick up lessons once you are here than at a distance.

The market is interesting now. Some schools are in a parlous state, especially those who rely on open groups rather than in-company lessons, or who do corporate training but rely on a couple of very big contracts. The schools who hire, tend to hire sporadically and for smaller in-company clients.

The work is there, but it's easier to find once you're here. Krakow has a lot of foreigners whose presence lowers wages and makes it harder to get work - schools will often choose a cheap teacher over a good one. Lublin sounds an excellent bet.

depends what you mean by "comfortably". Most people get on by this type of wage in Poland, when you consider that the average wage is currently around 3,200 PLN pre tax.

Remember that's the average wage. Including road sweepers, supermarket checkout staff etc. People flippping burgers at McDs would expect to make something like that. Not an expat.

I'm assuming that the mean age of TEFLers in Poland is still around 22-25. Earning 3,000zl a month might be fine for a couple of years, and the hardship is doubtless tempered to some extent by the value of experiencing another culture, learning another language and such things.

But the time will come when surely you'll want more things in life - a house, a family. What plans if any do you guys have to achieve a steadily-increasing income? Do you hope to develop as a teacher and continue in TEFL, perhaps becoming a DOS, or a school owner? Or do you plan to return to UK, USA, wherever, and embark on a new, more lucrative career path once you're done with TEFL? If so, what sort of areas do you envisage working in?

For me, TEFL is a really good apprenticeship for a whole host of careers, but it's rarely a career in itself because of the financial limitations. However, its value in preparation for bigger, better things should not be underestimated. And I do speak from experience.

Don't believe it. I found summer work i paid than my Polish work in backwoods Olsztyn.

It was a few years ago when Poland was a 'fresh' destination.

Now (in Warsaw at any rate) the market has settled, PL is at the top end of being a middle income country, the students/clients expect something different and the mean age is probably over 30. Corporate clients are more and more asking schools for the CVs of the teachers they send. Quite a few people here in their fifties and even sixties now. It isn't quite on the level of France and Italy, but there are plenty of people teaching EFL as a career.

The 'good local wage' concept is fine where there are palm trees and excitement; now Poland is a different sort of market.

I get more than that in Olsztyn.

Be careful, because you have to account for holidays. Apart from the winter holiday, there's also a two week school holiday (differs according to region) in which some schools will close.

It also depends on the kind of teaching - if it's traditional teaching, then 50PLN/net for 80 minutes works out at about 37.50 an hour - which is a really bad deal. It's not such a bad deal for 'method' (Callan/whatever) teaching however, because you have no preparation.


Yes, of course. It depends on what you expect from life - if you're quite happy to share a flat and don't live the high life, then 3000PLN/month is more than enough net. Heck, 3000/month is over 600 pounds a month net - and people manage to live just fine in the UK on 800 pounds net a month!


NFZ - free. Prescriptions can be a bastard, but let's assume 50zl for two.


How many people, starting out as teachers, really go somewhere nice though? Places like Egypt are easily done though - I've seen as low as 1200zl for two weeks in Egypt all inclusive in winter.

Weekends away -again, is this really realistic? Most Polish people would just do weekends to the mountains or whatever, as this is the done thing.


I dunno about Krakow prices, but a taxi anywhere in Poznan can be negotiated for 30zl in the evening. But then again - most Polish teachers in a comparable situation will just take the night bus or tram.


Shop around, there are some absolute bargains to be had. Of course, if you shop at shops which sell at Western prices, you'll pay Western prices - but many decent shops don't charge that much.


Tickets here - 40zl for good seats. Cheap seats to the ballet available for as little as 5zl.


A nice place - 40zl or so. Obviously there are much more expensive options, but what newbie teacher would want or afford to eat in such places?


What newbie teacher is drinking decent wine?


150zl.

You have to remeber Jonni - newbie teachers simply can't expect to wear fine clothes, drink fine wines and eat fine foods, it's not realistic and they'd be unlikely to be doing the same thing in their own country. Sure, if you're here for a while and have a family/etc, then you need to make more money and expect to take taxis, but if you're single, there's just no need to.

My view of it - Poland is a fantastic place for newbie teachers in their 20's. In Poznan, the following costs -

Room in a shared flat in ye Commie osiedle near a tram line - 550zl. It's on the high side, but.
Transport - 81zl
Bills : say 300zl (shared)
Food : 400zl

Total : 1400zl for the sake of argument. You can cut quite a bit off that, but it's reasonable.

That's all your core costs covered, leaving you another 1500zl a month to live on. It's a doddle if you go to normal pubs (beer : 7zl at most, vodka same) and visit normal restaurants and cafes. You won't have the high life, but it'll be fun and no worse than a comparable 20something in London.


The average wage in the UK is around 22k a year. It has absolutely no relevance, because high earning people drastically skew the figures. You're not going to get anywhere near 3200zl a month as an average worker in McDonalds, nor are you going to get near 22k a year in McDonalds in the UK.

Warsaw prices are skewed to hell on account of many high earning people being willing to pay stupid money for classes. It really just all depends on what you expect from life - but for someone in their 20's wanting to have fun and has no real commitments, 3000zl is more than enough money.

Trevek

You are right. In fact, I can't think of any school in Warsaw that pays native speakers less than that. A friend (who's arguably not a native speaker and has no work permit) is twenty-something, has no teaching experience or qualifications is getting 50 per 60 mins for Callan teaching.

For a native with a four-week CELTA and limited experience, it should start at 45zl per 45 min. With the DELTA it should start at 65.


Remember most teachers are paid on umowa o dzielo without National Insurance, and that most of the Warsaw in-company teachers are not 'newbies'. A school sending people without experience to a big company could get away with that even five years ago, but less and less so today. HR departments have plenty of schools to choose from. Some very large international companies have Europe-wide policies on this, as I found to my cost not long ago.

Though I agree that PL is a great place for a 'traveller teacher' doing Callan or something for a year. It seems to me though, that these are becoming more and more a rare species in Warsaw.

EHIC card then ;) Anyone else will need private health insurance or ZUS coverage somehow anyway to obtain residency, so it's a non-issue. Having said this, the disgrace of continuing to allow umowa o dzielo is sickening.


But it is an entirely different marketplace to those freshly in Poland - of course experienced teachers will want and demand more, but someone jumping off a plane into a nice easy Callan-esque job will hardly care or want for much.

Having said this, at the minute in Poznan, there are a few experienced teachers doing quite badly for themselves because they've priced themselves out of the market.


Warsaw isn't really a good place to go for such a thing, I think. The costs are just too high to make it worthwhile without an investment - at least from my perspective, Warsaw is the place to make money as a professional.

delphiandomine

A lot of the people working here aren't keeping up their NI payments at home (300 plus quid a year, I think) so can't use EHIC card, nor do EU nationals need it as a condition of staying here. I can't think of anyone who has had to provide proof of healthcare if they're an EU national. Most teachers have to pay privately, and if they need an English speaking doctor, the cost can be quite high.

I agree with you to a point on the umowa o dzielo issue. But remember, if a school paid teachers on umowa o pracy, with full ZUS etc, the overheads would eat all of their profit. A few years ago, I worked as a manager for a large school who did that, and despite a huge client list that most schools would kill for, they went bust after two years.


This is very true. A lot of people teaching here in Warsaw have a house or flat back in the UK which gives some income, or are well enough qualified and experienced to see it as a long-term career. The Krakow market is affected by the town being a tourist centre with a large transient foreign population.

They aren't checking EHIC status at all - although strictly speaking, you aren't entitled to use it, the Polish state is taking the attitude that if it's valid on the card, it's valid. The whole issue is complicated further by the way that you can get the card irrespective of NI payments - so at least for a UK citizen, you can use the card free of consequences. Maybe one day, the UK will wake up and realise that it's being abused on a huge scale by expats that aren't entitled to it, but as for now, nothing is being done.


I suppose most teachers would actually refuse to take the wage decrease that would come with being hired under umowa o pracy - which is each to their own, I suppose. The problem probably partially lies with the instability of the language teaching industry - schools can hardly promise a certain amount of work if it doesn't actually come.

At the very least though, schools should be offering a choice to people. I think it's not a very wise move for foreigners to come here without health insurance - for peace of mind if nothing else.

This is veryuseful to know. :-)

Yes! Check the clauses and decide if that really is the sort of place you want to work for. As Jonni says, these clauses actually mean very little in practice, but be prepared to be threatened if you decide to take up a better offer.

For EU citizens, these clauses mean very little. For non-EU citizens, it can be much more problematic due to the work permit situation - my advice is for a non-EU citizen not to accept such a job in the first place.

But as always, don't be afraid to negotiate with schools.

Let's hope the UK will wake up to the fact that hard-working, borderline high-rate taxpayers are propping these kind of people up. Can't wait until May.

A lot of expatriates paid high taxes for years before moving abroad. And presumably one day return with more skills and experience.

There probably won't be any big change in May - the conservatives would need a swing bigger than any since the war to get a majority of 1.

Maybe you'd prefer it if I stayed in the UK on the dole, taking even more money from 'high-rate' taxpayers?? (I haven't been able to find a full time teaching job here during term time)

Take the job in Krakow, see how you like it, and then figure out how to make more money :)

That's my advice too - Poland is a land of opportunity at the minute. My only advice is to be as sociable as you can be - I've made so many useful contacts simply by bothering to go to parties and so on.

They are living in crap rooms and similiar things, but they do eat, they do go to parties and similiar stuffz, so its also enough, if they spare the price of a room, then its clearly enough for them.

From 3000 net. you can live easily, having your own big room at the CENTER, eating as much as you want, having parties, and still spare some money.

Krakow is not THAT cheap, but 3000 z£ net. is pretty much enough to live.
Mostly if you are living with someone(Gf or sth like that), so you dont have to pay 1000+ for a room, just the half of it.

I'd go for it, i am 23 right now, and i am living from ~2500, and i still spare like 500-1000 each month after paying everything(monthly tickets, room, and similar things) and having some fun(parties, girls, stuffz, you know).

just go for it(esp. if you like krakow), and allways check if there is a better oppurtunity, you can never know what will come later.

Wow, half a room all to yourself. Living the highlife there.


I'll call bullsh!t on that one. There is no way that you are saving 1000zl a month if you earn 2500zl a month.

And more importantly, why accept half of what you can earn (and should earn if you're working for a boss who gives you a fair share of the income)?

I'm coming over to Krakow and I've got years of experience teaching TEFL, I run my own teaching business here in Bournemouth: anyone know the name of the local Krakow newspaper to advertise in??

Gazeta Krakowska!!!

I thought I might sort of resuscitate this thread, if I spelt that correctly!

Although networking goes against the grain, I got offereed two business contracts of 180 minutes each just by attending a party yesterday and my lady, the hostess, giving me the nod and telling her business friends about my 20 years of experience.

She then went on to ruin it a tad by telling them how I really needed the money.....

It's Silesia folks and after 20 years I'm pretty well as established as I'm going to be. And come on down all ye others, I can stand the comepetition and we can always replay some of the shenanighans from the early 90s, even if I have to be in bed by two these days.

Dougpol aka jdthebrit