Teaching ESOL in London

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esol_esol

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Jun 4, 2010
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Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum but I've spent the afternoon reading the posts and what a great site! Lots of helpful information provided by people from all sorts of background and experience.

I need some help from anyone who can point me to the right direction. I just moved to London with my partner due to his job relocation. I was hoping that I could teach ESOL and/or Chinese languages here in London but don't know where and how to start! I've been teaching language for nearly 10 years now and I usually hold small, private tuition classes.

I'll really appreciate if someone could give me some suggestions and tips. Thanks guys!! :-D
 

Tdol

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Japan
ESOL is a mixed bag in London- there are good places to work, but there are also an awful lot of dodgy schools- FE colleges tend to pay better than many of the private schools (competition for university positions is ferocious). Chinese might pay better as it would mostly be for professionals.
 

esol_esol

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Jun 4, 2010
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Hi Tdol,

Thanks heaps for your reply. What's the normal practice of finding an ESOL job in London? Do I approach the schools/colleges directly or is there a particular channel that I have to go through?

Cheers!
 

Tdol

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British English
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UK
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Japan
You can approach directly, but some colleges use recruitment agencies (I think- I haven't worked in the UK for a few years, but they did when I was there)
 

noney

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Jun 7, 2010
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hi
how are you ?
please can you help to learn english ?
thanks
 

Alex Case

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Apr 20, 2008
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English Teacher
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Japan
The first thing to be aware of is that in the British system there is a distinction between what we call ESOL and EFL. To oversimplify a little, ESOL is refugees and other immigrants, and EFL is students from abroad studying anywhere from 2 weeks to 9 months. The former is usually better paid and with less chance of ending up a really dodgy place to work, but difficult to get into and bureaucratic. The latter is more free and easy and easier to get into but schools vary widely and job security is minimal, usually meaning teaching hours changing week by week.

As you'll probably need to start with EFL, the best thing is to find Yellow Pages and send your CV to all the language schools, and/or beat the streets and drop your CV into all the places you see (Central London is crawling with them). Also look at the Guardian on Tuesdays. You might have to start off with a few weeks of work or even residential summer school, but that might pad your CV if you are short of job references, CELTA, experience teaching classes of 12 Ss etc
 
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