Teaching English

[lima1971]

Hi

We(my husband, baby and I) are moving to HK in September this year. At the moment I am at home with the baby, but once he goes to nursery in a few months I will be looking for work. I am really interested in teaching English and would like the thoughts of any of you who do this? Is it worth getting a TESOL qualification? Or can I just 'get by' with an intensive weekend course which will give me a certificate at the end? As time is limited, I am inclined to go for the weekend course. Thanks

[sj23]

have you looked at the online tefl courses? i-to-i is a good one and you can get through the "40-hour" course in about 10 days (they only mark one module a day and there are ten). the advantage is that you can do it from home, and you wont need to have finished it before you get to HK.

sarah

[jaykay]

When I first came here I taught English for a while until I could get the job that I wanted. Some advice given to me was to avoid the online TEFL or TESOL courses as they are not taken very seriously with some employers, obviously as it is very easy to issue fake certs. They instead said they would view a certificate from the British Council here or a recognised educational organisation in the UK as being more believable. As it was I taught English in a learning centre with no teaching certs whatsoever. One thing to remember about working in a learning centre is that they are there to suppliment English taught in schools and at home so the hours are a little anti-social as obviously you can only teach when the children are not at school. You would certainly have to work on Saturdays from about 10am to about 8pm, with very little time for breaks, and during the week hours are from about 1pm to 9.30pm again with no breaks. To work in schools the basic minimum requirement is a TESOL or TEFL and one years teaching experience, but this is rare and most schools ask that you have teaching certs as well.

Also if your husband is coming here on a working visa remember that you will have no rights to work here, you will have to apply to immigration to have the right to work and they may/maynot permit this depending on your work skills, qualifications, etc.

jaykay

[SuzieQ]

As a mum (with 7 mth bub) I was planning to return to work (marketing manager - shopping centres) in two months, however all that has changed pretty damn swiftly with hubby taking a job up in HK, starting July.....so I too would like to be able to work in HK.

How difficult is it to get a work visa/ sponsorship? I found it relatively easy to get sponsored in UK 6 years ago.....is it tougher in HK?

Does anyone know any recruitment agencies that specialise in shopping centre management / marketing placements?

Don't speak a smidge of the local lingo.......

Cheers

[jaykay]

It can be quite difficult to get a work visa. Firstly you would have to find an employer who will offer you a job and would be willing to sponser you. They would have to prove that the job they've offered you cannot be filled by a local resident. Unfortunately in your line of work HK is full of shopping malls and they have a pick of a huge amount of local talent for that kind of work. Also on the immigration web site sales and marketing jobs are not those they will hand out work visas for as they have more than enough people HK to fill those posts.

It maybe an idea to check out other lines of employment, or look at training for these also.

jaykay

[Baron]

Good advice by jaykay! Really, to have any chance of a sponsorship in a shopping centre management / marketing placements, you would have to at least speak the local lingo, as a lot of the staff would be local. Don't let that stop you trying though SuzieQ as you never know your luck over here. You could also be what they are looking for at the time. Once you are over here you can suss out the situation better. July will be nice and hot so you may enjoy NOT working for the first 3 months here