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Teaching jobs for spouses on dependent visa

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  1. #21

    Join Date
    Dec 2018
    Posts
    16

    Can I not be a teaching assistant at a preschool or primary school?


  2. #22

    Join Date
    Dec 2018
    Posts
    16

    Not necessarily an ESF school


  3. #23

    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    6,531

    Just want to add my two cents.... I would advise against pursuing an English teaching "career" in Hong Kong, unless you're passionate and enjoy working with children and then, yes, pursuing the PGDE and that pathway is good and I think reliable. If you don't get a PGDE and only have a CertTESOL then it's not really a good pathway. If you think of working at language centers, the conditions are pretty harsh -- many employers will want you to work weekends or late evenings, and if you've come to Hong Kong with a partner who has an office job, those schedules clash pretty badly. The pay is not very good, either, and you're really working for pennies when you consider how much time and effort you need to do with planning.

    I can say I'm pretty well qualified (without the PGDE), and yet I've found it very challenging to find a good, reliable job given I don't want to work evenings and weekends. The part time work I have had has really burnt me out, and I've gone through endless interviews and new job starts, only to be told "Oh we don't have any work for you this semester". The good jobs seem to be based on connections, and so in that sense, you may have some luck if you do a masters in Applied Linguistics or TESOL and then can get hired on.

    After working insane hours in preparation to teach new courses I was unfamiliar with in the previous semester for what amounted to only around 20k/month, I now have no work because those jobs it turns out were one-offs!


  4. #24

    Join Date
    Dec 2018
    Posts
    16

    Thanks. I plan on pursuing the next levels of French and becoming a teaching assistant in the day time at a school near my daughter's school. Would this be a suitable alternative? I would not be in HK for a long time.


  5. #25

    Join Date
    Dec 2018
    Posts
    16

    What are the qualifications required to become a teaching assistant? And what is the pay per hour?