Job prospects for experienced ESL teachers

[stuartprice]

I'm an EU citizen (British) with about 7 years of experience teaching ESL (BSc, CELTA, DELTA, and teacher training experience) moving to Finland early next year with my family. My wife is going to do a two-year MA in Linguistics and TESOL after which she hopes to work in the country too. She is non-EU but has a Bachelors, PG Dip, CELTA, DELTA, and is a CELTA trainer, and has 7+ years of teaching ESL to young learners, adults, business English, IELTS and TOEFL. Neither of us speak Finnish but we are quick language learners.

So my questions are:
1. Are there any job forums I could look at to apply for jobs before we move to Finland next spring?
2. Would my wife have decent job prospects after completing her MA? Bear in mind, she is not an EU citizen.

I've looked at several other ESL related posts on the site but most seem to be dated, so I thought I'd ask here. Also, I noticed a lot of people are very caustic in their responses - why ruin my day and yours by being rude? Thank you very much!

[asanda]

I have worked as an ESL teacher in Helsinki and the best tip I have is to have patience. Building clients is a slow process and most teachers I know have taken at least two years to build a client base that gives them full time hours.

Other than working for yourself, you can apply to schools like Berlitz, FinnBrit or Delingua. But bear in mind these schools often over- hire so the hours can be sparse.

[Rosamunda]

I doubt if anything has changed much since the other posts were written. The recession is still biting both the public and the private sectors in Finland. Government money is being channelled into teaching Finnish to foreigners.

CELTA/DELTA are unknown in the public education sector. Weird yes, but true. The basic requirement for teaching in the state school system is a Masters degree in the subject you teach.

The private language schools hire freelancers on an ad hoc/casual basis; there are very few full-time (salaried) contracts on offer. That said, it is not difficult to set yourself up as a sole trader or work with what the tax authorities call a freelance tax card.

So, given that you have experience and good qualifications you should be able to get some hours and gradually work up to a decent workload. Try Tekmil (one of the biggest), EF, AAC Global (or whatever they are called nowadays). Jobs are also offered on the Ministry of Labour website http://www.mol.fi

If you have other skills (translating, editing, copywriting etc), you might stand a better chance of finding salaried work. Try following NeAT (Nordic Editors and Translators) on Facebook as they share job openings in those fields.

Sometimes Finnbrit hires new IELTS examiners but I don't think there are any vacancies at the moment.

The job prospects here are not great compared to eg Spain, simply because every kid leaves school with roughly B2 English (or better) and there is a large army of Finnish native speakers who are highly proficient, qualified and experienced English teachers and they generally secure most of the public sector jobs. Teacher training (equiv. PG dip) is provided by the UAS (Universities of Applied Sciences) and/or by the Universities. There is no CELTA/DELTA teacher training anywhere in Finland. So, after your wife graduates, it might make sense to move on. Everyone who graduates with her will be chasing the same jobs...

In a nutshell, I think you will find work, but maybe not enough to support a family living in the capital, and pay the tuition fees. Is it Helsinki you are moving to?

[Pursuivant]

Well sunshine, 'tis tough innit.

See now the market got saturated with bright-eyed "native speakers" straight off Ryanair teeching spleddning an grammer. Even if you had been teaching the last 20 years 6th form in the UK, you'd probably be "unqualified" to teach in a 6th form in Finland. Basically, any teacher, especially kindergarten upwards dealing with kids, needs a master's in pedagogy. Then a minor or a 2nd masters in the subject you teach. An English teacher needs a degree in English Philology, so, toeacan beonde gearyworde, and split your infinitives, nevermind having an RP, as people expect their kids taught "proper". (The yanks will go ballistic over this, as they complain their kids gone all limey). Once you get to adult/vocational education/polytechnics the requirements loosen up, quite the opposite than elsewhere.

I'd agree much of the old threads are true. So now that Mr Phileas Fogg's balloon is bust, pray tell "why Finland"? As you said theres a non-EU missus in tow, this piques the interest, as the most usual reason for temporal insanity (you don't have to be crazy to move to Finland, but it helps...) is a bad case of HBS (hot blonde syndrome).