Nadine, To answer your question about schools hiring teachers without experience, here's a current ad from the ETAS (English Teachers Association of Switzerland) website. Experience is not mentioned, although I'm sure that it would be a plus.
Blended Learning Teacher
To meet the requirements of a long-term contract with the Swiss Airforce, The Cambridge Institute, Zürich, needs a teacher for each of the following locations: Locarno, Meiringen, Payerne and Sion. The lessons will be given to Airforce personnel on the bases at dates and times to be agreed with the teacher in question. The students will be following the Cambridge Institute blended learning system, Dolphin, so the lessons will be Dolphin Teacher Lessons, each of which comes complete with a lesson plan and the required aids; preparation time is therefore minimal.
Teachers must be English mother-tongue speakers, be qualified (minimum CELTA or equivalent) and live within striking distance of the bases. Interested parties should contact ....
I am thinking about enrolling in a Celta course at Bell School in Geneva. I am looking for feedback from people who have already taken this course.
First how competitive is the interview, selection process?
Second any feedback on the course in Geneva. How did you find the course? Did you feel well prepared to teach afterwards? Any other comments would be greatly appreciated!
Or if anyone has recommendations of other schools that offer Celta.
I am completely new to the Forum and very interested in this topic. I have taught English in the United States to a variety of age groups in private schools, and assumed that I would need a certificate in TOEFL or TEFL before getting a job near Zurich. We are moving there for my husband's job, and I had hoped that I could work at least as a tutor attached to a school, but now realize that this may be unlikely.
Knowing that there are IB schools in the area, I wondered whether or not it would be wise to gain training in this field; my husband' firm will pay a certain amount to train me, so I would be happy to improve my credentials. Thanks for any advice that you all can offer!
A TOEFL is what students need to get accepted at Universities. It's not what you need to teach English. A TEFL won't get you far in Switzerland, either.
If you're willing to teach at a private school (low pay, no paid vacation time, most only hire on a per-hour basis), you might not need anything to teach. If there are openings, they'll hire anyone who's willing to accept their work conditions. English teachers aren't in high demand however.
Do you have any kind of teaching qualification beyond the fact that you have some on-the-job experience? Teaching foreign learners isn't the same as teaching native speakers. You'll be teaching grass-root grammar skills (BE, not AE normally) - and need to have in-depth knowledge of the typical problems German native speakers have with acquiring English as a second language. You'll also need to be familiar with the ELP and the requirements of the various Cambridge certificates Swiss learners normally aim to acquire.
If you're serious about your intentions, you owe it to your students to get a proper teaching degree. These can be obtained from a variety of Fachhochschulen in Switzerland. In order to study there you need to have an M.A. in English literature and linguistics. As you're a native speaker, you normally won't need to provide proof of your C1 (for teaching grades 1-6) or C2 (for grades 7-9 and Sek II). This takes anywhere between 1 and 3 years and normally requires you to get additional credits from a University if your English degree doesn't include enough linguistics and / or literature. All of this is required if you ever plan on teaching in a public school.
The streets of Europe echo to the dying moans of starving English teachers, most schools demand two years experience before you get through the door, in fact all institutes that pay good money, like the British council, (Ha! Ha!) will simper and smirk if you wave your shiny new CELTA, hopeful Bambi eyes all glistening and moist, expecting employment.
Thank you both for your replies. I have taught only in private schools (low pay, etc..) and have a master's degree in educational administration rather than literature and language. In fact, I'm not familiar with the reference to "BE" and "AE", so I am obviously pitifully ignorant of the complexity involved. I'll look into the various suggestions, of course, and appreciate the pointers. I was reading through the older posts, and it seemed to indicate the value of the CELTA. If I am not acceptable without a masters in language and literature, I'm not quite sure what to pursue, especially as I have no German as yet.
We are to move around early October, and I will be living in Thalwil. Perhaps I can volunteer at an international school, and get a better sense of the options - if any.
Hello everyone, am new to this forum. Just a bit of background about myself. I'm 1/2 Swiss, 1/2 Chinese and am currently living in Hong Kong. I have always thought about moving back to Switzerland but am not quite sure about my job prospects.
I'm currently an English teacher with over 10 years of experience teaching on the NET (Native-English Speaking Teacher) scheme in Hong Kong. My qualifications are BA in Management Studies from Nottingham University and a PGDE in English (ESL) from Hong Kong University. I can always do a Trinity CertTESOL to get the internationally recognised teaching cert (CELTA is not offered in Hong Kong).
Language wise my German is at C1 level, but I can understand Swiss German pretty well as my Dad speaks to me in it all the time. I can speak Chinese as well and have attained Level 3 in Japanese as well (am still learning it).
I don't neccessarily need to work as an English teacher, but am wondering what other possibilities there are for me. I've been back this summer with my certifcates and have visitied a few placement agenices, but they weren't able to offer much advice apart from education jobs are mostly posted by schools themselves and that I should check up the big companies.
Sorry for such a long post, but I really want to hear from people already living in Switzerland. My relatives have more or less all retired, but told me, by being good at English, there are quite a number of jobs available. Seemed to have contradicted what the agencies told me.
Am also wondering about the wages (we all know how protective the Swiss are of their wages) as I'll be moving with my wife should we relocate.
On a last note, I am far more Asian looking, would that have much effect? It's just that the SVP are still the largest party ...