By Arnold Vis
This week we launched our new international schools program, and we’re incredibly excited to get started! In this post I’ll tell you about the program, and how you can get involved.
Why we started this program
Our programs started in 2005, when we started helping people move to China as part of Teach English In China. When I moved to China in 2002, I did so straight out of university and without any teaching experience. There’s a big demand by schools all over the world for enthusiastic recent graduates, and this meant that the programs were designed with this demographic in mind.
It led to a program structure that includes in person meetings, training and lots of ongoing support, and a program fee.
As Teach English In China evolved into Impact Teaching, we stuck to the same formula for helping candidates secure teaching jobs in Thailand, Vietnam, Poland and Hungary.
In recent years, the type of applications we receive has changed somewhat. While we still get lots of applications from recent or soon to be graduates with limited teaching experience, we get more applications from experienced teachers or those with qualified teacher status.
Because of this, we decided to put together a program specifically for these teachers.
Schools involved so far, and our plans
Last month, one or our partner schools in Poland referred us to their affiliate school, an international school in Vilnius in Lithuania. It’s been exciting to start cooperation with them and open a totally new market. Last week, we got the first placement confirmed at this school.
We have some international schools in our existing network, like our partner school in Mae Sae in Thailand.
In addition, we have been in touch with many schools all over the world in the past weeks. We are in talks with a school in Bratislava in Slovakia, in Greece and in Poland.
We have also reached out to more international schools all over Europe, Asia and South America, and we are looking to significantly grow our network in the weeks and months ahead.
Requirements for applicants
At the schools we work with so far, the requirements for hiring teachers are: a degree in education, and some teaching experience.
It is likely that this will be required by the majority of international schools we’ll work with, but it’s possible that some schools will be also open to candidates with at least two years of fulltime teaching experience. So we also encourage you to apply if you have at least two years fulltime teaching experience but no degree in education.
If you are looking to teach abroad longer term and work at international schools and you don’t have a degree in education, we encourage you to get the additional qualifications needed to make it happen. When I was in Shanghai this summer meeting with our teachers there, a number of them told me that getting an online iPGCE transforms your prospects and earning potential as a teacher.
How the program works
As with all our programs, the starting point is sending us your CV and brief cover letter here and indicating your interest in the international schools program.
When we receive your application and confirm you are eligible, we will ask you to send us a brief introduction video. It’s a brief video (just 1 -1.5 minutes is enough) so the school can get to know you a bit and get a sense of you as a person and a potential teacher.
We will then share a list of schools with you, to establish which ones you’re interested in.
We’ll then share your CV and video with the school, and if there’s interest we’ll notify you. At that point we’ll be able to share the school details and an indication of the approximate salary.
It’s a free program, but a refundable holding deposit is required
We understand that as experienced and qualified teachers, paying a program isn’t something you may want to do.
That’s why this is a free program, although a £95 refundable holding deposit is required.
When we share the school details and salary with you, we’ll invite you for a video call so we can get to know each other. It may be that there are multiple schools interested in you, and we can discuss the details and the pros and cons of the various options.
The next stage after that is we put you in touch with the school. To do that, we require a £95 holding deposit. This deposit is refunded to you in full when you’ve worked for the school for 5 weeks, and also if you don’t receive an offer.
We understand that a deposit like this isn’t for everyone, but we have worked in a similar way for our basic China program and it’s worked well.
At the time we’ll ask you for a deposit, we would have done a significant amount of work on your behalf. We feel it helps us assess which candidates are likely to follow through in the process by asking for a little skin in the game from you as a candidate.
Staying in touch
I hope you’re as excited about this as we are! As you can hear, it’s early days for this program and we plan to add a lot more placement options.
As such, keep a close eye on the world map on our program page.
Also check out our social media pages (Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin) as we’ll announce new partnerships there.
If you’d like to apply, you can do so here.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this program: arnold@impact-