Negativity or realism?

There are teachers without proper home country certification in in schools especially in "shortage" subjects. However at the moment in uk at least there is an oversupply of science teachers. One of my student teachers said she was told 1/3 of last years PGCE grads in science from her uni failed to get a teaching post. Nationally 52% failed in all subjects. Times are bad and uk government cutting number of places (fortunately). But that does mean plenty of supy of certified teachers on the market. I suspect uncertified teachers get into the int circuit in good times when supply of teachers is low. Once in with good refs it's ok. Although I went to an interview where they said that had a PhD (science) teaching who was good with lots of experience who was doing a ipgce as the governors had said "no non certified teachers". So issues may arise.

Think about it one year at home teaching to boost a whole career? In Asia men spend years away from wives to boost their careers/save money. Us westerners are so weak!

Hi my experience of se Asia is that in an first rate international school no problem. In a third tier school they mostly want White people. In the tefl industry in Thailand I once asked why the agent wanted a picture. Blunt answer was one school saw there new teacher synthesis station was black and drove off! So pic was to make sure I was White.

In se Asia I heard the words "retard" for sen kids and the N word regularly used for black people. Even Chinese get called the "Jews of Asia" or "black hearts". Very little PC! Asian expats from USA get Treated badly in Malaysia I know for example. They weren't teachers but senior managers.

But a first rate international school in most countries should be fine. Just be aware that issues may arise outside of school. And anywY even White people get discriminated against in Asia so it's just a case of educate the young to be broad minded!

Hi lucky you! to be honest though as a liberal Muslim woman you are right to be worried about any middle east country. You could work around it, declare that your a Christian for example, but that's prob not a great idea either. If course some countries are more liberal, but even in super liberal Malaysia (where I have most experience of) female Muslim expats have extra worries as local Islamic laws apply to them.

Singapore isn't so expensive if sensible, but is expensive relative to rest of Asia. You need free accom in any teaching package. It's clean and everything works and is safe. Safe for a woman at night alone and taxis safe (well subject to normal precautions).

Maybe turkey is best as you know it well. Singapore is 80% chinese and 20% other inc Malay muslims and Indians. Expats will be mostly non Muslim except a few Arabs and Indian Muslims.

Hi as I understand it Sunderland and Nottingham have stripped away the subject knowledge/national curriculum part of an English PGCE and made a qualification with minimal observation. Sunderland I heard was stricter. For non uk readers - No qts (qualified teacher status) simply as that is separate from a pgce and you need at least 14weeks UK teaching experience in a state maintained school (some restrictions) and submit a portfoli of evidence to support 33 quality standards (uk government are throwing these away though). Usually a pgce comes with reccomendation of qts and part of the pgce supports this. Once a teacher passes these and the skills tests (mickey mouse tests IMHO) they are reg for qts that lasts a lifetime (unless struck off).

If a teacher has good contacts, excellent refs but no certification and gets an ipgce then I guess it has value as that peron may need the certificate for the school website and it would update the teacher with the latest theories. For a newbie to teaching mostly useless I reckon!

Due to some over zealous pen pusher someone noticced after an European review of qualifications (hahaha Germans you may beat us in football but now you have bachelor degrees so there!) that post in pgce was a fragent lie so I did the post version of a pgce and got 40 M credits. If you fail that you get a professional pgce. The ipgce I note comes with 60M credits so is 1/3 of a masters in ed.

I started the MTL (masters in tedium and low cost provision lol or rather masters in teaching and learning) which was supposed to be the thing to do after a pgce. The current government abandoned it and I quit as very poor provider I won't name or shame in east London.

Next year sacked squaddies will be teaching so my advice is join the army and fast track as a teacher!

The ipgce