I am currently an elementary school teacher in the US. My husband is not a teacher, but he may have an opportunity to work abroad through his company, likely Singapore, but not necessarily. Our family would have all of our travel arrangements and visas through his job. If I wanted to teach in our new country, would I be considered a "local hire"?
Also, in the meantime, I'm thinking of adding a reading or special education license to my current elementary license, is either one more in demand in the international school market?
Thanks!
Corporate spouse?
Corporate spouse?
Last edited by Claire440 on Fri Jan 17, 2014 8:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
You'd almost certainly be a local hire. My advice is not to look at this as an issue, but as sensible.
Recruited hire status gets you housing, on the argument that moving overseas means you need a place to live. Your husband would have that, so you wouldn't need it.
It gets you health insurance. You'd already have that through hubby.
It gets you flights home, again special considering that you've left home to go abroad. And again, you'd already have that benefit.
Same with school fees.
If you look at the reason behind the recruited benefits, it doesn't make sense for a family to be offered them twice. If you worked in the same school, you'd get them once. If you had separate lives and households to maintain, you'd get them separately.
And most business benefits are better than most school benefits. Enjoy!
Recruited hire status gets you housing, on the argument that moving overseas means you need a place to live. Your husband would have that, so you wouldn't need it.
It gets you health insurance. You'd already have that through hubby.
It gets you flights home, again special considering that you've left home to go abroad. And again, you'd already have that benefit.
Same with school fees.
If you look at the reason behind the recruited benefits, it doesn't make sense for a family to be offered them twice. If you worked in the same school, you'd get them once. If you had separate lives and households to maintain, you'd get them separately.
And most business benefits are better than most school benefits. Enjoy!
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shadowjack
- Posts: 2140
- Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am
Having been on both sides, it is much better as a foreign hire. You come in with a group of people and are in the same situation, with lots of bonding opportunities.
As a local hire, you are excluded from a lot of the bonding because you are not sponsored by the school, so your experience is different. Havinb been foreign hire, I never went back. LOL
So how can you be a foreign hire? Apply without telling the school your husband is coming. Especially in places like Singapore, you would likely get a cash housing allowance. You would receive medical. Your having your own medical would not necessarily preclude your husband also insuring you - but it might make your life more complicated in who you submit which bills and what the code-sharing co-pay is between the companies.
Either way you play it is up to you. If you are willing to go to a school solo, and having your hubby sponsor the kids, you get the best of both worlds.
As a local hire, you are excluded from a lot of the bonding because you are not sponsored by the school, so your experience is different. Havinb been foreign hire, I never went back. LOL
So how can you be a foreign hire? Apply without telling the school your husband is coming. Especially in places like Singapore, you would likely get a cash housing allowance. You would receive medical. Your having your own medical would not necessarily preclude your husband also insuring you - but it might make your life more complicated in who you submit which bills and what the code-sharing co-pay is between the companies.
Either way you play it is up to you. If you are willing to go to a school solo, and having your hubby sponsor the kids, you get the best of both worlds.
Re: Corporate spouse?
I can't really recommend presenting yourself as a single if you are not. This would at best be considered very dishonest once the school finds out (and how will they not - can you really keep up the illusion that you are single with all your colleagues, especially as they will move in social circles that will intersect with your husband's?), and at worst would be grounds for dismissal.
Good schools will include you in all the bonding activities regardless of your status. My current school certainly invites and really hopes that all spouses will take part in induction activities (the social and cultural ones, the logistical ones for banking and such, not the team planning ones), so they are fully included as much as they want to be, and both local hires and their spouses become part of our school social network unless they choose to opt out.
For your other question, about how schools view local and recruited, I'd say it really depends. Schools generally would like the local hires to be at the same level as the recruited hires. When locally hired teachers take the job on as seriously as the recruited teachers, they are viewed the same way. However, there are some local hire teachers who tend to treat their job less as a career and more as something they do while hubby is at work, more as something they can walk away from easily, and they tend to bring less to the table. I don't know that there are official policies, but I'd say that generally schools treat local hires the way local hires treat the school. If you're in it with all due seriousness, expect to be treated that way.
Good schools will include you in all the bonding activities regardless of your status. My current school certainly invites and really hopes that all spouses will take part in induction activities (the social and cultural ones, the logistical ones for banking and such, not the team planning ones), so they are fully included as much as they want to be, and both local hires and their spouses become part of our school social network unless they choose to opt out.
For your other question, about how schools view local and recruited, I'd say it really depends. Schools generally would like the local hires to be at the same level as the recruited hires. When locally hired teachers take the job on as seriously as the recruited teachers, they are viewed the same way. However, there are some local hire teachers who tend to treat their job less as a career and more as something they do while hubby is at work, more as something they can walk away from easily, and they tend to bring less to the table. I don't know that there are official policies, but I'd say that generally schools treat local hires the way local hires treat the school. If you're in it with all due seriousness, expect to be treated that way.
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shadowjack
- Posts: 2140
- Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am
Re: Corporate spouse?
Sid, I appreciate that your school tries, but let me ask you this. Have you ever been a local hire? I have been a local hire several times following Mrs. Shadowjack around, and while the school tries, it just is not the same as being a foreign hire, no matter how hard the school tries. It's not that you don't build ties, just that you always seem to be on the outside of so many things that arise from the original bond of coming in on the same flights, living in the same area the school arranged, etc...
Just my 2 cents. Any other local hires out there to chip in with their experience and whether they felt 100% connected to the other staff who came in at the same time?
Just my 2 cents. Any other local hires out there to chip in with their experience and whether they felt 100% connected to the other staff who came in at the same time?
Re: Corporate spouse?
Yep, I started as a local hire. Haven't been one for quite some years, but I have done it. I have also done the thing where one spouse is at one school as a recruited hire, the other somewhere else.
In my opinion, the issue of being less than connected has more to do with having a spouse who isn't at the school. When you are both at the school (or you are a single), then you're fully vested as a family, whether you are recruited or local. If your spouse is somewhere else, your loyalties are split. I've seen it many times, and can see it in my current school too.
In most schools, recruited and local hire are treated the same, except on payday. They are invited to the same events, everyone takes a shift at the school fete, there's no difference really in how the school approaches things. And fellow teachers will be just as willing to make friends and add you to their social circle. But if your family spans 2 schools, or a school and a company, you have to prioritize which social events you can attend, and which social circles you can join before you run out of energy. It can be really rewarding (and freeing) to have friends from outside the school arena, so it's certainly not all negative.
So my advice to the OP is accept the local hire thing, and have a plan as a family for how to go about making friends and feeling vested/involved/bonded.
In my opinion, the issue of being less than connected has more to do with having a spouse who isn't at the school. When you are both at the school (or you are a single), then you're fully vested as a family, whether you are recruited or local. If your spouse is somewhere else, your loyalties are split. I've seen it many times, and can see it in my current school too.
In most schools, recruited and local hire are treated the same, except on payday. They are invited to the same events, everyone takes a shift at the school fete, there's no difference really in how the school approaches things. And fellow teachers will be just as willing to make friends and add you to their social circle. But if your family spans 2 schools, or a school and a company, you have to prioritize which social events you can attend, and which social circles you can join before you run out of energy. It can be really rewarding (and freeing) to have friends from outside the school arena, so it's certainly not all negative.
So my advice to the OP is accept the local hire thing, and have a plan as a family for how to go about making friends and feeling vested/involved/bonded.