The International Schools Review Forum

Can anyone advise if I am wasting my time in trying to teach in Thailand?
I hold a BAhon (2i) MSc and. PGCE in Maths QTS. I have 3 years experience teaching in UK at secondary school. I am 52years. Am I employable material for a good IS in Thailand? I do not have IB experience but willing to take a course.

ISR should seriously put a sticky on the front page titled "Am I employable / What are my chances.." etc etc

When it comes to international schools, things vary a lot. You have low tier schools in places that might hire people without even a teaching license.

Generally speaking though, the main requirement is holding a teaching license. You can be fairly assured you can get a job somewhere in the world with one so long as you are not picky about location and quality of school.

For the better schools and locations it is gonna be tougher. You will most likely need decent experience (preferably IB or what ever curriculum the school uses), good references, and knowing people at the schools always helps increase your chances. Simple luck and timing often also play an important role in getting hired. There is no set in stone procedure and outcome for these type questions. Anything can or wont happen.

OP, just make a list of all the schools you would work at and ranked them. Apply to them and take the best offer you get.

Jockboiox wrote:
> Can anyone advise if I am wasting my time in trying to teach in Thailand?
> I hold a BAhon (2i) MSc and. PGCE in Maths QTS. I have 3 years experience
> teaching in UK at secondary school. I am 52years. Am I employable material
> for a good IS in Thailand? I do not have IB experience but willing to take
> a course.

yes. (not sure about age restrictions in thailand though).

v.

If there is one thing I learned in my international education career is that absolutely anyone is employable.

I've worked with little muffins with ZERO teaching experience of any kind, angry middle-aged people who complained about everything, and many others who couldn't teach a dog to scratch a flea.

Just apply to EVERY school you are interested in and see what happens.

Good luck.

No, not really. You didnt mention family though. Your just a little too old to be an entry level IT. There are a lot of ITs even maths ITs, and if you were 52 and 20 years experience with high scores that would be something different, but only 3 years, not likely. My advice is apply for ESOL vacancies, then once you are there in country start lookinga round and you may find some third tier IS that hires you for maths.

An IB course is pretty worthless.

Thanks Psy.
No family. Single.

With those quals (especially the Math - so highlight it at every opportunity) you're definitely employable. Lots of other countries near Thailand, too!

@PIEGUY

52, 3 years XP, walking into an upper tier IS in LOS, we have different definitions of "employable".

PsyGuy: the question was:

"Am I employable material for a good IS in Thailand?"

He/she didn't ask about upper tier, tier one, outstanding, established, beacon, or ...whatever. It could be the Tipsy Topsy International School of Nakhorn Nowhere - and it might be 'good' for him/her. The point is; he/she is employable with a math background and currently less than the career deathzone of late 50's years...

@PIEGUY

i interpret "good" IS as upper tier. The LW didnt ask about any IS but a good one, and no a good IS in Thailand they arent employable.

Thank you for your replies.
I do not mind a 3 rd tier school and also I do not mind Malaysia,phillipines ,Singapore or even South America. I know I need to start somewhere.
There seems to be some sort of "snobbery" amongst IS teachers as to tiers. Not my style.

Can you advise if some countries are more popular eg Thailand , thus making it more difficult? Is Singapore or Manila any easier?

Is there a shortage of math teachers on the IT circuit? Or is the attraction of IT teaching meaning most IT jobs are over subscribed?

Jockboiox: yes - there is snobbery. Remember - a Tier 1 school is a school where you're content - or even (the ultimate prize) happy! It's pointless working at a supposedly top notch school - top notch by everyone else's criteria; if you're feeling miserable. My suggestion is that you choose the country/places you're interested in and start from there. Once you've defined that, just keep pumping out the applications. With maths - and no trailing spouses/dependents, you're employable believe me. Too bad you've not a Physics background - that would be even better.

S.America will be the easiest but will pay the lowest. Singapore: you'll need to be at one of the top paying deals to make any money at all. Thailand is now immensely popular and flooded with dicey, locally owned schools. Vietnam? Cambodia? Burma? I'd be looking at the Philippines - all the fun but with good English. Cebu springs to mind for some reason.

@Jockboiox

Yes there is a certain degree of elitism. I always recommend that you choose location/region of the IS. If you end up with a bad IS or you dont enjoy work, than your just like everyone else who doesnt like their job, you have life balance and options that make living enjoyable. If you dont like the location than your IS and work becomes everything, since you have nothing outside work to look forward too.

Well at third tier your looking at a very big pool of ISs many of them are bilingual ISs. Your age is still going to be a major challenge. You are better moving to a location you want and then start applying. As a local hire you will look a lot more attractive, or at least acceptable.

The "Little Tigers" Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore are the most competitive regions. China, Vietnam, Myanmar are the least competitive.

Singapore is pretty difficult, it does have third tier ISs, but you need at least $5000SGD to make Singapore doable, a 1LDK apartment that isnt a house or room share will cost you $2500SGD.

Thailand is pretty popular and a single guy at your age any recruiter is going to imagine youre their for "social" reasons. Still their a re a lot of third tier ISs there.

The Philippines has a small 2nd tier, their a re a couple upper tier ISs and then third tier ISs, many of them dont advertise except for the upper tier ISs.

It depends how you define "Teacher" generally the profession defines an IT as qualified when the IT possesses with a degree, professional credential and 2 years post certification teaching experience. There are however ITs with less credentials that are working in a variety of environments, most often its lack of a professional qualifications and thus the 2 years post certification experience. What you find are ESOL instructors that bridge over to small third tier ISs.
If an IS is willing to lower their standards or expectations their isnt a shortage at all in any field. When it comes to qualified maths ITs though their is a much smaller pool compared to primary or humanities or literature, etc. The pool changes and changes greatly as you move up in tiers. A third tier IS ina hardship location may have to take the first maths IT they get. An IS like TASIS or ASIJ, etc. will still get close to a 1000 applications for a single vacancy, in maths that may still be 500 applications as opposed to 1000 for a humanities position. Its still a lot of options for an IS to choose from.

Thanks for the replies. Very useful.
You mentioned physics. I do not have a degree in physics, but can certainly teach physics up to Gsce level if it helps as I did my Alevel and first year at Uni in physics.

Is it to my advantage to put that down on my Cv? Should I say that in the covering letter also ? I can't do chemistry nor biology, but certainly physics.
Do you think that will make me more marketable?

@Jockboiox

Sure you can put that on your resume and cover letter, as long as you explain the basis and rational for feeling your qualified to teach physics, not likely to help though. When ISs are looking specifically for a physics IT its to teach a school leaving course (DIP/A levels/AP) and A levels and a year of physics with no experience isnt going to be worth much but not including it is the same as being equal to zero. Its value will mainly increase your marketability marginally in lower secondary general science courses.

Cover letters dont really get read, short short list sure, but recruiters now they are just self serving testimonials about how awesome you are.