The International Schools Review Forum

Wondering which countries are willing to hire applicants over 55 years of age. I have heard that some countries will not allow work visas for older applicants. Thanks.

Most countries tend to have an average retirement age of around 60. Most schools wont hire a teacher thats over 55 as they are too close to retirement age and medical costs on their insurance contract are either too high or prohibited.

@autumnrain

Please don't take SighGuy's comments too seriously. He overstates and misinforms a lot of people. From your post, I don't know if you've been working overseas already or not. don't know of a resource where you can look up this by country as it would relate to international teachers. Someone else might, but I doubt anyone would have compiled a list like that specifically. And even if they had, a list like that could soon be out of date with shifts in law.

If you're a Search candidate, the database will indicate hiring limitations by the country where the school is located. If you have access to the database you could look at schools in different countries to see what is listed. This does not necessarily indicate a particular school's hiring policies, so some schools may avoid hiring people closing in on that age. TIEOnline's database also has something about age restrictions and comments, but again school policies and preferences can differ.

As I understand it, sometimes (certain countries) you can work beyond a retirement age if you have already received a work visa. I do know my friends who are approaching this age start to make very strategic decisions based on this issue.

I would guess the willingness of a school to hire a given teacher approaching a country's mandatory retirement age would depend on factors related to the country, school, and teacher.

Good luck.

In an effort to provide some concrete information, I found a few sources you might want to check out.

First, ISR actually has a table of information provided by school recruiters all over the world showing age limits for hiring. Handy, right?
http://www.internationalschoolsreview.c ... rticle.htm

You might also want to check out their other articles on teaching over 50:
http://www.internationalschoolsreview.c ... 2.htm#over

I also found this map showing retirement ages around the world. (Disclaimer: there is no indication that information on this site is reliable.) On the sidebar, click "Is it mandatory to retire at the statutory retirement age?" It'll give you some idea of how policies affect the locals, which might indicate how visa policies look.
http://chartsbin.com/view/2468

Hope that helps!

***Awesome thanks to the forums honorary historian and bibliographer BookshelfAmy***

Great pieces of info, didnt even think to look on ISR for the info.