Thinking of moving and could use som advice

Fabio

Hi all,

I've hung around this section of Boards for a little while now and looked and lurked but I think it's time to ask some questions of my own. I'd really appreciate any and all responses!

Short version: Myself and girlfriend want to move. We both have good BA and MA and she is a qualified teacher and speaks French. I have no language but have university tutoring experience. We are both experienced with office admin stuff. We are considering Perth in Australia, somewhere in Canada, or somewhere in the EU and need advice.

Basically myself and my girlfriend are looking at leaving Ireland for 12 months but not longer than that. She is a newly qualified teacher and I am thinking of going back to college to study primary teaching. As such, between applying for courses and my girlfriend needing to be back for job interviews we have between this summer and June of 2016 to go out and live and work elsewhere.

Why do we want to do it? Well, we're in our mid-late twenties, our parents are not getting any younger (although they are not old by any means) and time flies by all too quickly. Neither of us are tied to much here, and if we're honest we have no stable work so we wouldn't be leaving good jobs as such. I have never lived away and would like to give that a try because if I go back to study primary teaching I'm tied to here. Therefore I feel the time in between now and then is a good opportunity for us both.

What do we have between us? Both of us have a fair bit of work experience in the service sectors and within education as well. I have a first-class BA and MA and have been pursuing a PhD for a while but recently took an extended leave of absence as I'm not sure was it the right thing for me. I mainly studied history but also worked as a tutor in the university and as a support tutor to disadvantaged students. I have a lot of office admin experience and, strangely, tour-guide experience too! My girlfriend has a similar background but has her teaching qualifications all done as well. She is fluent in French whereas I only have English.

Where would we like to go? The reason I spelt out our background/experience/qualifications above is because they might influence where we go...depending on what you good folks advise. We'd always said we'd love to live in Boston but getting a visa for the US looks nigh on impossible. I have a relative in Perth who could help us out and the visa situation might not be as hard. Canada is like a default option for many these days and I would not be averse to going there, it's a big place with a lot to choose from but I have not researched it enough I think. The other option is to stay within the EU, keeping the hassle and cost low without visas and easy travel. The only problems are language and jobs.

I really thank you for reading this far, I hope it's given you an idea of what is on my mind (and hers) about the whole idea we have.

Basically we are wondering what our best course of action would be.
-What jobs are available if we did stay in the EU?
-Are we limited to service-sector jobs on a working holiday visa in Perth for example (I'm not sure she really wants to work in a coffee shop for a year, I wouldn't mind but she has started a career in teaching and would like to add to that in some form)?
-Is language really a limiting factor within the EU for me?
-Is there a big difference between going to Canada and going to Oz?
-If we need visas, how far in advance must we plan?

Those are pretty much all of the questions I can think of for now. I really thank you all for reading it.

iusedtoknow

Have you thought about doing a TEFL diploma and moving somewhere in say Spain or Italy for the year? A lot of friends of mine have done that and there is always a need for English teachers. A tip though...avoid places like Barcelona - there are 1000's of underworked english teachers wanting to live the catalan dream and not getting enough hours to work.

A friend of mine (married to a Spanish woman) works in Madrid, and teaches 25-30 hours a week at around E15-E20 an hour. While that doesn't sound a lot, for Madrid it is - and gives them a nice quality of life - he supplements every so often with 1 on 1 classes under the table (very common in Spain). There are often spots in primary schools and language academies (primarily giving lessons to office workers)

Fabio

I was thinking of doing an online TEFL course but I'm not sure if that would be very acceptable within the EU? (I know it is accepted in many places in Asia).

iusedtoknow

Fabio wrote: »

I was thinking of doing an online TEFL course but I'm not sure if that would be very acceptable within the EU? (I know it is accepted in many places in Asia).

Online is not really worth it - there are courses you can take in class rooms that last a week or so that give you a real leg up in the job market

http://www.ihdublin.com/courses/teacher-and-tefl/celta could be worth looking into...

Fabio

That link is excellent thanks for posting it. It's fairly expensive though But I know it's the best recognised of the qualifications so there's a reason it is expensive I suppose.

iusedtoknow

Fabio wrote: »

That link is excellent thanks for posting it. It's fairly expensive though But I know it's the best recognised of the qualifications so there's a reason it is expensive I suppose.

your earning potential goes up with this - cambridge is highly thought of - i know of one school in Madrid that will only employ people with this diploma, BUT guarantee hours better than any other.

The thing is, some schools are not great - however some schools are great - they give you good stable hours (some in a classroom) and fully register you with the social security/tax authorities rather than making you go "automino" which means you have go through the hassle of registering yourself as self employed.

Fabio

It might be a long shot but we do have a contact in Malaga who is involved with an English school there. It might be worth looking in to.

To be honest, and this is for anyone else who would like to contribute as well, we would be happy to go out somewhere to come home without having lost money. The way I look at it is that if I wanted to earn a lot of money I'd go ahead and apply for mining jobs and stuff. Neither of us has expensive tastes thankfully.

I didn't realise about schools not registering you with the tax people etc, that's a good tip

InTheTrees

Fabio wrote: »

-Is there a big difference between going to Canada and going to Oz?

They speak french in Canada so there could be a lot more opportunities for your wife.

Fabio

That's a fair point InTheTrees, there could be a lot of opportunities for my other half to teach there. And I'd not be averse to moving myself, it'd be cool. Literally in winter!

Jim2007

OP, what kind of life style do you want??? Do you want to live to work or work to live?

The work-life balance is one of the big advantages of mainland Europe versus other locations. Where I am here in Switzerland, we do work very hard during the day, but no one does overtime nor are they expected to. Here OT is considered a negative - if you are doing regular OT either you are not up to the job or your manager is not up to managing the team either way it will impact performance reviews and not in positive way.

InTheTrees

Fabio wrote: »

That's a fair point InTheTrees, there could be a lot of opportunities for my other half to teach there. And I'd not be averse to moving myself, it'd be cool. Literally in winter!

The winters are something you'd have to put up with certainly. I don't know how much opportunity there would be outside the French speaking provinces but the whole country isctechnically bilingual so they must still need teachers in BC for instance.

An amazing country, friendly people and not too difficult to move to.

iusedtoknow

Jim2007 wrote: »

OP, what kind of life style do you want??? Do you want to live to work or work to live?

The work-life balance is one of the big advantages of mainland Europe versus other locations. Where I am here in Switzerland, we do work very hard during the day, but no one does overtime nor are they expected to. Here OT is considered a negative - if you are doing regular OT either you are not up to the job or your manager is not up to managing the team either way it will impact performance reviews and not in positive way.

I work in the US and work 8 hours a day max with little or no OT expected by anyone, our company in Switzerland tend to work longer hours than we do.

Fabio

Jim2007 wrote: »

OP, what kind of life style do you want??? Do you want to live to work or work to live?

The work-life balance is one of the big advantages of mainland Europe versus other locations. Where I am here in Switzerland, we do work very hard during the day, but no one does overtime nor are they expected to. Here OT is considered a negative - if you are doing regular OT either you are not up to the job or your manager is not up to managing the team either way it will impact performance reviews and not in positive way.

I'm a hard worker, as is herself, but I'd like to have some fun as well so work/life balance is important. We're young, and won't always be. There wouldn't be much point in going away and doing twelve hour days and never seeing a life... In my opinion anyway.

InTheTrees wrote: »

The winters are something you'd have to put up with certainly. I don't know how much opportunity there would be outside the French speaking provinces but the whole country isctechnically bilingual so they must still need teachers in BC for instance.

An amazing country, friendly people and not too difficult to move to.

I've been to the US a good few times but never to Canada and I always hear it's nice. The winters are harsh but I suppose you'd acclimatize after a while.

iusedtoknow wrote: »

I work in the US and work 8 hours a day max with little or no OT expected by anyone, our company in Switzerland tend to work longer hours than we do.

Interesting. Seems really difficult to get into the US on any visa though unless you're a recent graduate.

iusedtoknow

Fabio wrote: »

Interesting. Seems really difficult to get into the US on any visa though unless you're a recent graduate.

It is - we lucked out and my company sponsored us in to work at their US headquarters. It's a long enough process but was worth it

Fabio

Aye, I'd say San Francisco is an amazing place. What started this off, to an extent, was a visit to Boston and us thinking we'd like to spend a few months there but, as you say, it's hard to get in.

There's a H1b visa but it would be difficult for me especially to prove a case for one whereas my other half could at least say she specialises as a French teacher (which she does).

iusedtoknow

Fabio wrote: »

Aye, I'd say San Francisco is an amazing place. What started this off, to an extent, was a visit to Boston and us thinking we'd like to spend a few months there but, as you say, it's hard to get in.

There's a H1b visa but it would be difficult for me especially to prove a case for one whereas my other half could at least say she specialises as a French teacher (which she does).

It doesn't exactly work like that. The H1B is mostly for STEM degree holders to work specific contracts in a company. It is also used as a "holding" system for people waiting for their green cards. Unfortunately, there is a glut of teachers in an education system that is loses more and more funding from a state level every year, the odds of them paying the 10K-15K needed to sponsor someone is slim to none.

It is a very messed up system that seems to get worse every year.

Fabio

Yes, immigration reform is desperately needed in the US. Even just from an economic point of view to fill certain jobs. I have been reading of chronic under-funding of school systems recently alright. I find it very strange that there is no working holiday visa such as you find in many other countries. Just an anomaly I suppose. Getting such an idea through Congress at present would be, to put it mildly, a nightmare no doubt.

gar32

https://www.xpatjobs.de/

This may help

Fabio

Fabulous, I'll make sure to go through that after work tonight. Thank you for posting that link.

To be honest, it's becoming a little scary. We still need to choose somewhere to go and book flights and all of the rest of it! The help here has been invaluable and thank you all for that. Keep it coming!

Fabio

I think we have decided to go to Brussels...it is nearby (relatively speaking).

Now it's time to start a search through Brussels threads on here