Thoughts on a career in TEFL

I am merely a small-time EFL teacher, working for a little school in Spain, but I think this blog by Nick Jaworski and the comments on it are extremely important, particularly the points raised by Karenne Sylvester (#35) about the financial rewards (or lack of!) in the field of ELT. I didn't want to leave a digression on Nick's blog about this, so I'm writing my thoughts here.

Fortunately for me, I do not feel exploited in my current role, and count myself lucky that I work for a fair school that pays me a salary on which I can live and save easily (I save around 500 euros a month), however, I am not married, nor do I have children. If I did, it would be rather more difficult to manage on the salary I get now. Therein lies the reality of a career teaching efl, where the financial truth is that it's a dream to expect enough money for a family, a nice house, a car, a couple of holidays a year and money to save for the future.

I have a friend who works in the financial sector in the UK. He started a job with a first degree unrelated to finance and has been trained up along the way, starting as an administrative assistant. He has been working for the same company for around ten years and has now entered management, where he leads a team of around 12 and is paid around 40 thousand pounds a year. He has a lovely house, a very nice BMW and plenty of money to spend on himself; he also has a wife who is due to give birth to their first child very soon.

I on the other hand, have been in TEFL for 8 years. I have a CELTA, a DELTA (ok I haven't completed module 3 yet, but...) and a certificate in teaching YLs from IH. I have experience of management as ADoS for an IH school, UK summer school centre management and a current position as a senior teacher. I take home around 1300 Euros a month after tax.

My friend has a pension scheme, and puts away a sizeable amount – augmented by his company - for his future and that of his wife and child. He has built a life and a career in the UK, never leaving the city where we studied at university, whereas, in search of greater experience and responsibility, I have moved from Portugal to Poland, back to Portugal, to Kazakhstan and now to Spain. Don't get me wrong, I have really enjoyed the experiences I've had. I've had the chance to live and travel in central Asia, one of the few areas of the world the majority of travellers haven't discovered yet. Amazing! I have stories to tell, great photos and wonderful memories.

Also, I have no pension, no 'real' savings, no secure position within a company and no idea of where I'm going to work in the future. Should I go to the middle east to earn the 'big' money? Well, to be honest I abhor regimes like Saudi Arabia and wouldn't feel comfortable living there, nor do I wish to teach in any military organisation or for a disgustingly huge oil company.

My partner is Spanish and we would like to live long-term in Spain. We are spending next year in the UK, where I am going to study for a masters as I hope this will open a few more doors – and I love studying! After that I'm not really sure, but what I do want is enough money for a good life. I'm not possessions mad, but I'd like a nice house. I hate driving and don't really care for cars. I love travelling and would like to have enough money to do more in the future. I would also like to have children, get married and have sufficient money to support my family. Furthermore, I'd like to save enough money to retire one day and relax during the twilight years of my life! I really don't think that this is too much to ask.

How can I do this as a teacher of English as a foreign language. Any ideas?

As far as I can see, TEFL works like this: you start teaching as a way of travelling and if you like it you stay on and take on more responsibility, you move up the ladder and start managing but do little teaching, then you open your own school and stop teaching entirely. Alternatively, you move into publishing, get into teacher training, or into a specialist field such as EAP or ESP and perhaps work at a university. A few teflers eventually move into materials writing and start on the conference circuit, going freelance and making money from books and speaking – but not teaching, as far as I can tell. You can make money talking about it, or writing about it, but not actually doing it. Following these career paths is not a bad thing, that's not what I'm saying, but not everyone can or even wants to, so this contributes to the continuation of rapid turnover and short-termism on the part of schools and employees themselves. Let's face it, most teachers aren't in TEFL for a career, it's only a short-term thing. 

Whatever I do, I don't wish to be scraping money together at the end of the month when I'm forty. Maybe I'm a decadent middle-class European, but the friend I describe is one of a number of close friends and family who are in a similar position, so I'd like to have some of what they're having, frankly. I enjoy teaching and it is a vocational job, I'm not 'in it for the money' but don't tell me that I don't deserve decent reward. Having said all this, it's not really my current financial position that worries me, it's what I'll have, or won't have, when I'm sixty plus.


I'm fully aware that change in the industry would need to be great to secure things like pensions, but that's what we need. Surely, it's possible in Europe at least? A Europe wide organisation of schools signed up to a charter of fair-practice, a union for teachers and get-togethers for training and meetings locally - on a regional and national basis and payment that accurately reflects our level of qualifications and experience. I do realise that some organisations do exist, our school belongs to one, I just don't think that it's enough. For IATEFL to organise something worldwide would be impossible, there has to be something else.

I'd love to hear thoughts from other teachers about the topic of pay in TEFL. Let me know what you think and how you feel about your current situation. Maybe you think I'm completely wrong, so tell me!