TEFL - Mexico
Posted by Tomas - 11:55 on 08 September 2009
Mexico is a fascinating country with amazing landscapes and an interesting culture. From hot, humid jungle to scorching barren deserts to white beaches lined with palm trees. Mexico City, the largest city in the world holds a staggering 19,000,000 people.
Finding work in this incredible country is not as hard as you may think. Over one million North American, British, and Australian people living and working here shows this.
TEFL Teaching
To teach English in Mexico, you will need a TEFL certificate. Often a university degree is needed too. It is not important what it is. However in most language schools, they will take teachers with just the TEFL qualification.
Jobs
There are two ways to gain employment in Mexico. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. You can search online and try to confirm a place in a school before heading out there. This is good as you need not worry about employment when in the country.
Otherwise, going out and looking for work can also be done. This is for the more adventurous types and it is worth saving some money before heading out. You could be searching for work for a while. This however is good as you will have a face to face interview with your potential employer and you will gain perspective on the type of work you’ll be doing. The schools do actually prefer interviews face to face as they will know exactly who they will be employing – often people arrange jobs with institutes online and don’t actually turn up.
Places of work
The two main types of employers for TEFL work in this country are language schools and universities.
Universities tend to pay better than language schools and usually offer benefits such as paid holidays and health insurance. It is also much easier to obtain a working visa with a university. However, be sure to research this. Some may pay up to 15,000 pesos a month ($1,130 or €780 or £685), when others can pay as low as 4,000 pesos ($300 or €210 or £180).
The advantage with working at a language school is that it is a lot easier to find employment. Jobs tend to be available all year round. There are many more language schools than universities and they do not require as much experience.
Whatever you choose to do, if you are planning on a trip to Mexico, with a bit of perserverance and research, you will not have to look hard to find employment.
Add your comment below
“I enjoyed the video section. It was nice to watch actual teaching and answer questions on it. ” Peter Andrews