Since Brexit, it has become much more difficult for British citizens to work in EU countries. One of the few recommendations I have in the locker on how to work in an EU country – without dealing with visa paperwork – is a bit of TEFLing.

Back in my early 20s, short on cash and thirsty for adventure, I applied to work for English in Action, a company that flies UK teachers out to deliver week-long English courses principally in secondary schools in Austria, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Teachers who work for the company more long-term (repeat contracts, not longer contracts) may be sent to Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Japan or Korea.

The contracts the company offers vary from one week, to a maximum of seven. This is because, as you can imagine, changing schools on a weekly basis is tiring. Since the company relies on the 90 days British people are legally allowed to stay in an EU country, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got those days still available on your passport in the period you plan to work for them.

This is a work recommendation I’d make for early careers, for a number the reasons I detail below in the pros and cons.

Back in 2014 I was given a contract in Austria, where I spent 5 weeks in Linz, Lustenau, Neusiedl and two other places I can’t even remember…!

Here is my honest review of working for them:

The cons

The pay is terrible

The pay rates are only viewable once you’ve applied to work at the company (but before you’ve accepted a contract); you’ll be given a login to see the breakdown of your subsistence allowance, in-country travel allowance and your weekly salary. Your flights are booked and paid for by the company.

Since paying to fly out, feed and house teachers abroad is rather costly, the money you actually get paid is pretty diabolical. I worked it out based on the 30-hour week you’re expected to work, and it comes out as less than minimum wage!

This is one of the main reasons why I’d recommend this for someone in their early career, who’s looking to gain skills, experience and the opportunity to travel. Otherwise, it’s a bit of a piss-take for experienced teachers who deserve to be paid what they are worth!

It’s quite an intense experience

The flip side of this was having the whole afternoon off (school finished at 1pm), so swings and roundabouts!

You’re generally put in a hotel (they’re always nice) with the other teachers who have been posted to your school. This usually amounts to around 5 teachers per school. As such, you eat with them most of the time, and being in a hotel, you can spend a lot of time sitting at the restaurant/bar table, in your room, or wandering around what may be a very small town or village together, all the time. If you’re lucky, the local teachers at the school will take you on a tour or invite you round for food.

As far as the teaching goes, most placements culminate in a show that the students perform (and that you’ve put on!) in English. It can be quite stressful managing a group of children into some semblance of a show fit for their parents, when they’re trying to operate in a foreign language.

Some of the host schools can be poorly equipped

I remember one week rocking up to a vocational college where they didn’t have enough rooms at the ready, meaning that some of us spent our first day teaching our individual groups in a large hall; imagine the echoes! At another school, I taught drama in a science lab.

The pros

Great for TEFLers with little to no experience

If you’re trying to get your foot in the door in terms of work experience or proof you can work abroad and suchlike, this is a fantastic option. The company has so many contracts they need filling that they are not bothered if you don’t have experience, as long as you have a valid TEFL qualification. See their job description including person specification here.

Moreover, they don’t expect you to create any of your own resources; they give you everything and tell you what to teach and when. The most creative licence you have is putting the end-of-week performance together, and not all placements involve this.

For the show, my advice is to do a modern twist on a fairytale. The stories are known in most cultures, and you can switch out the weird dated stuff to create something you and your students love. The most popular show of the ones I put on was a modern twist on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves; I had the Evil Queen and one of the dwarves get married at the end. The student who I’d cast as the Evil Queen was really upset not to be playing Snow White (cos she’s a boring character and the student was a great actor!); Evil Queenie absolutely stole the show. It was great!

You will likely see places you’d never thought of visiting

You can travel at the weekend

This is a big one. Your Saturday night accommodation is never booked by the company, but you get an allowance so that you can book anything you like anywhere!

I spent one weekend in Vienna, another in a ski resort near Linz with a German friend who drove down to meet me, and another with another German friend in another ski resort near Lustenau.

You can use your language skills

If you’re lucky enough to be posted to a country where your target language is spoken, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to practice it outside the classroom. I don’t speak German, but still tried out the odd simple phrase where I could.

You will learn a lot of skills in a short space of time

There’s nothing like the pressure of putting a show on to a group of expectant parents within a week! This is a classic example for your CV of course, showing you can “work well under pressure.” 🙄 Most of the other skills you’ll learn are teaching skills (of course), people management, thinking on your feet, resilience, you name it.

At the technical college I was placed in one week, I knew I was in trouble when I saw the excited look of the students’ faces (who were all boys) when they learnt I had been assigned their group, probably because at 22, I didn’t look much older than they did, and they probably thought they were in for an easy ride.

This required some serious work on my part and some experimentation. From day one – in an attempt to extinguish the excess testosterone floating around the classroom -I had the students do press ups every time they got something wrong. At first they thought it was hilarious and wanted to show off. However, it soon got boring, they all stepped into line, and it ended up being my favourite week. A lot of the boys worked on small aircraft on one of their other courses, so I got a tour of an airport hangar and even sat in a couple of planes with them at the end of the week!

You’ll meet some really nice people

There’s no bonding like the kind you get when you’re stuck in a foreign place with limited things to do on a random Tuesday evening. You’ll work with some really nice people both in terms of your fellow English teachers and the local ones. Quite often, you’ll end up gaining some refreshing perspectives from your colleagues, since those who take on these kinds of contracts are often living life a little more unconventionally than your average Joe.

Final thoughts

Jokes aside, I always recommend trying teaching, if only in your 20s. Tim Minchin talks about the value of this in his 9 Life Lessons speech:

See the whole thing here.

You learn so many skills that will help you in a number of industries if you decide you don’t want to pursue teaching long-term, and if you do decide to make a go of it, you’ll never be out of work!

Have you ever done anything like this before? Is it something you’d consider doing? Comment below!

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