Intesol Prague Job Center – Lifetime TEFL / TESOL Job Support

Demand for English teachers with TEFL / TESOL certificates has been on the rise worldwide due to English's status as the international language for travel, business and commerce. At the INTESOL Prague Job Center, our mission is to thoroughly inform you of all of your options and help you make the best decisions as you begin to teach English overseas.

We offer you lifetime job guidance, which means that our career advisers will be at your service before, during and after the course. We are committed to providing you with the best assistance possible for as long as you need us. Whether you want to know about career opportunities, salary rates, cost of living, or want to contact someone with experience working in a particular country or particular field of TESOL/TEFL, we will be there for you.

What we do for you: Before, During and After the Course

Before the course, we ask you to provide us with your preferences, if any, about where you would like to teach. Then our career advisers immediately start collecting information to start your guidance. Your lifetime job guidance has begun, provided you pass the course.

During the course, we work closely with you and narrow the possibilities down to the two or three choices most convenient for you. If you don’t have any preferences, we can still advise you on what region might best suit you.

After the course, we continue to offer you completely updated information on job opportunities in your targeted community. Once you graduate, you will be given a user name and password so you have access to our online job notice board. Here we display current job vacancies divided into geographical areas. This information is updated constantly. If you wish, we will also send you a weekly email from the job center with a list of the latest vacancies worldwide or in your preferred geographical area.

Our advisers are all experienced and knowledgeable about the TEFL / TESOL job market at both local and international levels. Their files are constantly updated in order to improve our services and provide our students with top quality job guidance for teaching English overseas.

INTESOL Prague also gives you another big bonus: because INTESOL is a worldwide organization, we have an unparalleled network we can use to provide you with the latest information about job vacancies across the globe. If you want to teach or do volunteer work in a country or continent where there is an INTESOL Center, we can put you in touch with schools which often hire teachers or which are recruiting at that moment. We have a particularly strong relationship with our counterpart TEFL center in Barcelona, Spain. If you want to teach there, they will be more than happy to talk to you and give you first hand information and assistance.

Teaching in Prague

Prague has experienced a remarkable transformation in the last few years. Its recent entrance into the European Union and its booming economy have revitalized this ancient city. This transformation and modernization has translated into a high demand for English language teachers. In fact, the number of Czech people who want to learn English is growing at an exponential rate.

There are roughly 150 language schools in Prague itself, and many more throughout the Czech Republic. Even though Prague is a very popular place for TEFL / TESOL training courses and there are more TEFL certified teachers in Prague than in the past years, you still have a very good chance of finding a job in a credible language school here. Alternatively, if you prefer to immerse yourself in Czech culture and society, you could find a job outside of Prague in beautiful cities like Cesky Krumlov (declared a world heritage site by UNESCO). Areas such as these provide you the opportunity to get much closer to your students and meet more "locals". Please also note that your chances for a job increase rapidly if you intend to stay for at least a year.

We will prepare you for your job interviews and for the demo lessons job applicants are sometimes asked to give as part of the interview process. We will bring to your attention some of the main cultural differences that may surprise you when teaching in the Czech Republic and beyond. We will tell you about what expectations prospective employers tend to have of newly qualified teachers and will inform you in detail about legalization processes, types of contracts, credible schools and numerous other issues to look out for in order to start your new career in a professional, supportive and enjoyable environment.

Our Careers Service Coordinator has had years of experience employing native English speaking teachers and sorting out legalization procedures for them. They will let you know exactly what you need to do in order to obtain your residence visa and work permits.

Guest Speakers

While on the course, we will invite some our graduates who have decided to stay and teach in Prague, the Czech Republic or Eastern Europe. We will schedule a session so that you can talk to them and have the opportunity to learn first hand what’s out there, real possibilities and potential bumps on the road. Trainees generally find these sessions one of the course’s best assets in job guidance.

Our affiliate language center

Threshold Training Associates (TTA), our affiliate language school currently employing 90 teachers, hires graduates on a monthly basis (particularly in January, September and October). Although we offer no guarantees, you could well be one of those who like it so much here at INTESOL Prague that you decide to stay with us!

TTA specializes in language teaching for academic, business and professional purposes and has been operating since 1995. 90% of our activities consist of comprehensive learning programs designed to serve the needs of individual companies, based on detailed knowledge of the working environment. TTA also provides English for public, summer intensive, weekend and tailor-made courses.

TTA employs some 90 teachers (40 native speakers of English), 2 DOS’s (Director of Studies) and 10 administrative staff. TTA teaches over 4000 hour/month during the academic year and classes during the summer months. Our DOSs give a lot of support and attention to starting teachers, making sure that they are comfortable both personally and professionally.

TTA is a member of the Association of Czech Language Schools – the Association works to ensure quality services, teacher support and professional development, administrative support, etc.

When schools recruit:

Language schools hire teachers on an as-needed basis. This means that many schools hire all year round. There are certain periods of time that many schools have vacancies to fill such as just after Christmas and New Years when some teachers do not return from holiday. Countries that are below the equator do a lot of hiring in February and March, which is when their autumn begins. In the Northern Hemisphere, September and March are the main times.

Where you can teach English Overseas:

Virtually anywhere in the world! (Although most jobs are in Eastern and Western Europe and in Asia)

• Western Europe
• Eastern Europe
• Latin America
• North America
• Asia
• Africa
• Middle East
• Australasia

We will provide you with detailed information on what countries have the most favorable conditions for TEFL / TESOL teaching in each continent (this includes names and contact details of reputable schools, average salaries, cost of life, legal requirements to work in a country, etc).

Paths and options after the course:

Once you graduate, you will have many options that you need to be aware of so that you can full take advantage of your various career opportunities. Our career advisers will provide you with detailed information on:

• Private language schools (a.k.a. academies)
• In-company teaching
• State and public school teaching
• Summer camps
• One-to-one teaching
• Volunteer work
• Etc

Resume/CV writing

We ask you to bring your resume/CV with you. During the course we will advise you on how to update and make the necessary amendments to your resume/CV in order to make it TEFL / TESOL oriented and appealing to your prospective employers. Often this can make a real difference, since the appropriate layout and structure of resumes/CV’s can change a lot from country to country. By the end of the courseyou will have a first rate resume to use to present yourself to employers.

Interview Skills

Our career advisers will give you all sorts of tips on interview dos and don’ts, so you can give a top performance at your future job interviews. Our course director will thoroughly inform you of what aspects of methodology and practice you need to be prepared for and will perform mock interviews with you.

Contacting former graduates

We keep in touch with INTESOL graduates and our database shows where they have taught and lived after their course. We will do our best to put you in touch with someone who has had first hand experience in the country of your choice so you learn first hand about the pluses and minuses of life and work there. Our INTESOL counterpart centers can also play a vital role in these areas.

Job fair

INTESOL Prague organizes a job fair at the end of each 4-week onsite course. Local language schools representatives are invited to attend and you will be able to meet them, and get a feel for what type of employment opportunities they offer. You may even be offered a job at the fair itself! Some of the invited schools may have counterparts or contacts in other countries and you can learn about vacancies, work and life conditions. Most of the language schools hire teachers all year round, although the best months in the Czech Republic generally are September, October and January. This is an opportunity you don’t want to miss.

Job guarantee

Unlike other TEFL / TESOL training centers, INTESOL Prague does not guarantee you a job after completion of the course. We think this would be unrealistic and unfair: we are not a job placement agency and we feel there is no such thing as a guarantee for work. However, you do receive lifetime job guidance and we will do our best to help you in your endeavors. Our experience informs us that those who persevere do find jobs in their selected destinations and our job center often plays a vital role in this process. If you are flexible regarding where you want to live and teach it would be almost an impossible task not to find a job teaching English overseas. The demand for accredited certified English teachers is high worldwide and in certain areas of Eastern Europe and Asia demand far exceeds supply. Therefore, teaching jobs in these and other geographical areas is virtually guaranteed. If you are really determined and want to teach English overseas, we will be there for you - you are not alone!

Back to top