Any work?!

[gingra]

Hello again,

Seeing as I didn't get very far with the organic farming thing - could the title have put you off?

Anyway, I spose what I am trying to say (but attempting to make it sound less desperate than it feels) is that we are prepared to do most kinds of work - my aim is to teach English as a foreign language to start with as I have experience etc and my fiancee is more hands on, farming, driving all sort of machinery (he has all the appropriate English licenses).

Are such skills transferable? We have relatives out there, but unfortunately neither of us can 'do hair' so no way of getting into that!

Cheers

[berger]

hello there,

I don't usually make many replies as there are many others with more experience here, but I have been living in france now for almost a year and came over with the same hopes as you, many people do find work here but it is quite difficult. I have been unsuccessful with many french employers even one that i knew had a position for a tractor driver urgent but was told by the madame "no work here" . I have a class one hgv licence and it's europe wide but unless you want to spend about 1800 euros on a fimo certificate and sit through 4 weeks of french courses it's no longer an option . I feel your teaching will be no problem and the french seem to me to be far from hostile they are very polite but work here seems to be hard for them to find, the english seem to be creating their own.I have been told by my french neighbour work is here to be had ( he's an artisan ) and i do agree it just takes some time to find. hope i haven't dampened your enthusiasm, it is great here and is worth the effort.

[Tourangelle]

hi

you don't say where you are going to be living, but as a qualified EFL teacher you should find some work. In a larger place it is really easy-peasy, no problem at all, in fact if you are qualified and with experience you can walk into a job. If you are planning on really being out in the sticks then it might be a different story. If you are thinking of moving soon then you could apply to the local education authority and see if they are looking for people to go and teach in local primary schools, which could get you some hours, but probably only one or two a week. Otherwise it is a lot of business English, but if you send off CVs to all that are listed in the yellow pages you can be pretty confident of finding a job. The native speaker is often considered a plus in business English, it is a selling point for them, so your nationality will in no way count against you. If you then do some hours for a language school you can expect to be paid 15-20 euros an hour for a face to face lesson for one or two people. You can ask for much more if you teach a group. They will probably want you to have your own vehicle, unless, as I said, you are really planning to move to a big place, which seems unlikely given your organic farming plan. Some jobs might offer you the option of being paid as a vacataire, so doing some hours but as an employee, or being a freelance person, which means they pay you more but you have to sort out and pay your own charges. The former is much much simpler! Good luck.

[gingra]

Thanks both for the replies - I shall definitely take them on board...it may be that I go and work and my future husband adopts a rather more domestic role!!

The area we intend to look at is about 1 hour from Toulouse and is rather remote, however, each village has a primary school and there are quite a few colleges. I have travelled around a little to check the schooling provision. I am currently teaching in and FE college after having taught business English so I don't mind the age range...

I guess it is weighing up the risk factor and being prepared to look for work and not expect things to work out straight away - as with any move. My spirits aren't dampened at all Monty - food for thought...

thanks again

[Michelle28]

Would a TEFL qualification be enough to secure employment at a primary school, or something similar, or would one need to have a   degree as well? I am working on a degree course, with future teaching in mind, and  now wondering if it might not be necessary.

Thanks

Michelle 

[Tourangelle]

Michelle, I wrote relating to finding TEFL work assuming that gingra had a degree because she said she was qualified to teach other things than TEFL in a previous post. I think a degree is considered a basic for teaching in a primary school for example, but perhaps not so essential for private language schools and so on if you can convince them that you have other worthwhile skills. Also when I mentioned teaching in primary schools, it was more in terms of a couple of hours than a "real" job

[Michelle28]

Thanks for that.  I suppose I am only going to be looking for something to keep me occupied but had better keep 'bashing on' with my course whatever.

Michelle