The Hunt is On

Job-hunting. In my salad days it used to be an occult endeavour fuelled by malevolent Fates. Just finding a job opening was an ordeal. Ensuring an application reached its destination, securing an interview and getting transport to the venue – not to mention getting impeccably dressed and groomed or acing and interview – were ordeals I rarely had the privilege to take on.

Times have, of course, changed. And so have I.

Despite an ailing global economy, anyone in the English Language Teaching business knows that there is no shortage of jobs. Quite the contrary: today I have the opposite dilemma from the past, with a plethora of vacancies advertised online. The dilemma, however, has taken on a new form, both for applicants and recruiters. Because quantity simply doesn’t guarantee quality.

For teachers like myself, this means sifting through swathes of advertisements to separate the chaff from the wheat, delving into the fine print and divining the truths from lies of omission. Since there is no formal standard for advertisements on many ELT websites, this can be a time-consuming and inaccurate process. The number of employers who provide more information on their websites is increasing, and of course online forums and networks are a boon, but many questions still remain unanswered. Innumerable teachers have been burned by unscrupulous ELT employers, and a note of caution is certainly in order.

For recruiters the dilemma is perhaps even greater. In an industry where standards are still not set internationally, there is no choice but to set the requirement of copious checklist items: qualifications, references, criminal record and health checks and the like. Yet even these ostensible facts do not really fathom the true quality of an applicant as an employee, far less a language teacher. In an industry where schools depend on the presence and performance of their instructors, human resources are indispensible to both quality and profit. There is a reason behind the scepticism of language schools towards (especially foreign, “native”) English teachers: employers, too, have been burned by unreliable employees.

The problem is expansive, and I do not have a complete solution. Yet I do believe a few simple, feasible steps will be of great help.

1. A standard format for advertising, provided as an online form by ELT websites.
2. A simple spreadsheet or table for job-hunters’ personal use, showing the different categories of information on jobs applied for, such as the name, school type, location, hours, remuneration package, pros and cons and, very importantly, an update on the application process, interview dates, feedback etc.
3. A portfolio system whereby applicants can demonstrate their organizational, teaching and technical skills through a set of documents. This should include a CV, philosophy of education essay, some lesson plans, materials and other work by the teacher. With online facilities like YouTube, posting demonstration or self-introduction videos is even possible.
These simple steps would guide the applicant towards introspection, raise standards and expectations from both parties and eventually have a ripple effect on the quality of English education internationally.

What’s stopping us?

My own humble attempt at an online portfolio can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/learningcoachm/