Areas of Limited Demand

Most of our opportunities are with private, international schools and organisations where all/most subjects are taught in English. Most of these schools are located in countries where English is not the main language spoken. Therefore we almost never have positions in English-speaking countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or Ireland.

Our sister company, Randstad Education, formerly Select Education, does accommodate teachers who already have a visa for Australia or New Zealand in selected areas but teachers must procure their own visas (usually working holiday visas), flights, housing, insurance etc. and work is on a casual (also know as supply or substitute) teaching basis. For more information and to pursue this avenue, CLICK HERE

Some subjects are taught in almost every curriculum around the world, and thus are usually in high demand, for example secondary (high school) mathematics, science, English and primary (elementary). Other subjects that are specific to a particular country such as design technology (UK), SOSE (Aus), American history (US), Spanish (mainly North America) and psychology (UK) are usually in less demand and teachers of these subjects will need to be more flexible in terms of location, additional subjects, availability and employment package. Most teaching staff will require teaching qualifications, so librarians and guidance counsellors will need to have the same level of qualification as a standard class teacher or they are unlikely to get a visa. Finally, there are some subjects that are almost never taught for legal/cultural reasons, such as religious education and citizenship (both UK/Irish subjects) and we will usually not be able to help teachers with these subject specialities.

Foreign language teachers are usually only in demand if the language they are teaching is different to language spoken by the host country. So for instance, we do not have demand for Spanish teachers in Spain, or German teachers in Germany – schools find these teachers locally. But we can place French teachers, for instance, in Kuwait but foreign language teachers are usually expected to have experience in the exact curriculum they are teaching. So a French teacher with UK experience can be placed in a UK curriculum school in Kuwait. Of course, complete fluency in English is always required.

Some subjects specific to one national curriculum have near equivalents in the international world. Teachers of these subjects will need to be prepared to teach the international equivalent if going abroad.

* Note on special education in international schools: There are very few international special needs schools. Most international schools serve a mainstream population but intake children with mild special needs such as dyslexia or mild learning difficulties. A learning support teacher or SENCO will work with all teaching staff to diagnose children with special needs and differentiate for them, and may take small groups but they will usually not have their own classes. A learning support teacher and/or SENCO post is available in most international schools whereas the number of schools with discrete special needs units and self contained classrooms is very small.