How easy is it for a native English speaker to get a job as an English teacher or assistant in Austria?

Question

I am very interested in someday moving to Austria and this seems like a job I could do. I am an English major who is currently working on her Bachelors degree and I have taken 3 years of college German. I am also planning on going to Austria to study German at some point in the next 2 years. How difficult is it to find and attain such a job in Austria and does it pay fairly well? Do they have very high educational requirements for those who want to teach English? Thank you in advance for any answers! :-)

Sannaparis - Yup, I'm American and I actually think I live in the same state as you. CA? lol

Answer 1

This information is not confirmed by any official sources, but it is what everybody says at university:
High school:
If you are qualified to teach a foreign language in your country at high school level most countries where that language is used in education will count that as a qualification for teaching your native language.

Example: A person from the UK studies German at university level (at least to B.A. level - it could be that you have to have an M.A.) AND is qualified to teach German at high school level. They can teach English in Austria at high school level .

In general, I think it is important that you have some sort of pedagogical/ language teaching qualification in addition to your language studies. Also, three years of college in German might not be considered enough.


Universities and colleges:
While the state high school system might be difficult to get into, but colleges and universities might be easier to access, as at that level, native speakers are sought after. However, you would have to have at least an M.A.
Look at Fachhochschulen and Universitäten (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik.)

Private sector and community colleges:
The good news is that English is taught in all schools, higher or lower, private or state run, community college, etc. There are a host of private language schools as well.
For that (the private) sector, it would be good to have an internationally recognized certification for teaching English as a Second Language .
Look at Cambridge Certificates for more information.

Assistants:
If you are American, this is real easy ;-)
Look at the programmes operated by the Fulbright Commission.

BTW what Wolfgang said about available jobs is only true for certain parts of the country. Also what he says about pay does not make sense, at least not for state run schools, as pay does not depend on the amount of applicants for one job!

Answer 2

In general I agree with sannaparis. Nevertheless I am not sure if it is sufficient to be a native speaker of English an qualified to teach German in your home country to get a job as a highschool teacher.
Schools have often native speakers as assistants, they accompany the teacher but mainly correct pronounciation but do not really teach. This is often done by students from abroad staying for a year or so and not having any academic degree so far.

It might be easier in the university sector (assistant) as English is part of a lot of studies (economics etc). There might as well be exchange programs (or something similar)with Universities in your country.
Also the private sector (language schools like Berlitz) or semi-private sector (Volkshochschulen, WIFI - run by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and offering qualification courses for employed people, BFI similar to WIFI) which do not have such strict formal regulations as the school sector has.

At a first step I suggest you contact the Austrian consulate in L.A.
http://www.bmeia.gv.at/view.php3?r_id=2063&LNG=en&version=

or the Austrian Embassy in Washington D.C.

http://www.austria.org/
for more information - most probably they can also give you a contact in the Austrian Ministry of Education.

I would also suggest that you try with your University if they have any contacts with Austrian Universities.

Answer 3

When I've studied Romance languages, it just seemed that there was a similarity between many of the words and ours, or at least that they were easy to figure out. Not so with German, although English is supposed to be a Germanic language. I'd think it would be much easier for a speaker of one Romance language to learn another one than to learn English, because the Romance languages are all quite similar to each other.

Answer 4

To be honest it is very, very difficult, nearly impossible. We have so many teachers in Austria waiting for a job and there is a waitlist for five years or even more. The payment for teachers is not so good because there are plenty of young peaple who want to do this job. Regarding worl permission it depends where you are from. Citizens from the EU may work in nearly every job in Austria, for non-EU-citizens it is very difficult to get a working permit, especially if there are enough local people who are qualified for the same job.
Sorry that I have no better news for you...
Wolfgang