Oportunities for teaching English in HK

Hi, first time posting on this forum.

I have a couple questions regarding the opportunities that exist for English teachers in HK for someone without any previous teaching experience. I've done a lot of internet searching and research and I'm even more confused now than when I started.

Some background. My wife and I moved to HK from Australia a year ago and plan to stay here long term, as I work for a large company based on the other side of Lantu.

My wife has extensive retail experience including in management positions (though no degree level qualification yet), but has never wanted to continue this as a log term career. She therefore used our move as an opportunity to start new and is currently studding a Culinary Tourism degree part time through a long distance program with an Australian University. She has also been working in a restaurant in Admiralty for the last 6 months. Initially she was really excited about this opportunity as they mentioned the possibility of offering a traineeship and promotions within the company, which would work really well with her studies.

Unfortunately this now looks like it wont happen, and instead she is stuck in a service role, working 70+ hours a week with little to be gained towards her uni studies. The long hours alone aren't a problem if they were helping progressing her career, it does however take all her time, makes having any sort of life almost impossible and leaves limited time to study as she is always exhausted when she's not working.

Whilst leaving her current position is an option, my wife is not the type of person that can sit still with nothing to do every day, so she needs to replace it with something else, though hopefully something that provides a better balance between work and giving time to study and have a life outside work. Any additional income would also be really appreciated.

I've discussed options with a few of my colleges, and one mentioned that it was easy to get work, part-time or full time, as an English teacher. All that was needed was to complete an online TEFL/TESLO course. My wife has always enjoyed language/literature so this option immediately interested her.

I've tried to research what qualifications are required but its difficult to come to a firm conclusion. Many topics relate to also applying for a visa at the same time and hence recommend a degree as the minimum, but is this still the case for HKID holders? Do opportunities exist for those without additional qualification?

Also, after searching TEFL/TESLO courses online, I was overwhelmed with the results. Are there more reputable courses and ones we need to stay away from? If so how do you pick the good from the bad.

I know its a pretty open post, but I was just hoping one or two of you would be able to offer some info into what opportunities are actually available and what is needed to teach English in HK.

Thanks, any help is much appreciated.

Hi Norman,

You're right in that there are an overwhelming number of choices for TESOL courses online. The key, though, is that only some of them will be useful if your wife wants to find reliable work - especially if there is any chance of her looking for this kind of work in Australia - and there is a huge market for language teaching at universities in Australia - the international student market is massive and many of these students are put in pathway TESOL programmes prior to acceptance into mainstream uni studies. I have 8 years experience in TESOL, and my first few jobs were in these types of prohttp://hongkongtesol.com/certtesol).grammes. They also pay relatively well in Aus....upwards of 50-60 an hour.

In terms of work in HK the course that is offered locally is the CertTESOL (http://hongkongtesol.com/certtesol)

However, yo may also be interested in reading about online vs face to face courses: http://hongkongtesol.com/blog/2016/04/should-i-take-online-tesol-or-face-face-course

Basically the CertTESOL or the Cambridge ESOL equivalent CELTA are the only certificates accepted worldwide. If you plan to stay here long term and your wife look for work at British Council or at universities you'll need one of these. They also differ from online courses as the teaching practice is assessed and compulsory on the CertTESOL/CELTA.

There is a lot of choice - but the relative cost of the CertTESOL/CELTA is there for a reason...they are very useful courses and you can take them almost anywhere.

Hope this helps.

James