Hello! First of all, sorry to hear you're thinking about leaving Spain but I'm happy to hear you're thinking of coming to join us all in sunny UK!

The economic situation isn't great here either at the moment, although I guess that's the same for most places. Not sure what it's like compared to Spain. Music is taught in pretty much all school so there should be plenty of opportunities for jobs. I did a quick Google search for "Teaching Jobs UK"...there's quite a few sites where you can search for specific jobs:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGNI_en-GBGB464GB464&q=teaching+jobs+uk

I think people are always looking for teachers to be honest.

I'd love to move to the UK but Australians get no visa for being part of the Commonwealth (GRRRRRR) unless we have a grandparent that was born there (you can't imagine how unimpressed I am that all four grandparents were born in Australia!) So the likelihood of me getting a working visa there is pretty remote. I'm definitely going to try in a few years though.

Sorry - can't offer any advice except to say that from the little research I've done the employment options in the UK are pretty limited - it's pretty crowded there at the moment! Not sure about music or Spanish teaching jobs though.

An economy which is a lot stronger and one where the language might be easier for you is Brasil. I don't know about their education system with regards to employing teachers though or teaching Music or Spanish. The EU has free movement of labour so no need for a visa for Spaniards. Anyone else...just marrying a Brit won't necessarily get you a visa, can't be a marriage of convenience.

Teaching at an international level does offer decent packages, the ability to travel and develop yourself professionally.

Depending on your teaching qualification you could walk into a job anywhere in the world (UK included). Teaching at international schools will help keep you from the doldrums of general populous education and have children and colleagues who are undertaking modern pedagogical practises. Having strong English skills (Which apparently you do) opens up the world to you as English and Spanish are two of the strongest three languages on the planet. You may need to undertake a course like the International Baccalaureate once employed but having this only strengthens your ability to move onto other schools in the future. Schools generally pay for your additional training, depending upon your experience, and it makes you a strong candidate for consideration anywhere.

The best time to look for employment changes depending upon the season you are in and where in the semester your potential school is in, however keeping an eye on The TES employment section should give you an idea of the jobs available. South East Asia is an excellent place to start as there is a lot of growth there at the moment and jobs and training are fairly abundant.

Even teaching English as a foreign language can land you a role from which you can look to progress. Try asking around the forums of the TES if you would like fellow educators to aid you further.

I hope this information is of some use.

-m0r

Oh, Irene, you should move to Australia.

We recently ranked 2nd, after Norway, as the best place in the world to live. The United Nations does an annual Human Development Index and we scored 93 points out of 100. The index compares 187 countries on factors including health, education, per-capita income and life expectancy. We have not been as badly affected by the Global Financial Crisis as the rest of the world because of our strong mining sector (selling everything we can pull out of the ground to China) and our well-regulated banking sector (no subprime mortgages and huge bankers bonuses here).

Other cool things about Oz - we have a female, unmarried, childless, atheist Prime Minister who lives in The Lodge (PM's residence) with her boyfriend, the First Bloke, and NOBODY CARES!

We are working on gay marriage and it is only a matter of time before it comes in. Why should only straight people be miserable? (joke).

Christmas is in the middle of summer, so the whole country goes to the beach, and talking of beaches, OMG, they are wonderful, just swim between the flags and watch out for sharks. If you live on the coast or in the northern areas, winter last for about 2 weeks and we complain if the temperature goes below 20C.

Plus Hugh Jackman, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman (we still haven't forgiven Tom Cruise for what he did to Our Nicole), The Wiggles, Heath Ledger (RIP), Simon Baker, Miranda Kerr, Russell Crowe (really a Kiwi but we claim him), Eric Bana, Guy Pearce, Naomi Watts, Toni Collette, Portia de Rossi (Mrs Ellen de Generes), Judy Davis, I could go on and on and on....

So, when can we expect you? Actually, that's an open invitation to all on the site, including Benedict and Martin, who have both been just across the way in New Zealand filming The Hobbit. Can you imagine Sherlock in Australia? He wouldn't need his coat here!

Last edited by hepzibah (April 15, 2012 1:06 pm)

Hi Irene, thanks for your reply. I know a few people who have moved here from all around the globe and you know what? Eventually, their families move here too! My sister-in-law's dad was English, met my s-i-l's mum when she visited England, married her and moved here, then his brothers and sisters all followed him out. Happens all the time.

40% of Aussies were born overseas. In my previous job in a bank (boring) (oohh, a Sherlock reference) I worked with a guy who was Chinese, a man and a lady from India, a girl from Zimbabwe, a lady who was part Thai, part Lao, a girl of Indian heritgae from Fiji. My nephew's girlfriend's dad is from Chile, my housemate's parents are English, and I have Italian, Welsh and Irish ancestry. So everyone comes to Australia.

I know what you mean about Australia being so far away from Europe, it is a constant complaint with travellers going both ways. Someone needs to invent a time travel machine, maybe like a Time And Relative Dimension In Space, shortened to TARDIS, wait just a minute...