Qualified or not?

[Andjelika]

Hello, we're planning to leave China after 9-10 amazing years here, and we are looking into options in ME and Europe. However, I'm worried that my husband's credentials may not be enough, especially for ME, but possibly for good schools in Europe as well. He holds MA in Edu (Curriculum development), BA in Chinese language, IB certificate in teaching and learning (PYP), and will be completing Harvard certification program for educational leadership. He's been promoted to the Head of Curriculum position, and has experience as a PYP teacher, key teacher and head of English curriculum (7+ years in a PYP school). Not a native English speaker, but proficient (near-native),he is a linguist and very much respected in his profession. However, no BA in Education (which is commonly required in ME for primary edu) and no any country's teaching license. Would you say he's not qualified and might be struggling with finding jobs elsewhere? Thank you!

[sid]

Don’t worry too much.
Some countries or schools will have narrow definitions of “qualified”, and he might be excluded for the reasons you mentioned. Others take a broader view and realize that a Masters is better than a Bachelors, and also that many countries don’t even offer teaching licenses, so we can’t expect everyone to have one.
You would be fine moving to 5 of the 6 countries I’ve lived in so far.

[shadowjack]

I think that even though he is not certified, he has experience and training, which usually tops certification. If YOU are certified, it makes it meaningless, as the school brings him in as the spouse and pays you for both, if need be.

I wouldn't worry too much. While good schools want certified teachers, he has certificates and experience which in the real sense of the word, make him certified.

[Asteger]

You may be told that visa rules go against him in some places. On the other hand, there are still 'exceptions' where things might not seem possible and to an extent if schools really want a candidate sometimes they can find a way.

[sid]

Sometimes. Rarely. Don’t count on it.
As a recruiter, one of my first moves is to look at whether I can actually hire someone. If I can’t, I politely let the applicant down and move on. I don’t explore further since there are multiple other candidates I could hire without any issue. So those candidates never get a chance to convince a recruiter to look for loopholes. (And we never want to use loopholes anyway if we can possibly avoid it. Always best to take the straight route. Would you really want a job offer with an asterisk: I’m going to try to get you a visa, but it’s not clear whether I will succeed?)
But again, don’t worry too much. There are plenty of places where you can be easily hired.

[Smokegreynblues]

shadowjack wrote:
> I think that even though he is not certified, he has experience and
> training, which usually tops certification. If YOU are certified, it makes
> it meaningless, as the school brings him in as the spouse and pays you for
> both, if need be.
>
> I wouldn't worry too much. While good schools want certified teachers, he
> has certificates and experience which in the real sense of the word, make
> him certified.

I kind of hold similar qualifications as the person in question, though no IB, I never made it to a single interview through the popular fair/recruitment channels. The portals of Search/iss/ grc scan applicants that don't possess a credential.The credential/certificate is a real hassle. It helps those in power to keep their positions. Maybe they went to a brick-and-mortar school. Got a credential, did the hassle of renewing it every few years. They cant in their right mind accept a candidate who didn't go through all that. It also keeps the "leadership monopoly" native to the 6-7 countries that issue those certificates, which may or may not be related to the curriculum of the school. Some governments make their visa laws such that only certain candidates from select few countries with credentials from those countries are valid. The neat little tactic acts to their advantage. And justify SLTs viewpoint that "I'm of value and irreplaceable from my position when compared to a mere no credential person".

[secondplace]

I'd say it's more as Sid has described it. Can a school get a visa for you?

If a school can employ you and then your husband is with you initially through 'your' visa then it might be easier as he will already be in country.

Be up front with schools so they can give you straight answers and you don't get your time wasted.

It might be frustrating at first, but given your husband's qualifications and experiences I think he should be able to get work once you're there.

Good luck!

[Verano]

It also depends on whether the department of education in the country approves your diplomas or not. I was told that PGCE, M.Ed., B.Ed, and/or QTS are the only credentials the department of education would accept and that PGCEM - Post Graduate Certificate in Educational Management would not be accepted by one of the countries where I worked.

[sid]

Very true. Countries are quite unique. Where I am now, I can hire/get a visa for anyone with either an actual degree (BA, MA, Phd, it matters not) in any field related to education, OR a license from a national government (mostly US and UK). This works great, as it covers a) almost everyone who is serious about being a teacher, and b) the two most typical pathways that people have to follow to be allowed to teach in their home country. The only applicants I can't look at are those with neither of the above. So TEFL courses, IB workshops and such are simply non-starters. It's great if someone has them, but I can't hire them on that basis. No loopholes here. I cannot legally give anyone work as a teacher unless they meet those criteria, regardless of anything. No such thing as "get into the country with your spouse and we'll make it work". It won't. Which could explain why we have a couple couples here with one spouse working and the other completing a teaching degree.

[Andjelika]

Many thanks to everyone for your valuable comments. To play it safe, he is considering doing TeachNow or this new PGCE program available to international teachers (we have to explore this). We will look at the best options now. We hope that with the teaching license he would be more employable in Europe and/or Middle East. Thank you!

[PsyGuy]

In IE there are three things that make an ITs resume those things they can do (credentials, certificates, degrees and qualifications, etc.), those things they have done (experience, exam scores, etc.) and special skills and attributes. Of those experience is king. ISs will explore loopholes and attempt to move mountains or halt the wind for an IT with highly successful experience in high demand/needs areas. I have seen an IS that could not get a teaching permit and thus no visa for a very high quality maths IT bring the IT in as an ESOL ET (with lower requirements) and assign them to ESOL, where the IT used maths to deliver English language content. Im sure you can figure out what they were really doing. ISs have paid one member of a IT couple 1.5 salary for the spouse they could get a visa for while the other spouse 'volunteered' as an SPED/LD/SEN IT.
Theres going to be two main problems that your spouse is going to have, and they are real problems:

1) There are two aspects to construction of a short list. The first is screening, thats growing the applicant pool, the second is selection thats reducing the applicant pool. During screening someone in the IS is going through applications and tossing the ones that dont meet the minimum requirements which often include possessing a professional edu credential. These screeners arent looking for anything else, if its not there, the application documents dont get scrutinized any further.

2) There are ministries that prescribe the minimum requirements for a visa or a license in edu, and these regulations can be very strict such that not having a credential is effectively a deal breaker even if the candidate has other strengths and those strengths are better than a credential. The application isnt going to be approved if all the right boxes arent checked.

Assuming your spouse can get an interview and their resume in front of senior/executive leadership than I dont think they will have any problems assuming they can get past the issues above. Most ISs will accept a Masters in lieu of a Bachelors.

You may want to look at the MA Provisional credential, it essentially requires two tests (communication literacy and a subject matter test), of the subject matter tests, both ESOL and English literature as well as the communication literacy test are available remotely/online meaning your spouse could likely test locally. The test and application fees would come out to a few hundred USD and a couple days of time, much less in both coin and time than an EPP/ITT program.