Take my advice - don't do it. Teaching in UK state schools is a soulcrushing grind. I'm dreading my final placement in May.

In terms of entry requirements, most want 10 days observing in a UK state school first. You might get away with 10 days in a British international school, or might not. Or if the course provider is desperate (look for those unis in clearing who still have places a couple of weeks before the course starts) they might take you anyway.

The bigger problem is just about everywhere wants to interview you in person. Skype has only been an option at one PGCE course I've seen (Exeter, though I've no idea if this is still the case). It's a big financial risk to fly to the UK interview for a single course given the acceptance rate is around 1 in 3. I only got onto my course because some places happened to become available while I was already visiting family in the UK, and so was able to go interview in person.

In terms of visas, you could get a student visa with relatively little problem. You'd have to pay international student rates, which can be high (up to around £15,000, plus you won't get any student loans like home UK students).

You could get onto a PGCE Primary course with your BA, no problem. With Primary, your undergrad degree can be in any subject.

The Americans and Canadians are welcome to the roles in Western Europe. You'll both soon learn it's not some great land of milk and honey, it's a land of hardship and misery.

The number of countries I'd consider in Europe could be counted on one hand, and all of them are in Eastern Europe.

The school wanting everyone out by 5pm is a great thing - it shows they're respectful of the teachers free time.

OP is working for a pretty decent school, he just doesn't know it.

Route A provides the best effort to wages ratio. You're not getting paid anymore for putting these extra hours in, so don't. If a recruiter asks about your experiences, do what everyone does - exaggerate to make yourself sound better. That's what literally the whole world does on their CV's.

My advice is sit back, relax, hand out the worksheets and think nothing of it. Sounds like you have a fairly cushy job. Admin that don't give a damn are a lot easier to work for than those with high standards.

@Psyguy

But that distribution is still better than just having 5 great and 10 good IS's. Now there's a school out there to suit all competence levels.

For sure I'd sooner not have QTS but also not have had to teach in UK schools for the best part of a year! The PGCEi is fine for third tier schools which is the level I'm aiming at anyway.

There'd have been more money (cos of salary while I studied), I could have stayed in Thailand, and wouldn't have had to suffer the grind of measuring up to UK 'teachers standards'. If I could rewind a year I'd do the PGCEi without any hesitation.

Think 3600 GBP is perfectly reasonable in terms of fees. With my UK PGCE I get 11,000 GBP in loans+bursary, and the course fees paid for me. So, if you can earn 14,600 GBP a year then the PGCEi would have been more worthwhile (in terms of money for that year).

QTS isn't hugely relevant to me since I'll probably not be teaching in a first tier school and absolutely will NEVER teach in the UK again. Even if they trebled the post-tax salaries, I wouldn't even consider going back.

@Interteach

I'd rather have a supply pool of 10 great schools, 20 middling schools and 50 bad schools than just a pool of 10 great schools. It means if you're good/experienced enough to get into one of the 10 good schools you still can, while there's also options for those who are not as good or experienced. This really should suit everybody - hard workers who live to teach, those who are happy being average, and those who are just in it for the paycheck and the travel. Now there's a school out there for everyone, rather than just the guys at the top.

The student loan coin might hit your bank account technically in the US, but can't they pull your licence if you don't pay it and refuse to issue a new passport? Meaning in reality, you do have to pay it as a DT. It's not like a credit card bill where you can stick 2 fingers up to the company and, providing you don't have any tangible assets, there's really not a lot they can do beyond write you nasty letters and trash your credit rating.

Or am I thinking of Child Support money instead? I might be, because I know you can certainly get your passport denied/professional licenses pulled for that.

When I spoke of the 'average American', I meant the average American across all jobs and careers, not teaching (since we're evaluating IT relative to other careers and not just DT, this makes sense to me). What does Mr Average American get as takehome after all his taxes are paid? Maybe it is $40k. If we go with that figure instead of my $30k (which does seem far too low now, although $44k seems to require a very specific set of circumstances) then you could still say that most IT's are no worse off than the average American. $35k+$5k value on the accommodation would be a very standard package.

So my conclusion is ultimately the same. It's a mid tier career, and isn't a bad option for average people. It's a bad option for the very talented, unless they desperately want to leave their home country and are willing to take a financial hit to do so.

This seems to align with what I've seen in the workplace too. Teachers are generally of around average intelligence, possessing no truly significant talents nor extreme deficiencies. They thus get average careers and average levels of money.

Nottingham PGCEi is about 3300 pounds, no? Doesn't sounds that expensive to me, given you can work while you do it and earn a salary higher than you'd get from student loans+bursary in the UK (unless you're studying maths or science).

Oh yeah, and the Nottingham PGCEi I'd just a bunch of easy academic writing, nothing like the grind of teaching in UK domestic schools. I wish I'd chosen that route every day.

@blinky

>family resources to share

Getting to live far away from family is one of the benefits of the job, not a downside.

And the vast majority of your other 'downsides' are just minor inconveniences at best.

Right, and how much would student loan payments be on that $50k salary? I consider that to also be a tax, since it's certainly money that doesn't hit my bank account. The vast majority of teachers are going to have student loans since teaching is a graduate level profession.

Don't buy insurance, it's a scam designed only to benefit the insurance company. Page after page of 'exclusions' mean you're covered against lightning strikes but anything like a stroke, heart attack, or cancer will remain uncovered.

I never got anything through SA, and I applied for like 50 different places. Not even one interview.

Direct applications worked far better.

While I'm no expert on the US tax system, I'd be somewhat surprised if the takehome is $39k from a $50k salary.

I consider all 'deductions' to be dead money, with no differentiation between any of them. Thus in the UK, I consider tax to be 40% (with an initial 10k GBP exemption), based on 20% income tax, 11% national insurance, and 9% student loan deductions. Where the money goes is irrelevant to me, it's all money I'm not seeing in my paycheck.

Thus the 'tax' in the US might only be $11k on $50k, but there's surely other crap that needs to be paid out? Student loans? Social security? Money paid out for the strange insurance healthcare system used in America? Getting only $30k out of $50k would be in line with many other Western countries.