I'm just going to be really specific here... Has any US citizen on here ever worked at as teacher in Sweden? I'm wondering if it's even a possibility. I'm really caught up on Sweden because I use to study there and would really like to finish learning the language and I still have friends in the country.
Also, I would be slightly curious about the UK as well... but I'm pretty sure that's impossible. Sweden may be too. eeekkk
Thanks
Sweden
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jessiejames
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 7:00 pm
Re: Sweden
I have a friend who teaches at Engelska Skolan, near Stockholm. He is not American but a few of his co-teachers are, so they do hire Americans.
There are also a couple of American schools in London, both currently advertising.
Edit - I have just seen in your previous post that you have 2 years intl experience and an MA. That is what he had when he got the job, so it can't hurt to contact them.
There are also a couple of American schools in London, both currently advertising.
Edit - I have just seen in your previous post that you have 2 years intl experience and an MA. That is what he had when he got the job, so it can't hurt to contact them.
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Flowerskull
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2014 9:41 am
Re: Sweden
I looked at the Engelska School... unfortunately, they start at 4th grade I believe. I'm only certified (and only really enjoy for that matter) up to second grade. I will look into the one in London though!! Thank you!!
Re: Sweden
Most decent-sized cities in Sweden have an international school, and they are generally eager to employ an international element. You should keep looking.
You should also know a few more interesting bits about international schools in Sweden. In fact, all schools in Sweden. There is no such thing as a private school in Sweden; all are funded by the government and bound by certain expectations. The local commune (government) holds lots of power as to how schools are organized, including being able to say "You will be moving to a new campus next year" or "You will no longer be an international school." Not that the government is capricious or anything, it's just a different environment than most international schools function in. The Swedish education system is actually a relatively cool one, with some great protections for students, and high expectations. And since each school in the country is funded exactly the same amount per student, and since it's illegal for schools to charge parents fees (except for certain well-defined optional extras), schools are generally operating on a tight but sufficient budget. There is no such thing as "overseas hire". You will be working for the government, paid the same as everybody else, no extras for relocation, no housing, high taxes. On the plus side, you'll be fully part of the Swedish social system, which will give you plenty of health and employment protections. Retirement and parental benefits too, if you have reason to access them.
Most international teachers in Sweden fall into two categories. Transitory types who do a year or two to experience the culture, then move on, and really long-term types who are attached to Sweden through spouses or children and will be there more or less forever.
It's not a bad gig, but it's hardly the typical international educator experience.
You should also know a few more interesting bits about international schools in Sweden. In fact, all schools in Sweden. There is no such thing as a private school in Sweden; all are funded by the government and bound by certain expectations. The local commune (government) holds lots of power as to how schools are organized, including being able to say "You will be moving to a new campus next year" or "You will no longer be an international school." Not that the government is capricious or anything, it's just a different environment than most international schools function in. The Swedish education system is actually a relatively cool one, with some great protections for students, and high expectations. And since each school in the country is funded exactly the same amount per student, and since it's illegal for schools to charge parents fees (except for certain well-defined optional extras), schools are generally operating on a tight but sufficient budget. There is no such thing as "overseas hire". You will be working for the government, paid the same as everybody else, no extras for relocation, no housing, high taxes. On the plus side, you'll be fully part of the Swedish social system, which will give you plenty of health and employment protections. Retirement and parental benefits too, if you have reason to access them.
Most international teachers in Sweden fall into two categories. Transitory types who do a year or two to experience the culture, then move on, and really long-term types who are attached to Sweden through spouses or children and will be there more or less forever.
It's not a bad gig, but it's hardly the typical international educator experience.
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IS-Educator
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2011 6:29 am
Re: Sweden
I am an American teaching at an international school in Sweden, similar to one described by "sid." When I first found my position, I did a search of IB (International Baccalaureate) schools and limited it to those implementing the PYP (Primary Years Program). In other places in this forum, you will find that the PYP is a well known, widely used curriculum framework in international schools around the world. I didn't have any experience with this program prior to being hired in Sweden but have since received training through workshops, paid for by the school. The IB recently changed its website, and they used to have a section where IB schools could post job listings, but I haven't been able to find it. The last website, Arbetsförmedlingen, is the Swedish employment agency. In the search ("sök" in Swedish) box, type "international" and you will see international school jobs (along with other jobs requiring international or English language skills) when they come up.
Resources:
http://www.swedishibschools.se/
http://www.ibo.org/en/programmes/find-an-ib-school/
http://www.arbetsformedlingen.se/
Resources:
http://www.swedishibschools.se/
http://www.ibo.org/en/programmes/find-an-ib-school/
http://www.arbetsformedlingen.se/
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Flowerskull
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2014 9:41 am
Re: Sweden
Thank you so much!! I already started looking on these search engines. A lot of the postings seem to be for middle school but I applied to a few anyway seeing that they did have PYP and Primary schools. Who knows... I guess it couldn't hurt.
Response
An American teacher in Sweden is certainly a possibility.
Not ALL schools in Sweden are municipal schools, there are some truly independent private schools (international schools). However many of them are municipal or "state-trust" schools, a charter school in the states would be similar. School districts of which state trust and municipal schools are a part of are funded at the equivalent of the county level and supervised at the municipal level. There is a commissioner of youth services who supervises a director of schools for the area. Your schools HOS reports to this director. There is a lot of power to arrange and reassign faculty but being at the IS program school you wont have to worry about that as the other schools in your municipality are likely to be taught in Swedish of which you must be fluent to provide instruction. It is a requirement however that you study Swedish which will be provided to you by your municipal government (its free). The work day is relatively short. Classes start at 8:30 and the day ends at 2:30, and typically there is no ASP or EXC obligations. You do have more (and more severe) LS/SEN students.
In Sweden you obtain tenure, but what it really means is job security within the commission, not a right to a specific job or even school. It is also not absolute, you can be fired for sufficient cause. Once you have tenure you can apply for PR.
The compensation system is otherwise flat. Swedens philosophy is that people should be paid for what they do, as a teacher everyone fits in the same job category, so everyone gets paid the same regardless of years of experience, degrees, certifications or anything else. The only way to get a raise is to become an administrator and even then the salary isnt much more as your still in the education services work group. Your salary will be about 29,000 Crowns (Kroner) or about $5000 USD but Swedens tax rate is about 40% meaning your salary is about $2800USD a month.
In general you get no relocation package, a school might give you a a one way flight and some temporary housing but thats uncommon. You do get great social insurance/pension.
Not ALL schools in Sweden are municipal schools, there are some truly independent private schools (international schools). However many of them are municipal or "state-trust" schools, a charter school in the states would be similar. School districts of which state trust and municipal schools are a part of are funded at the equivalent of the county level and supervised at the municipal level. There is a commissioner of youth services who supervises a director of schools for the area. Your schools HOS reports to this director. There is a lot of power to arrange and reassign faculty but being at the IS program school you wont have to worry about that as the other schools in your municipality are likely to be taught in Swedish of which you must be fluent to provide instruction. It is a requirement however that you study Swedish which will be provided to you by your municipal government (its free). The work day is relatively short. Classes start at 8:30 and the day ends at 2:30, and typically there is no ASP or EXC obligations. You do have more (and more severe) LS/SEN students.
In Sweden you obtain tenure, but what it really means is job security within the commission, not a right to a specific job or even school. It is also not absolute, you can be fired for sufficient cause. Once you have tenure you can apply for PR.
The compensation system is otherwise flat. Swedens philosophy is that people should be paid for what they do, as a teacher everyone fits in the same job category, so everyone gets paid the same regardless of years of experience, degrees, certifications or anything else. The only way to get a raise is to become an administrator and even then the salary isnt much more as your still in the education services work group. Your salary will be about 29,000 Crowns (Kroner) or about $5000 USD but Swedens tax rate is about 40% meaning your salary is about $2800USD a month.
In general you get no relocation package, a school might give you a a one way flight and some temporary housing but thats uncommon. You do get great social insurance/pension.
Re: Sweden
The technical legal points don't make much difference, and I'm willing to concede them to PG.
However, he is unfortunately inaccurate about salary and hours. There are indeed differences in wages for different qualifications and years of experience and such, and rather than a set salary scale with a predictable increase each year, raises are determined each year by the head of school based on merit. I can't swear it's that way in every school, but it is in at least some of them, and typically with the swedish system, what's true in one school is true in all.
As for hours, different schools have different hours, and teachers are contracted for more than the 6 hours a day which PG implies. There is a strong union, so you won't be expected to work past your contracted hours, but a 30 hour week is just dreaming.
PG has been known to respond, shall we say, assertively to correction. If he does, I won't reappear in this discussion. I simply have no interest in that sort of thing. So perhaps my final advice is to look around, contact different schools, and hear from them what the pay and conditions are like.
Good luck. Sweden can be a lot of fun.
However, he is unfortunately inaccurate about salary and hours. There are indeed differences in wages for different qualifications and years of experience and such, and rather than a set salary scale with a predictable increase each year, raises are determined each year by the head of school based on merit. I can't swear it's that way in every school, but it is in at least some of them, and typically with the swedish system, what's true in one school is true in all.
As for hours, different schools have different hours, and teachers are contracted for more than the 6 hours a day which PG implies. There is a strong union, so you won't be expected to work past your contracted hours, but a 30 hour week is just dreaming.
PG has been known to respond, shall we say, assertively to correction. If he does, I won't reappear in this discussion. I simply have no interest in that sort of thing. So perhaps my final advice is to look around, contact different schools, and hear from them what the pay and conditions are like.
Good luck. Sweden can be a lot of fun.
Reply
Compensation differs from municipality to municipality but within a school teachers will all be paid the same within a work group. Some municipalities have a senior teacher work group for instance, but years of service, experience, and academic credentials do not effect compensation.
The salary schedule is not set by the principal its set by the director for that municipality and greatly influenced by the commissioner for that county. A principal may give a bonus but its out of the schools PD or another fund, unless its authorized by the government seat, but that never happens.
I should of used "about" when referring to school hours, but no its generally a short day and its only 6 hours. It doesnt get light out until 7:30 and it starts getting dark at 3:00pm. It really is a 30 hour work week, but its actually a lot less than that, as you typically teach 15 periods a week. Its less a union issue and simply a matter of law. Government employees may be incentivized to work past their scheduled duty period but they can not be required to do so.
I would say aggressively, though I wouldnt call it correction when your wrong.
The salary schedule is not set by the principal its set by the director for that municipality and greatly influenced by the commissioner for that county. A principal may give a bonus but its out of the schools PD or another fund, unless its authorized by the government seat, but that never happens.
I should of used "about" when referring to school hours, but no its generally a short day and its only 6 hours. It doesnt get light out until 7:30 and it starts getting dark at 3:00pm. It really is a 30 hour work week, but its actually a lot less than that, as you typically teach 15 periods a week. Its less a union issue and simply a matter of law. Government employees may be incentivized to work past their scheduled duty period but they can not be required to do so.
I would say aggressively, though I wouldnt call it correction when your wrong.
Comment
@IS-Educator
The IBO discontinued its school jobs service at the end of November 2014, with a couple schools advertising agreements ending in December.
The decision was made by the secretariat after advisement from legal services, that compliance with multiple jurisdictional requests regarding compliance with various labor laws and regulations proved too problematic.
The IBO discontinued its school jobs service at the end of November 2014, with a couple schools advertising agreements ending in December.
The decision was made by the secretariat after advisement from legal services, that compliance with multiple jurisdictional requests regarding compliance with various labor laws and regulations proved too problematic.
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datsyukian
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2014 8:40 am
- Location: South America
Re: Sweden
Prepare to live paycheck to paycheck and not save much money, if any.
Re: Sweden
Right, I did some checking with actual Swedes, actually working in Sweden currently, and this is what they say.
There is a national agreement re teachers hours. Apparently it's from a few years back, not sure when, and still in force with no sign of changing.
Teachers get more holidays than most Swedes, so they are expected to work longer hours than most when school is in session. This is to balance things out nationally re year-round salaries, retirement contributions, parental benefits and such like that - it's complicated. During the school year, teachers are contracted to work 45.5 hours per week. Of that, they must spend at least 37.5 on site during school hours. The remainder they are normally obliged to use at their discretion, so they can go home or to a pub, whatever, to do their grading and report writing. It's an "on their honor" sort of thing, and knowing teachers, I'm not the least bit surprised if most are doing just that or more. The school can obligate teachers to use some of those "honor" hours for specific events like parent conferences and such, which then kicks off even more complicated arrangements where those used "honor" hours are re-allocated to the teacher to take as time off, but only when the teacher is not scheduled to teach. Actual start and finish times vary by school, day and sometimes individual teacher schedule.
And they confirm that salary scales are NOT flat. There are indeed annual raises, unique to each person and decided by the school, and differences in salary due to different years of experience, qualifications, contributions, etc.
There is a national agreement re teachers hours. Apparently it's from a few years back, not sure when, and still in force with no sign of changing.
Teachers get more holidays than most Swedes, so they are expected to work longer hours than most when school is in session. This is to balance things out nationally re year-round salaries, retirement contributions, parental benefits and such like that - it's complicated. During the school year, teachers are contracted to work 45.5 hours per week. Of that, they must spend at least 37.5 on site during school hours. The remainder they are normally obliged to use at their discretion, so they can go home or to a pub, whatever, to do their grading and report writing. It's an "on their honor" sort of thing, and knowing teachers, I'm not the least bit surprised if most are doing just that or more. The school can obligate teachers to use some of those "honor" hours for specific events like parent conferences and such, which then kicks off even more complicated arrangements where those used "honor" hours are re-allocated to the teacher to take as time off, but only when the teacher is not scheduled to teach. Actual start and finish times vary by school, day and sometimes individual teacher schedule.
And they confirm that salary scales are NOT flat. There are indeed annual raises, unique to each person and decided by the school, and differences in salary due to different years of experience, qualifications, contributions, etc.
Reply
Im sure they are very adept at the technical aspects of labor law in Sweden in regard to educators. They are absolutely right in theory, but in practice no. Admins simply dont want to keep track of and tabulating honor hours (theyre actually called discretionary time). Its too much of a hassle to keep up with meetings, conferences, duty schedules, and other activities.
The reason why this happens is that instead of having a convoluted and complex time keeping session of how many discretionary hours and parts there of, administrators dont bother with it, you have a 6 hour instructional day, which is 30 hours a week most people will come in a little before 1st period (8:30) and leave a little after dismissal, students have gone (2:30), administrators will just expect that if there is a meeting or a conference or lunch duty, play ground duty, bus duty or ASP, that they can just schedule/assign relatively worry free, knowing that you have about an hour extra of each day in duty time (or about 5 hours a week, admins generally pad the begging and end of the day by 15 minutes each).
You would think this is a benefit to the teachers in that they basically work less, but again in practice they dont. The reason is overtime. A teacher will normally arrive a half hour to 15 minutes before school start, take off their court, make some photo copies, have a cup of coffee/espresso/coco (love the coco, its really drinking chocolate) have a danish, or some fruit in the teachers cafe (it really means teachers lunch break room, not to be confused with teacher offices), move some stuff into their first period class, etc. At the end of the day you do the same, a little chit chat, a student conference, another beverage, some photo copying checking your in box, so another 15 minutes too half an hour at the end of the day (assuming you dont have anything scheduled). The problem of course that happened is that teachers were basically eating up contract time doing very little. A few enterprising teachers realized they could get to school early, do nothing, and leave the school late and eat into their discretionary time and then could actually rack up a few hours of highly paid overtime, especially if there was a workshop etc. All the while the bookkeeping was a pain (COTAG/RFID key tags and keys would indicate when you entered and left the building, but that didnt account for what you were DOING in the building).
The admin solution was to just dump the record keeping, establish by policy a well padded schedule and if any teacher wanted to "prove" they were overworked put the burden on them to do so, the vast majority of teachers got with the program.
Yes they are flat, there are annual raises but they apply to everyone in a work group, everyone in a work group is making the same and the municipal directorate makes those decisions, not the principal, the principal might have significant influence but its still a decision made by the commissioners office.
Some municipalities have more than one work group for teachers (a very , very small senior teacher work group isnt uncommon) but no Swedish labor philosophy, policy and practice is that employees (especially government employees) are compensated based on their work group and classification, years of experience, degrees, etc dont change those categories and classifications.
The reason why this happens is that instead of having a convoluted and complex time keeping session of how many discretionary hours and parts there of, administrators dont bother with it, you have a 6 hour instructional day, which is 30 hours a week most people will come in a little before 1st period (8:30) and leave a little after dismissal, students have gone (2:30), administrators will just expect that if there is a meeting or a conference or lunch duty, play ground duty, bus duty or ASP, that they can just schedule/assign relatively worry free, knowing that you have about an hour extra of each day in duty time (or about 5 hours a week, admins generally pad the begging and end of the day by 15 minutes each).
You would think this is a benefit to the teachers in that they basically work less, but again in practice they dont. The reason is overtime. A teacher will normally arrive a half hour to 15 minutes before school start, take off their court, make some photo copies, have a cup of coffee/espresso/coco (love the coco, its really drinking chocolate) have a danish, or some fruit in the teachers cafe (it really means teachers lunch break room, not to be confused with teacher offices), move some stuff into their first period class, etc. At the end of the day you do the same, a little chit chat, a student conference, another beverage, some photo copying checking your in box, so another 15 minutes too half an hour at the end of the day (assuming you dont have anything scheduled). The problem of course that happened is that teachers were basically eating up contract time doing very little. A few enterprising teachers realized they could get to school early, do nothing, and leave the school late and eat into their discretionary time and then could actually rack up a few hours of highly paid overtime, especially if there was a workshop etc. All the while the bookkeeping was a pain (COTAG/RFID key tags and keys would indicate when you entered and left the building, but that didnt account for what you were DOING in the building).
The admin solution was to just dump the record keeping, establish by policy a well padded schedule and if any teacher wanted to "prove" they were overworked put the burden on them to do so, the vast majority of teachers got with the program.
Yes they are flat, there are annual raises but they apply to everyone in a work group, everyone in a work group is making the same and the municipal directorate makes those decisions, not the principal, the principal might have significant influence but its still a decision made by the commissioners office.
Some municipalities have more than one work group for teachers (a very , very small senior teacher work group isnt uncommon) but no Swedish labor philosophy, policy and practice is that employees (especially government employees) are compensated based on their work group and classification, years of experience, degrees, etc dont change those categories and classifications.
Re: Sweden
Hi,
You got a lot of wrong information here.
In Sweden, there are 3 types of schools in terms of legal status (actually 4, but I will not speak about "Riksinternatskolor" which are irrelevant in the discussion):
1) Communal schools (owned and run by the municipality)
2) Free schools (owned and run by private individuals). This category can be itself subdivided in 2 categories: non-profit and for-profit. For-profit schools have a lot of political pressure on them since the last elections.
These two categories are not allowed to accept fees.
3) Free schools which are allowed to accept fees.
There are 2 types of schools in terms of curriculum:
a) Swedish curriculum
b) Other country or international curriculum
All real international schools fall into categories 3/b (except ISSR but as written below ISSR will probably lose its international license).
Engelska skolan schools are NOT international schools. They are regular free schools / Swedish curriculum offering a bilingual education with reinforced English profile. Do not be mistaken ! The Swedish curriculum has extremely low expectations, these schools can by no means be compared with real international schools.
Same applies to "fake" international schools as STIMS and a lot of others.
There are actually very few real international schools in Sweden.
In Stockholm these are:
* SIS (IPC, IMYP, IB curriculum)
* Lycée Francais Saint-Louis (French curriculum)
* Tanto International School (English, probably the best school in Stockholm but only until Year7/Grade 6)
* Futura International (IPC, IMYP)
* BIS (Cross Englisg / IPC)
* ISSR (PYP, IB, but it has a lot of pressure to revert back to Swedish curriculum)
Additionally, some Swedish high schools do run an IB class but they are also under pressure to remove it (Kungsholmens gymnasium) or to be allowed to accept fees (Sigtuna).
You got a lot of wrong information here.
In Sweden, there are 3 types of schools in terms of legal status (actually 4, but I will not speak about "Riksinternatskolor" which are irrelevant in the discussion):
1) Communal schools (owned and run by the municipality)
2) Free schools (owned and run by private individuals). This category can be itself subdivided in 2 categories: non-profit and for-profit. For-profit schools have a lot of political pressure on them since the last elections.
These two categories are not allowed to accept fees.
3) Free schools which are allowed to accept fees.
There are 2 types of schools in terms of curriculum:
a) Swedish curriculum
b) Other country or international curriculum
All real international schools fall into categories 3/b (except ISSR but as written below ISSR will probably lose its international license).
Engelska skolan schools are NOT international schools. They are regular free schools / Swedish curriculum offering a bilingual education with reinforced English profile. Do not be mistaken ! The Swedish curriculum has extremely low expectations, these schools can by no means be compared with real international schools.
Same applies to "fake" international schools as STIMS and a lot of others.
There are actually very few real international schools in Sweden.
In Stockholm these are:
* SIS (IPC, IMYP, IB curriculum)
* Lycée Francais Saint-Louis (French curriculum)
* Tanto International School (English, probably the best school in Stockholm but only until Year7/Grade 6)
* Futura International (IPC, IMYP)
* BIS (Cross Englisg / IPC)
* ISSR (PYP, IB, but it has a lot of pressure to revert back to Swedish curriculum)
Additionally, some Swedish high schools do run an IB class but they are also under pressure to remove it (Kungsholmens gymnasium) or to be allowed to accept fees (Sigtuna).