Teaching Jobs Abroad: Boards, Programs, Employers, Pay

Teaching jobs abroad come through three channels that hire on different calendars: government assistant programs with one fixed application window a year, private language schools that hire year-round, and international K-12 schools that recruit eight to ten months before an August start. Pay differs as much as timing. Japan’s JET Programme gives first-year pay of about ¥4,020,000, while Spain’s assistant program pays an €800 monthly stipend for 14 to 16 classroom hours a week.

International schools are the largest employer of the three. ISC Research counted 15,075 international schools in 2026, up 2% on a year earlier, employing 730,000 staff, with 58% of the schools in Asia. Most of those posts go to licensed teachers; the programs and language schools below are where a graduate with a TEFL certificate starts.

This directory covers the programs, boards, employers, qualifications and forums that matter for each channel, plus a pay table that says who produced each figure. Every site below was opened on 30 October 2026. Individual vacancies are kept in a separate post of current open positions, checked regularly, so this page does not go stale with them.

Five government programs with published pay and fixed calendars

These programs are run or contracted by national education authorities. They publish pay, hours and eligibility in advance, and each recruits once a year. Most place assistants rather than lead teachers, Hong Kong being the exception.

JET Programme (Japan)

The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme places assistant language teachers and coordinators for international relations in Japanese schools and local governments. Applications go through the Japanese embassy or consulate in each participating country, so the deadline depends on nationality. The Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands gives first-year pay of about ¥4,020,000, rising on renewal, and requires a bachelor’s degree by the start date. Its intake for 2026 closed on 4 March 2026. The JET Program USA site describes a window running from late September to mid-November.

Strength: Salary is published and the program arranges placement and the work visa.
Limit: Dates and rules are set country by country, and the central jetprogramme.org site was down for maintenance on 30 October 2026.

EPIK (South Korea)

The English Program in Korea places native-speaker teachers in public schools through regional education offices. The official EPIK site showed the Spring 2027 application as open on 30 October 2026, with no deadline posted. Base pay runs from ₩2.2 million a month at the current entry level to ₩3.0 million at the top grades in Seoul and North Chungcheong, according to a recruiter’s summary of the scale last updated on 4 May 2026. Housing is free, and a ₩300,000 settlement allowance is paid on arrival.

Strength: Free housing and entrance and exit allowances of ₩1.3 million to ₩1.8 million sit on top of base pay.
Limit: Pay level depends on qualifications and province, and the most detailed breakdown comes from Korvia, a recruiting agency, rather than EPIK’s own pages.

NET Scheme (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong’s Native-speaking English Teacher Scheme hires full teachers, not assistants, for public schools. The Education Bureau’s primary recruitment page sets salary at HK$35,080 to HK$67,850 a month, capped at HK$44,765 for appointees without recognized teacher training, plus a HK$20,989 monthly special allowance for those normally resident outside Hong Kong. Applicants need an English degree (or any degree plus a higher degree in English), a postgraduate diploma in education or equivalent, and a TEFL certificate, with overseas qualifications assessed by HKCAAVQ. Contracts run two years from mid-August, and the deadline for 2026/27 was 24 April 2026.

Strength: The highest published pay in this group, with a contract-end gratuity of 10% to 15% of basic salary.
Limit: The teacher-training requirement rules out most applicants who hold only a TEFL certificate, and criminal record certificates are needed for every country lived in (see background checks by country).

Auxiliares de Conversación (Spain)

Spain’s Ministry of Education places language assistants in schools for the academic year. Its 2026-2027 call paid €800 a month as an allowance for room and board, for 14 to 16 hours of classroom work a week, from 1 November 2026 to 31 May 2027. Some regions pay more for more hours. Applicants needed citizenship of a country with an agreement with Spain, a degree or at least second-year university enrollment, and an age of 18 to under 45. The application window ran from 2 to 30 June 2026.

Strength: Open to current university students, not only graduates.
Limit: The payment is a stipend, not a salary, and applicants from 11 countries, including China, Poland and Sweden, must show C2 English.

TAPIF (France)

The Teaching Assistant Program in France places assistants in up to three schools for seven months, October to April. Villa Albertine’s TAPIF page gives the stipend as €1,010.67 gross a month, about €810 net, for up to 12 hours a week. Applicants must be 20 to 35, have completed three years of higher education by departure, and speak French at B1. Applications for 2027-2028 are open until 15 February 2027.

Strength: The lightest teaching load of the five programs.
Limit: This route is only for US citizens and permanent residents; the page does not cover other nationalities.

Four job boards and one fair organizer

Tes

Tes Jobs showed 6,222 teaching and education jobs on 30 October 2026, across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and beyond, with filters for position, subject, school type, contract term and salary. International school ads usually carry a closing date and a start date, which most language-teaching boards do not.

Strength: The main board for licensed teachers applying to international schools, with interview timelines often stated.
Limit: The international search mixed UK tutoring ads into its first page, and many school ads describe pay only as a competitive package.

TEFL.com

TEFL.com, operating since 1997, listed 101 ads covering 1,587 positions in 31 countries on 30 October 2026. Most ads give pay in local currency and list required qualifications, with Spain, the UK and Italy the countries with the most ads in its search filter.

Strength: Pay is stated in most ads, which makes comparison possible.
Limit: Most ads opened showed no posting date, several contradicted themselves on experience or start date, and at least one was a placement that charges the teacher a program fee.

Dave’s ESL Cafe

Dave’s ESL Cafe runs separate job boards for Korea, China and the rest of the world, plus a resume board and job forums for each region.

Strength: Dedicated Korea and China boards, each with its own discussion forum.
Limit: Listings load by script and show no counts or posting dates on the board pages, so freshness has to be checked ad by ad.

Teach Away

Teach Away is a Canada-based job board and recruiter covering K-12 and ESL jobs, with country pages for China, the UAE, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Spain and Mexico, among others. Ads list which citizenships the employer can get a visa for.

Strength: Visa-eligible nationalities are stated in each ad, which saves applications that cannot succeed.
Limit: The site also sells TEFL courses and teacher certification, and its featured ads showed no salary on the listing page.

Search Associates

Search Associates runs in-person recruitment fairs where international schools interview licensed teachers. Its fairs are open by invitation only to member schools and registered candidates.

Strength: Face-to-face interviews with several member schools in one place.
Limit: No 2026-2027 fair dates or candidate fees were visible on its schedule page on 30 October 2026.

Four employers that recruit on their own sites

British Council

The British Council careers portal lists teaching posts with filters for country, region, city and contract type. Teacher of English ads for Madrid, Palma de Mallorca and Amman found on 30 October 2026 were all marked as filled.

Strength: A single portal for teaching centers in many countries.
Limit: Requirements and pay appear only in individual postings, and the results list did not load a vacancy count when checked.

Nord Anglia Education

Nord Anglia Education says it runs more than 90 schools across the Americas, Asia, China, Europe and the Middle East, and recruits through its own portal by region. Its careers page lists no specific qualifications and does not mention fairs.

Strength: One application route for a large group of international schools.
Limit: The number of countries and the requirements are not stated on the careers page.

GEMS Education

GEMS Education describes itself as one of the largest private K-12 providers in the world. It recruits through its careers site, global recruitment campaigns and authorized recruitment partners, and may use assessment centers or a sample lesson in selection.

Strength: Several routes in, including recruitment partners as well as its own site.
Limit: School counts and qualification rules are not given on the careers page. Gulf contract rules are covered in working in the Gulf after kafala.

Berlitz

Berlitz hires language instructors for more than 550 locations in 70 countries. New hires complete its own Teaching at Berlitz training before taking classes, and country career pages list local openings; the Peru page showed three English instructor posts on 30 October 2026.

Strength: New instructors are trained in the method they will teach before their first class.
Limit: Pay and requirements are not on the global careers page, and some country posting pages block automated access.

CELTA, CertTESOL and ISC Research data

Cambridge CELTA

CELTA is a course of at least 120 hours with observed teaching practice, offered at more than 280 authorized centers, usually over four to five weeks full-time. Cambridge says 63% of English-teaching job ads in a 2025 study it cites required CELTA; that figure is the awarding body’s own claim.

Strength: Named in a large share of language-school ads, including several opened for this directory.
Limit: It does not meet the teacher-training requirement of programs such as Hong Kong’s NET Scheme or of most international schools.

Trinity CertTESOL

Trinity’s CertTESOL requires at least 130 guided learning hours, 200 hours of total qualification time and six hours of observed teaching practice. It sits at Level 5 on the UK’s regulated qualifications framework and is offered by more than 100 validated providers.

Strength: Accepted alongside CELTA in several language-school ads opened for this directory.
Limit: Non-native speakers are normally expected to show C1 English before enrolling.

ISC Research

ISC Research tracks the international school market; its 2026 figures, summarized by ICEF Monitor, show 7.7 million students and US$69.3 billion in annual fees. China has the most schools, though growth there is flattening, while the UAE grew 7% and has 36 new schools planned.

Strength: Shows where new schools, and so new teaching posts, are opening.
Limit: The public summary does not split staff into teachers and other roles.

Two subreddits, a school review site and the ESL Cafe forums

Reddit refused direct access, so member counts below come from GummySearch on the dates shown.

r/TEFL

r/TEFL had about 102,000 members on 28 October 2026. Discussion centers on language-school jobs, contracts and countries, with China a frequent topic.

r/Internationalteachers

r/Internationalteachers had about 58,000 members on 17 October 2026. It is aimed at certified teachers, and its most common post labels are job search, school-specific information and location questions.

International Schools Review

International Schools Review publishes teachers’ reviews of schools and reports on more than 5,100 directors and principals. Its regional lists add up to about 2,186 schools and 17,900 reviews, the Middle East and East Asia the largest; some content requires membership, and the price is not shown on the home page.

Dave’s ESL Cafe forums

The ESL Cafe forums run separate job discussion boards for Korea, China and international posts, where teachers ask about specific employers before signing.

Pay figures by program and country, sorted by who produced them

Official rows come from the program or ministry that sets the pay. The international school rows are a recruiter’s averages for qualified teachers, published without a stated method. Currencies are not converted, and pay bases differ.

Role	Figure	Source with date
NET teacher, Hong Kong primary school	HK$35,080 to HK$67,850 a month, plus HK$20,989 special allowance for non-local appointees	Official: Education Bureau, 2026/27 recruitment
JET assistant language teacher, Japan	About ¥4,020,000 a year (first year)	Official: Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands, page dated 1 September 2026
TAPIF assistant, France	€1,010.67 gross a month (about €810 net)	Official: Villa Albertine, 2027-2028 cycle
Auxiliar de conversación, Spain	€800 a month stipend (more in some regions, with more hours)	Official: Ministry of Education, 2026-2027 call
EPIK public school teacher, South Korea	₩2.2 million to ₩3.0 million a month base, housing provided	Recruiter summary of official scale: Korvia, scale dated 4 May 2026
Qualified international school teacher, China	US$43,200 entry average; US$60,100 experienced (a year)	Recruiter estimate, no method stated: Teacher Horizons, 24 July 2026
Qualified international school teacher, Qatar	US$38,900 entry; US$51,400 experienced (a year)	Recruiter estimate, no method stated: Teacher Horizons, 24 July 2026
Qualified international school teacher, UAE	US$34,700 entry; US$48,300 experienced (a year)	Recruiter estimate, no method stated: Teacher Horizons, 24 July 2026
Qualified international school teacher, Spain	US$32,400 entry; US$38,400 experienced (a year)	Recruiter estimate, no method stated: Teacher Horizons, 24 July 2026
Qualified international school teacher, Thailand	US$30,000 entry; US$40,700 experienced (a year)	Recruiter estimate, no method stated: Teacher Horizons, 24 July 2026
Qualified international school teacher, Colombia	US$25,200 entry; US$31,400 experienced (a year)	Recruiter estimate, no method stated: Teacher Horizons, 24 July 2026

The figures are not like for like. EPIK includes free housing that the base figure leaves out, Hong Kong adds a large allowance for overseas hires, and the Spanish and French amounts are stipends for part-time hours. The Teacher Horizons averages carry wide ranges (US$12,000 to US$55,000 for entry-level teachers in Thailand) and do not say whether housing and flights are counted. No official source publishes pay for private language schools in these countries, so ads remain the only evidence for that channel. Teachers leaving the profession rather than moving abroad are covered in second careers for teachers.

Application windows open on 30 October 2026, and those still unannounced

Two programs were taking applications on 30 October 2026: EPIK’s Spring 2027 intake, with no deadline posted, and TAPIF for 2027-2028, closing on 15 February 2027. JET windows close country by country, with the US window described as running to mid-November. Spain’s 2027-2028 Auxiliares call and Hong Kong’s 2027/28 NET recruitment had no published dates; the previous rounds closed on 30 June 2026 and 24 April 2026.

The later stages are also fixed. JET Program USA lists interviews in late January and early February 2027, results in April and departures in July and August 2027. Hong Kong’s NET contracts start in mid-August, so if the 2027/28 round follows the 2026/27 timetable, its deadline would fall in late April 2027, about five weeks before Spain’s call would open if it repeats the June 2026 window.

Teaching Jobs Abroad: Boards, Employers, Pay and Programs