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Original poster

Leaving teaching to WFH ideas?

20 replies

Tanguango · 20/10/2023 13:09

I have been working as a primary school teacher for 10 years and it just isn't sustainable for me anymore. I will be leaving at the end of this academic year but I do not know what to do instead. I'm hoping to get some ideas. I love the relationships I have with my pupils, their parents and my colleagues. I love the routine and I love when there is an opportunity for me to be creative. I studied maths and I speak 4 languages but teaching is allI've ever done and I knew I wanted to be a teacher from age 10.
Ideally I would like to move abroad to the (developing) country DP comes from. DP can easily work there but I do not speak the language well enough yet, so I would want to work remotely in an English speaking role. As it is a developing country with a much lower cost of living, I could afford to take a paycut. I've been thinking about admin roles or possibly retraining as a data scientist, but I'd love suggestions from anyone who has done something similar.

OP posts:

user1846385927482658 · 20/10/2023 13:22

Do you mean you want to work for a UK employer from another country? Because most employers won't allow that as it causes legal and tax issues for them.

Original poster

Tanguango · 20/10/2023 13:24

Yes I want to live overseas and work online for a UK / other English speaking company.

OP posts:

SylvieLaufeydottir · 20/10/2023 13:30

As PP say, it is very unlikely that any company will employ you to WFH in a country other than the one they operate from, unless you have a very rare and valuable skillset indeed. That exposes them to tax liabilities in both countries. You will need to work for an employer which is legally based, or at least has a subsidiary in, the country you want to live in.

user1846385927482658 · 20/10/2023 19:19

Tanguango · 20/10/2023 13:24

Yes I want to live overseas and work online for a UK / other English speaking company.

Highly highly unlikely to be possible unless they already have a subsidiary in your country of residence. Certainly not for admin work or something where you need training from scratch - it wouldn't be worth the cost and risks when they could just hire someone in the UK.

Is the relocation definite? Because it's not really compatible with the other parts of your plan.

How were you planning to pay your bills when you resigned your teaching post? Or was it a fixed term contract?

user1846385927482658 · 20/10/2023 19:20

Just wondering if you originally had a more realistic plan that's fallen through and maybe people could help you re-build something from that.

Octavia64 · 20/10/2023 19:35

You could try online tutoring, particularly if you studied maths and speak three languages.

Then you are working for yourself.

Meredusoleil · 20/10/2023 19:41

Octavia64 · 20/10/2023 19:35

You could try online tutoring, particularly if you studied maths and speak three languages.

Then you are working for yourself.

Exactly what I was going to say!

Online tutoring is the answer imho. You could tutor English speaking children anywhere in the world for Maths. Plus language tuition including English for other children. You could set up as self-employed, set your own rates and wfh no problem.

user1846385927482658 · 20/10/2023 20:06

That's a pretty saturated market and you'd need to build up a client base.

Also, you said it's a "developing" country - how reliable / fast / expensive is the internet in the area where you intend to work online? Video calls with poor signal are not fun and paying customers wouldn't tolerate that for long.

Time difference? Would you be working at 3am to be available for a UK student at what is a good time for them?

Would working remotely from a country where you don't speak the language and don't therefore have social support beyond your DP be good for your mental health? It could be extremely isolating and damaging (especially for someone who clearly thrives on relationships).

Smartiepants79 · 20/10/2023 20:11

I know there are various agencies that you can sign up for if you want to do online tutoring. A friend does this.

Octavia64 · 20/10/2023 20:42

Could you work for an international (English speaking school)? Would be a pretty much straight transfer although local culture would obviously be different.

piscofrisco · 21/10/2023 07:35

The company I work for is fully remote with some staff in South Africa, one in Lisbon, one in Manila. One if those is the pa to the CEO. One is head of sales. The others are techy.

IncomingTraffic · 21/10/2023 07:38

There are learning designer roles that can be remote.

decionsdecisions62 · 21/10/2023 07:39

I work from home and I would like that too! Bahamas here I come! Unfortunately my company policies prevent that! 🤣

year3k · 21/10/2023 07:46

piscofrisco · 21/10/2023 07:35

The company I work for is fully remote with some staff in South Africa, one in Lisbon, one in Manila. One if those is the pa to the CEO. One is head of sales. The others are techy.

What is the business model for the company?

LongLiveGoblingKing · 21/10/2023 07:52

It sounds like you might be able to do technical writing? Especially if you can translate into other languages.

I work in the biotech industry and companies have staff all over the world working from home.

RicStar · 21/10/2023 08:09

As everyone else had said, I think you will have to be freelance or you need an enployer in the country you will move to and will earn a local salary. We employ freelance translators for example from all over the world, for that you would need experience and or a linguists degree before you are taken on to an agencies books and rates depend on the language combinations you can translate. So probably not the correct on for you but there are other industries that will do similar, including potentially for data.

We also employ people as project managers around the world, nearly all speak at least 3 languages (english has to be one of them for us) some of whom work fully remotely, but we would not support a new employee moving from UK to a place we don't have a hub and if we did have a hub then employment and salary would be in line with that market.

Tealtoffee · 21/10/2023 08:21

We previously employed someone who moved countries, we offered her work on a contracting basis - short-term. The time difference was a real issue - not helped by her feeling she should work to her time zone not ours - (the team felt bad arranging meetings that would inconvenience her) - we wouldn't do it again and we do get asked frequently - most definitely not long term, even for someone who was highly skilled. I think there might even be some GDPR issues with the location of data storage, never mind the tax issues.

mikado1 · 21/10/2023 08:25

For someone who thrives on the interpersonal and creative, and wanted to be a teacher since childhood, is there anyway you can continue teaching? Why is it no longer for you?

deplorabelle · 21/10/2023 08:32

I think you would be best to stay in this country for a bit longer, to do some training / work experience in your chosen field and also work on the language of the country you're moving to so you're ready to work locally when you get there.

spirit20 · 21/10/2023 09:59

I think whatever you do would need to be as a freelancer rather than directly employed by a company.

As a language graduate, don't do translation, it's horrifically paid and not easy to break into, unless you have a very rare language combination.

There are options for leaving teaching, but you'd probably need to start a qualification while still teaching, and then look for a job in the UK. For example,
I'm also a teacher planning on leaving soon. I've restarted an accounting qualification that I had initially begun before qualifying as a teacher and hoping to use my language skills to get an entry level job in the finance dept. of an international company.

Another former colleague (a history teacher) did a salesforce admin certificate while still teaching and got a job from that at a charity. She took a pay cut for this, but earning potential is a lot more in the long run.

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