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I have an American fiance and we would like to live in Poland. I believe my fiance could make a good English teacher (has BA). We do not know how to start. Maybe some of you have experience of living and working in Poland please give us some advice on how to organize English teaching job here. Is sole proprietorship the best form here? What is your opinion?
Hi Lucyna,
What does your fiance have a BA in? Does he have any English teaching certification like a TESOL or CELTA? If not, it is a good idea to take a course like that so that you have some foundation about how to teach. Plus, language schools always look favorably at certificates like that because they know the person has some amount of training and isn't a big risk.
What city are you based in? Is it big or small? Language schools in your area will start looking for teachers soons, so it's a good idea to start sending out a CV.
As for the sole proprietorship, it's generally a good idea but perhaps wait to see if a language school requires it. For the first two years the ZUS is very low (less than 200 zl) but then it is a lot (around 900 zl). There are schools that will give an Umowa o Dzielo, but then there's no medical insurance with that.
Hi Andre,
Thank you very much for your reply and advice. My fiance has BA in advertising, yes we already consider taking TOEFL or TESOL or CELTA. Which one do you recommend? We will be based in Katowice. If a language school gives an Umowa o Dzieło do we need a special work permit?
Thank you a lot.
Lucyna
The CELTA would probably be the easiest to get and is recognized everywhere. I'm not sure where the nearest place to get a TESOL is though. In practice, they all amount to the same thing; very often employers are interested in how many hours the course was and if there was supervised teaching... I believe over 100 hours is what they are looking for.
I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that getting some kind of work permit is needed if you are doing an Umowa o Dzielo or a sole proprietorship. The advantage of the latter is that you can submit all the documentations yourself and it entitles you to much greater flexibility on the market; many schools avoid employeeing people on Umowa o Dzielo while gladly hire a sole proprietorship. Otherwise, if you want to get a work permit via Umowa o Dzielo, it's left up to the single employer giving you the Umowa o Dzielo to take care of the paperwork (it's won't be their priority, trust me) and you need to get a SEPARATE work permit for each company you work for. So, I guess it just makes sense to get the sole proprietorship in the end.
Hello Andrea,
Thank you for your advice. It is easier to start when somebody helps.
Thank you again
I hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions!
Andre
