Who Will I Teach?
Where you live will largely influence who you teach. If you are teaching in a remote village, you are likely going to be working with younger school children. In towns with universities, there will be more opportunities to teach older student populations. In addition, many business people in the larger metropolitan areas are interested in improving their business English in order to advance in the workplace. If your teaching journey takes you to Indonesia, ample opportunities to teach a wide range of students will present themselves to you.
What Are the Requirements for Teaching ESL in Indonesia?
For most all positions, a bachelor's degree is required, although it typically isn't important what field the degree is in. Much like teaching in the United States, having a Master's degree or a teaching credential will certainly open more doors for you and will most likely allow you to be more selective in choosing a position to accept.
Some teaching positions may require a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) or TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification. These certifications are offered by many international organizations and universities. While it is very possible, particularly in more rural areas, to find positions with only a bachelor's degree, individuals who are serious about careers in teaching would certainly benefit from getting their TEFL or TESOL certification. That being said, if you are new to teaching ESL abroad, it might be advisable to try to find a position that doesn't require a TEFL certification to see if you like teaching before you invest the time and money in a certification.
If you decide that you want to become certified, make sure you look for accredited programs like Bridge TEFL, Oxford Seminars, or TESOL Online.
Where to Find ESL Teaching Jobs in Indonesia
- English First: English First is the world's largest private education company whose mission is to promote greater cultural awareness through education. Their site is a clean, professional, very useful resource for ESL teaching jobs in Indonesia.
- Teach Abroad: A full service web site for the international educator, Teach Abroad offers a job list for prospective teachers as well as information on insurance, scholarships, and even air travel.
- TES All: TES All is a meta-search engine that indexes job postings from other job sites on the web and organizes them in a searchable form.
- Dave's ESL Café: The international job board at Dave's ESL Café is a great resource for jobs in Indonesia. Dave has been hosting this site for many years, and the services and support provided here are legendary within the ESL community.
- ESL Base: ESL Base is another useful source for ESL jobs in Indonesia and elsewhere.
Other Reasons to Consider Teaching in Indonesia
The variety of opportunities Indonesia offers to ESL teachers makes it a destination like no other. From the vibrant city of Jakarta to a remote village on one of the country's 6,000 inhabited islands, the variety of experiences available to the ESL teacher are almost infinite.
Aside from the personal pleasures that living and working in such an environment would provide, teachers can also make meaningful contributions to local communities. Indonesia was hard hit by the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s and nearly half of the nation's inhabitants live on less that $2 US dollars a day. With the population of major cities drastically rising as people migrate in search of work, ESL teachers can provide practical, useful communication and life skills to people of all ages.
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