International Teachers Moving Abroad - Taking your Gadgets with you

Dear fellow international teachers, If you're anything like me, you love your gadgets. I sometimes think my gadgets weigh more than my clothing when I travel. And once you've got your gadgets sorted out, you've then got to get the chargers, and adapters to go with them!

But there's more to it than that. Not all countries operate their gadgets on the same standards. North America has a completely different system for cellphones for example.

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Moving abroad to teach at an international school is probably the best career move you will ever make, but it's not without pitfalls that can easily be avoided.

Do your research and you'll enjoy every minute of your overseas teaching experience!

Teaching Jobs Abroad and Police Clearance Certificates

Police clearance certificates are as important to international teachers as their passports. Why? Without a police clearance certificate many countries will not allow teachers to work with children.

The clearance certificate goes by many different names; what you’re looking for is an official document that records any convictions on your criminal record. Regardless of whether you have any convictions or not, you will be required to produce official evidence that your record is clear.

If you record is not clear you may still be able to teach abroad, but you will need to find out which countries will grant you a work permit with the convictions you have.

More rigorous background checks for foreign teachers applying to work in Thailand have been put in place because of a recent high profile arrest of an American teacher by American immigration officers in August 2006. The teacher was taken back to the States for questioning in a murder investigation.

Once you’ve obtained your police clearance certificate, take it with you when you move overseas. It’s one of those important documents you should always be able to lay your hands on. A clearance certificate is one of my top 10 things to take when moving abroad. You’ll need to have the original with you; it’s not one of the documents you can carry in digital format.

When you are nearing the end of you first overseas teaching contract start making enquiries about what you need to do to obtain a clearance certificate from the police in the country you’ve been teaching in. This is important! When you’re teaching abroad it’s important you maintain an unbroken chain of police clearance certificates or the equivalent.

Should you eventually desire to return home and pick up your teaching career there, you’ll need to supply the clearance certificates you’ve collected whilst working abroad. A consequence of not being able to produce a record of your conviction history could be that you’re unable to continue working in the education industry as a teacher when you return home.