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Teaching English in Resort

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hi all,

I'm thinking about a career change and taking the Anwarter to become a ski instructor in Austria. It sounds like the pay is pretty grim - my research suggest about 800 euros a month. Therefore I'm thinking about possible ways of making a bit of extra cash to keep the bread line at arms length. I'm a qualified teacher and also also have a CELTA qualification for teaching English as a foreign language. Do you think there would be a market for private English tuition in the bigger Austrian resorts?

I'm hoping that other ski instructors and tourism professionals might make for decent market. If I could do 5 or 6 hour-long lessons a week at 15 Euros a pop it would make a big difference to the piggy bank!

Any input/advice much appreciated!
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I would say that there is little, if any, demand for English teaching. The other ski instructors will be from Holland, Denmark and Sweden (plus a couple of Austrians) whose English will be better than the average Brit. The common language amongst seasonaires is Euro-English - as spoken in every hotel, shop, bar and ski school in resort. 'Tourism professionals' in Austria attend the many specialist Tourism Colleges, where one of the basic requirements is good English. You will of course need a knowledge of German in order to take the Anwarter and work in Austria.

€800 a month is not too bad if it includes accommodation, but it is clearly not going to pay the mortgage on your luxury pad back in England. As an instructor you'll usually get good deals on meals and drinks in the restaurants on the mountain and in resort, and you might get some tips too. Shop, bar or hotel work will pay a bit more (€1,000 - €1,200 a month) but obviously limit your skiing time. Compare that with what T/O reps are expected to put up with - on call 24x7 for £100 a week - and it's not so bad as resort work goes. Some instructors work in hotels and bars in the evening to earn a bit more, e.g. pot washing, food prep, waiters, porters etc. or work in ski hire shops on Friday evenings and Saturdays.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
eorpa, Try the local schools, when we did a year in Austria my wife was offered a part time english teaching job at the kindergarten the very day we dropped off our son there. She is a teacher - which helped, but you are as well. When word got around she got more work at the local volkschule and some private stuff.
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I think you'd have more luck in the bigger towns near ski resorts than in resorts themselves. Landeck, Innsbruck, Wörgl, etc (someone else can probably recommend Salzburg options - Saalfelden?). Saying that, St Anton does have a proper primary school in the village so you may have some luck with tutoring. The Arlberg ski school there also pay 1300 a month (-90 for accomm.) - or at least they did in 08/09.

I doubt you'd get much business form other instructors and professionals as the English teaching in schools is so good over here.

Something else to bear in mind is that as an instructor you will be working 5/6 hours in the middle of the day 6 days a week, so if you want any time for your own skiing then you might struggle to find time to fit in extra teaching...
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Thanks for your replies, lots to ponder!

Clarky999, I assume you work/have worked as a ski instructor. Can I be cheeky enough to as how you found the lifestyle? I'm wondering about how to make it financially viable during the summer months. I've done a little research into working the summer season in New Zealand. Has anyone done is the pay in the Southern Hemisphere in the same ballpark as much of the alps.
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eorpa, I did one season and 3 years worth of Christmas weeks instructing.

Now I work in H&M (still working on the 'proper job' bit) in Innsbruck, get paid about the same for less hours and have a LOT more time to ski for myself. Plus 5 weeks of holidays which I can take in the winter to bump ski time up further if I wish (and ski in other countries). Plus I don't have to look for a new job come spring.

Don't get me wrong, instructing is a lot of fun, but for me at least it wasn't a sustainable lifestyle - teach all day, then go to the pub, repeat. Fun for a while, but not what I want to do forever. If you work up the levels that would obviously help make it more sustainable, but tbh form what I can see if you can find a 'proper job' in the Alps you can get just as much free ski time with a significantly better salary, and much more opportunity to travel/buy a car/live in a nice place/etc.

There is plant of raft guiding and mountain bike guiding work available in the Alps in summer btw, if you've got any skills in those areas.
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