Megan* jumped at the chance to work as an international primary school teacher in Dubai after she graduated.

’‘It’s such a privilege to be living and working [here]. Just waking up and being in the sun is so good for your mental health and it makes you feel so positive,” she says.

It didn’t hurt that her recruitment package came with some good benefits: her accommodation and utility bills are covered by her school and a £300 car rental charge is her only significant monthly outgoing.

The financial realities of being an international teacher 

But, despite these benefits, it wasn’t long before the idea that she’d have a lot of spare cash evaporated.

’‘I’ve found it very difficult to save in the first year,” she says. “Getting set up and established is expensive and there are costs you just don’t expect.”

She notes, for example, that she had to pay £300 to convert her UK driving licence for use in the UAE, and that excess luggage costs and shipping costs were also steeper than expected.

Of course, moving abroad is always going to come with some costs but what Megan found slightly unnerving was that during her first six months she was on probation and so there was a risk of suddenly being unemployed.

“In that time a teacher can be released without the school having to give a reason - you’re certainly not as protected as you would be in a UK school, ’’ she says.

Megan has now completed her six-month probationary period and so has more job security - but the experience opened her eyes to the fact that international teaching can bring the same financial worries as jobs at home.

“It’s a good idea to bring some savings with you if you can,’’ she says.

Adventurer teachers 

This situation seems at odds with the way international teaching is presented - a mix of great career opportunities, the chance to travel, adventure and, of course, good salaries.

Yet, in reality, the financial pressures that international teachers face is something that international schools need to be aware of, according to Dr Matthieu Bolay, a social anthropologist at the University of Teacher Education Fribourg, in Switzerland, and co-author of a piece of research entitled Precarious privilege: personal debt, lifestyle aspirations and mobility among international school teachers.

Talking to Tes, Bolay explains that “the [international school market] is loosely regulated with short-term contracts, and schools have all the power”.

His paper describes the market as ’’a precarious system that offers little employee protection and formal retirement plans and is sometimes characterised by summary dismissals and continuous relocations”.

‘Teachers are locked into a precarious system that offers little protection and is highly unpredictable’

This research was published in 2020 and Dr Bolay and his colleagues encountered most of their case studies at recruitment fairs in Europe, where young teachers are keen to use their teaching qualification as a passport to travel and experience other cultures.

Bolay’s paper refers to these young teachers as “adventurers” who see the financial risks as a worthwhile trade-off. But many, such as Megan, assume that their school will take care of all of their needs. Which is not the case.

For many, when they actually move and start work, the reality that their contracts are short-term and their costs are a lot steeper than expected can be a real shock - as the paper makes clear.

“While a key point of appeal for such teachers’ participation in the international school sector lies in the ostensible participation in the carefree, privileged environment of lifestyle migration that would have been out of reach for them otherwise, in reality, such horizons of opulence are limited, as teachers are locked into a precarious system that offers little protection and is highly unpredictable,” it says.

Hidden costs

This is something that Caroline Smith* - a senior teacher who is also involved in recruitment for an international school in Thailand - has seen first-hand.

’‘There’s a lot of naivety among young teachers who come out thinking that schools will assume complete responsibility for their welfare,” she says.

Jennie Devine, the head of primary at the Montessori School Almeria, in Spain, who has previously worked in Ecuador, Colombia and Italy, agrees that the financial reality of international teaching can often be overlooked by younger staff - and schools often overlook it, too.

“Unfortunately, many of the younger teachers who are applying for international jobs are not looking long term at the financial implications of working abroad, so I think that schools do not feel the same onus to supply that information,” she says. 

Health care and insurance are areas where Smith says this can cause particular problems.

“Medical insurance is part of the recruitment package but younger staff have a misguided mindset about what that actually covers. It’s not full or comprehensive and if they’re unlucky enough to have a serious problem, they will have to pay for medical care up front,” she explains.

Given this situation, she says, it is important that teachers thinking of moving abroad go in with their eyes wide open - which starts by properly understanding that working overseas is not the same as working in the UK.

’‘In some schools run by private proprietors, contracts can be terminated at short notice and probably aren’t worth the paper they’re written on,” Smith says.

‘It is critical to look at the end-of-contract and the repatriation arrangements’

“What’s more, no job can mean no work permit and sometimes people don’t realise that can even mean a nasty surprise at the airport where they may be expected to pay an expensive exit fee, ’’ she says.

Liz Free, director of the International School Rheintal in Switzerland, agrees and says that staff need to be aware of costs that can catch people by surprise - especially when it comes to the time to go home.

“It is critical to look at the end-of-contract and the repatriation arrangements. Some schools start the contract in August, which means your last paycheck will be in July; and you could not have an August paycheck [at a time when] you have return flights for you and your family,” she says.

Devine says another issue that can catch people out is that salaries can be quoted in one currency and paid in another. “There were issues in schools I’ve worked at where people were quoted salaries in euros but then this was converted in pounds and paid into UK accounts at a set interest rate,” she explains.  “Though this was legal, and in the contract, it still feels really like sleight of hand.”

Do your due diligence 

Smith says teachers heading overseas need to be financially savvy and do “due diligence” on any employer they may work for - and the country they will be in.

“If the school has a recruitment pack, be sure to read it carefully before the interview so that you can ask questions about crucial issues like relocation allowances and how accommodation will work,” she says.

Even if all of this seems above board, she points out that there may be other costs teachers moving abroad forget to factor in.

’‘A lot of expats don’t realise that you can protect your eligibility for a UK state pension by continuing to make a national insurance payment from abroad but again you have to take responsibility for that yourself because no one is going to chase you for it, ’’ she says.

Pensions are something that Mark Steed, an experienced head who is currently principal and CEO of Kellett School, the British School in Hong Kong but previously worked in Dubai, has seen leaders push staff to focus on.

“I know that a colleague in Dubai used to tell his staff at the start of each year to ‘tax themselves’ because we no longer sit within the Teachers’ Pension Scheme,” he says.

This also brings up the issue that, if you are away from the UK for a prolonged period of time, you can become a “financial ghost”: your credit rating can go back to zero, making it difficult to get a mortgage when you return to the UK.

This may seem irrelevant to a young teacher planning a short stint abroad but many in their position end up working overseas for longer.

If you have children while teaching abroad, it can make it harder to get an NHS or national insurance number for them, which can have big financial implications - not least because some UK universities treat these children as overseas applicants, which can mean front-loaded tuition fees and them being ineligible for a student loan.

Dr Bolay’s research also picks up on these longer-term financial issues. “In most countries, employment contracts are often conflated with work visas and residency permits so it can cause real problems, especially for teachers who have families and where the children are still of school age,” he says.

Advice and guidance 

For international schools, then, there is a lot to think about here - after all, if staff have money concerns and worries around pensions or dependents, that’s not good for teacher happiness or wellbeing.

Smith says that raising awareness of these issues is something that her school has started to do more of the interview stage - and it also helps applicants to imagine themselves staying at the school for longer than their initial contract.

“At interviews we encourage staff to think ahead and to actively ask about the re-signing bonuses they can receive as their contract runs down,” she says.

Pension schemes should be talked about, too, Smith adds - including the fact that being overseas can make things more complicated.

’‘If you’re fortunate enough to work in a school that offers a pension with an employer contribution, it’s a good idea to opt in,” she says.

“But be aware that when you leave some countries, it can be non-transferable and you may have to take the pot as a lump sum.”

Free says her school aims to give staff support on these issues.

“Our HR team provides support in managing costs and also provides direction to reputable providers of services for expats,” she says.

“We also fund access to a financial and tax adviser in the first year - this can be particularly important if you have assets in other countries.”

The school also provides interest-free loans of up to £10,000 for new starters to help cover the cost of moving abroad, “It can be an expensive business - just like moving domestically,” Free explains.

Start off on the right foot 

Devine says schools should see the benefits of being “transparent about the real cost of coming to a new place” because otherwise they risk damaging relations with staff from the get-go.

“I have been in recruitment meetings where my line managers have underplayed the costs of settling in to convince candidates to come to the school,” she reveals.

“This led teachers to feel that the school was not being upfront and honest with them about the real cost, which immediately caused a breakdown in trust. Some of these teachers left.”

This would have been a problem even before the pandemic but recruitment is currently a lot tougher now anyway due to ongoing visa issues and people being wary of the risk of more lockdowns.

Dr Bolay, though, says this may act as a catalyst for change. “A labour shortage in the international school sector does indeed position teachers to better negotiate terms of employment,” he notes.

He says that at present it is hard to see if recruitment challenges are leading to changes in the contracts and financial services that international schools offer to their staff.

“Voluntary changes amongst the major actors could act as a driver for smaller, less transnational ones, to follow,” he says.

This would certainly be good news for not just adventurer teachers like Megan keen to embrace the lure of working abroad but also those who enjoy it so much they decide to stay on for a lot longer.

Which, after all, is vital to the long-term success of the sector.

Sean Smith, a former vice-principal, is a freelance education journalist. He tweets @seansmithwrites

*Some names have been changed at the request of the interviewees