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You may have heard some weird and wonderful facts about the beautiful country of Japan. You may know that Sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport, or that they have the most vending machines in the world that sell everything from lobsters to umbrellas. But did you know that one of the best (and only!) ways to live abroad in Japan as a foreigner is by teaching English? Did you know that you can get paid to live and work in Japan as a native English speaker and that going through the TravelBud public school program is one of the best ways to do it? If not- keep reading!
When teaching English abroad in Japan, you could work in either a public school or a private school. For context- private schools are private institutions that provide extra English lessons after school/ work hours to age groups from kindergarten to young adults. There are many perks of teaching in a private school, but one has to be mindful of the fact that the working hours are quite long and irregular (evenings, weekends etc) and that the schools require a high level of independence and autonomy from teachers, being that you will be the lead and only teacher.
An option that we highly recommend, especially for first-time teachers abroad, is the Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) public school positions. They have some awesome, unique perks that make this the perfect opportunity to easily transition to living and working in Japan.
Here are our Top 5 Reasons to teach in Public schools in Japan:
Working Hours: As an ALT teacher, you will work daytime hours from Monday to Friday. You’ll have your weekday evenings off and weekends off too. This means that you can enjoy your evenings sampling local Japanese food and use your weekends to tick off some bucket list items! You’ll also have public holidays off and vacation days, which is a rarity in Japan’s “live to work” culture.
Workload: As an ALT, your workload is considerably less than in a private school. You’ll have a Japanese co-teacher in the classroom with you, and you’ll have plenty of time at school between classes to plan your lessons. This means that you don’t bring work home with you and can enjoy your time off outside of school as you please. The expectations from parents, management and the school of ALT teachers are also not as intense as the private schools.
Your own transport: As part of the ALT program, you will often teach at multiple public schools on a rotational schedule. You usually service 2-3 schools and your accommodation is situated between those schools. The schools provide you with your own car to drive between the schools. This means that you save money on transport and it gives you a unique opportunity to be independent and explore the rest of Japan on weekends. *For the ALT program, teachers will need to have a valid driving license to be accepted and must be willing to drive.
Set start dates: While private schools accept all year round in terms of start dates, the fact that public schools start at specific start dates can be useful in terms of planning your adventure abroad. The application process for public schools is very structured and they have predictable and set start dates. This means you can plan your adventure in advance and know what to expect in terms of departure dates.
A welcoming environment: Public school positions are definitely the “softest-landing” when it comes to teaching abroad in Japan. The schools are warm and welcoming to a diverse range of applicants, especially in comparison to private schools that may have pre-conceived and limited ideas of English teacher expectations.
If the above sounds like the perfect fit for you, let’s see if you’re the perfect fit for public schools by taking a look at the Eligibility Requirements:
– A passport holder from one of the seven native English speaking countries: USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
– You hold a Bachelor’s degree in any field (we do have a non-degree program that is limited to the March intake of each year and requires that you hold a passport from a country that can receive the Working Holiday Visa- this includes all the above-mentioned countries except for the USA and South Africa).
– You hold a TESOL/TEFL certificate of 120+ hours that is internationally accredited, or you are willing to get our Online option prior to departure.
– You are aged between 21-40.
– You have a valid driving license in your home country and you are willing to drive in Japan.
– You have a clean bill of health and a clean criminal background check
– You will need to physically be in one of the approved countries during your application process. For example, you can be a US citizen, applying from the USA. You could also be a US citizen currently living in the UK and apply from within the UK. However, you can be a US citizen currently living in India, but you will not be able to apply from there, as India is not on the list of countries that are approved to apply from within.
Nexts Steps and Deadlines:
If you love the sound of the ALT program and you meet all the requirements, let’s get you started with the application process. It is currently PEAK hiring season for the March 2025 (Spring) ALT intake. The deadline for ALT submissions is the end of September 2024, but we encourage all teachers to be enrolled ASAP to start collecting documents prior to the deadline submission date. You can click here to start your application process and follow the steps to get enrolled. We look forward to working with you!
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