For any of you who plan to teach in Canada at a language or private school, you are not required to obtain a certificate from the OCT (Ontario College of Teachers). This only applies to teachers planning on teaching at elementary and secondary schools.
I had this question answered for me by the OCT - just waiting to hear from Education Canada regarding documents that ARE needed in order to teach (I hope to teach ESL).
Will keep you updated!

Fluffy!

ESL in Ontario was just starting to get regulated whan my wife quit it, Back then any Tom Dick or Harriet could teach ESL if they could get a position, which annoyed her as she was well qualified, and there were a lot of unqualified really bad teachers around.

TESLOntario was trying to introduce standardisation and acreditation for teachers and generally organise things, and that included some sort of qualification recognition plan. All this was about three years ago now, so I dont know where things stand now.

I would recommend you contact TESL Ontario. They are the recognised body for ESL in Ontario, and I think would be able to advise on acceptable ESL qualifications.

Thanks, I most certainly will! *Sigh* its great to have a buddy system...

Bad, unqualified teachers .... its like a plague. I can understand that it may seem attractive to some to just say, "I'm going to teach English!" but its a lot more than "Hi, how are you?" ... when it comes down to it, most unqualified teachers wouldn't even be able to explain simple grammar questions from students and would just say, "Well, because - that's the way it is - accept it!"

So, what is your dear wife doing these days? Is she still teaching? ESL? How is it going for her? I hope it didn't put her off..!
Fluffy

Shes at home taking care of our Daughter...its more cost effective than working and paying for childcare (the disadvantage of emigrating is no family for babysitting), and I suspect even if it was cost effective, she would rather be at home watching Iris grow up anyway ( I know I would..but someone has to pay the bills )

She had a few reasonable offers to work in Toronto (where most of the ontario ESL jobs are) for reasonable money, but its too far / too expensive to travel from here, and we dont want to move. There are ESL programs in communites away for Toronto though, mostly finded through the LINC program.

The problem is many of these are run through the school boards, and they give preference to employing candidates with regular teaching qulifications, regardless of a lack of ESL training and experince. My wife (who is canadian for what its worth) started out by doing temp work for the local schoolboard, and managed to extend that to regular hours teaching adult ESL at the school board adult community college. Her opinion was that it was badly managed, mainly because it wasnt really a priority of the school board, so the boss pretty much did whatever she wanted, and the boss was basically just passing time till she retired. Very frustrating for Lena, who was quite relieved when she handed in her notice.

She found the situation very different at the private language schools in Toronto who were trying to hire her. Teaching ability was valued, because that is what counted for growing the business.

Good for you that you can avoid the OCT, unfortunately most teachers have to go through them and it is not a pleasant experience. Of all my dealings with Canadian Bureaucracy this year, the OCT is way out in front leading the way! The biggest problem with Canada is they make you jump through hoops one at a time. I.e.) I have to wait until I have my PR card, then I apply for the SIN and only then can I apply to the OCT. The OCT reckons it takes them 6-8 weeks to process teacher documents once they are in. Why can they not open a file on someone and gather the information from overseas as it comes in, process the file and as soon as the SIN number is through - bingo! Do things parallel rather than consecutive…after all it is ME who is paying THEM over $300 for the privilege. Their argument against starting the process early is that if Canadian Immigration refuses admission then their work is for nothing….I say “fine you’ve made 300 bucks you dingbats, go bank it!� The college is also extremely pedantic in its dealings. My PR card was not yet through but they would accept a fax of my original landing document which I sent them. Now for such an important piece of paper this is the crummiest carbon copy of anything I have ever seen (Canadian immigration take note…I know you scan these ex-pat pages also). OCT could not read the date of landing, although how important that is to them I do not know….the important thing is that I have landed. So I sent the original by priority post…still no good! So I wait 3 weeks for the SIN. Send that off! A week later I phone them up. They said we will open your file in 7-10 days and then the 6-8 week wait will start! What does it take to open a file….also I would like to know what they do in those 6-8 weeks; they have all the information they need! The OCT is like many Canadian Bureaucracies, extremely thorough but not very efficient. OH CANADA!. My advice is to start way early in everything you apply for….you must always wait, wait, wait! Sorry for going on here, but I have heard the OCT appear to be fighting to maintain control of power in Ontario. They have already gotten rid of the pointless TB test (after I had got mine done of course) and even though it says on the website teachers still have to take the teaching test…they have waived that for the time being. They have also modified the many different application forms that had to be filled in and it is much simpler this year (once again I started on the old forms and discovered half way through the process I needed to change them). So if we keep the pressure maybe this inefficient organization my get an overall!
Finally a short story to highlight the fact that with Bureaucracies not everything is always as it seems. I needed to get my 2nd police check done in a year because they only last 6 months and you always need more than 6 months to do anything here in the early days of landing. Drove 30km to the correct OPP. Walked in, asked for the Crim check to be done, I would need to report back in a week to collect it…this is usual, it happened to me last time. As I was about to leave I saw a police friend of mine who was just arriving in the station…after exchanging pleasantries (piss taking) he enquired why I was there. When he found out they were making me (and everyone else) come back in a week, he said it was “tosh� and could be done in one minute. Sure enough all the clerk (twerp) had to do was go into the computer, enter my name and address and press PRINT. Doesn’t take a week, I suspect Ontario College of Teachers are guilty of similar outrages!

I know exactly what you mean. It was very frustrating not being able to start the paperwork in the UK so that I could have been up and running once I landed. I put my application in to the OCT during October last year and finally got recogised and put on the system a couple of weeks ago - after alot of hassle, document chasing, OCT staff chasing and I still have to submit further documents to get an additional qualification added. Even then, they spelled my name incorrectly and have entered my details incorrectly! Still sorting that out. They have told me that it takes them 3 weeks to look at anything you send them from the moment it arrives in their building. It also takes them 3 weeks to send anything out.

Anytime I have dealt with the GTC for England or Scotland, they have been extremely efficient and have replied to my emails within 24 hours! I now have to go through a similar beaurocratic nightmare with the local school board as I have heard from local teachers that they are even worse :scared:

To make matters worse, there is no chance of getting any kind of job with the Thames Valley District School Board unless you are on the supply list. However, there is only a two week window of opportunity each year to get onto the short term supply list. Once you are on it, you need to find a school who will use you. In my local school, they only used ex-retired teachers from the school. When I suggested to the principal of my kid's school that I could do supply for them, she nearly choked! Who on earth do I think I am anyway?! A young(ish), UK qualified upstart who has never worked in Canada, let alone her school, offering to do supply? I don't think so! She didn't say that obviously, she smiled very sweetly while she thought it instead!

Nevermind, where there's a will, there's a way

I just want to add, before I discourage anyone com[pletely, that I have heard that other boards are not as bad as the TVDSB which serves the London area. London seems to be like this in general - kind of like living on an island - you're either an insider or an outsider! I hope it's just this area anyway and not the whole of Canada

Also, while the OCT do a good job of appearing incompetent and inefficient, I did at least get recognised, so am now licensed to teach

Don't be so sure, both Barrie Catholics and Publics appear to be the same way! It was great dealing with the GTC in the UK, everything was instant!
I got so frustrated waiting in Canada that I flew to England to do some supply work at roughly 3 times the pay in Canada. For some reason my Crim check was not through...but it did not deter the agency. The woman in charge said "Oh don't worry about that, I'll just phone a couple of schools to see if they will accept you temporarily without one.....here have a nice cup of tea while you wait" and sure enough they did. Actually she did not mention tea but it felt like she did she was so friendly and accommodating. Can't imagine that happening here! I was there 3 weeks and worked every day except one!

So you are saying that schools in the UK are so desperate that they will accept supply teachers without getting official police clearance certificates? Personally I find that VERY scary.

They do the same here - just recently they found a teacher who had been disciplined three times for having sex with 13/14 year old girls working in the school district next to mine - he had been undetected for years as the BC College of Teachers will not supply details of any disciplinary actions taken against their teachers. They did not have enough to charge him criminally when he got caught in Chilliwack - so his Crim Check was clear. The BC College knew that and kept quiet.

Oh those poor kids. Its so disgusting, really. It should be mandatory, criminal checks, for anybody, really. For any job. its not discriminitory - I think we should all have the right to know who we're working with. Ok, small petty charges like stealing bubblegum when you're 15 -ok, but I'd like to know if any sexual predators or accomplices to murder are going to be working around me and my children!

Fluffy

I don’t think this agency was desperate; it was just that they were flexible about getting around bureaucratic problems. I had already had my crim check done for immigration so I was clear. It was just that I had not had the particular one done via the agency…same thing different address. Officially I should not have been able to work there for another week but realistically and with a little flexibility I was able to….that would just not happen here. Ironically the system here in Canada is even more laughable. The clerk in the cop shop I was telling you about earlier asked me which criminal background check I wanted. No. 1, 2 or 3. No. 1 was a basic check, 2 was a check for people working with kids and 3 was the enhanced check which listed sexual offenders whose names had been hidden off a list after a certain amount of time. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, in fact the school board I erroneously called just before the visit to the police station said that check no.2 was all I required at this point. I asked the Twerp, I mean Clerk, why are there 3 different checks, couldn’t just one of them reveal all that was needed to an employer. Answer…(typically bureaucratic)…No.1 is a local check (OPP), No.2 is Canada wide (Mounties) and No.3 encompasses the sexual offenders who are applying for jobs other than working with kids (they are obviously not allowed to do that) and do not want to reveal their past. Also it bugs me that they really go to so much trouble here to make things difficult and yet the system is so beatable at times! I really did not want to do the following but knowing the bureaucratic nightmares I would encounter if I told the truth I decided not to tell Immigration or the OCT that I ever lived/taught in Africa. They are non the wiser, what they don’t know, they cannot check up on and I have been excused the pleasure of having to deal with a bureaucracy in Africa that could perhaps be worse than Canada’s…but don’t bet on it! Of course during my time in Africa, I could have been the worst child molester in the world and Canada would not have a clue!