Sukahutan

I need to find a new source of income. Can anyone share their experiences of teaching English in France, please? How best to qualify, what qualification, how to find work etc. Appreciate any comments. Thanks.

Tweedpipe

HERE and below are links which may answer some of your questions.
Teaching Opportunities

Life as a Teacher in France


I mentioned in one of those posts back in 2015, "We've all been hoping that the economy improves here, and it's anyone's guess how things will look in a years time."
If anything the economy is as bad if not worse than it was then. You must ask yourself what else you may have to offer when up against local bi-lingual French (and there are so many of them) also seeking similar jobs. Plus French candidates wouldn't have the spectre of Brexit looking over their shoulder.......
Good luck.

Sukahutan

Thanks Tweedpipe, very helpful links with lots of information, not sure I'm ready to be a butcher yet. I agree, these are difficult times and one has to look at what you can offer. I've been an Accompagnateur en Montagne for the last 16 years so travelling the World and coaching outdoor and life skills. Recently becoming a single parent is forcing me to change but hoping I can bring some of my experiences to whatever I do next.

dmu

+1
As mentioned in the links, it's essential to master French Grammatical terms if wishing to teach/coach French collégiens/lycéens in English. Since French Primary school teachers now give English lessons, it's less likely nowadays to be taken on as an "intervenant" after school hours in a Primaire, but even then you can't fit in several schools at the same time and it wouldn't be enough to make a living (and certainly no income during the 16-17 weeks of school and public holidays).
Teaching adults is another matter and the OP should look in the Pages Jaunes for language schools in Tours (if he still intends to move there) and be aware that any jobs going aren't salaried and that he'd have to set up a French business structure in order to be considered. He could also enquire at the local GRETA which may have vacancies for "formateurs contractuels", but there again, a qualified French English-teacher would probably be given priority over an English person without teaching qualifications.
Maybe the first step should be to get TEFL or a similar diploma, and get registered before B-Day....
Good luck to the OP!

EuroTrash

You quite often see tutor "missions" advertised on the site https://www.motamot.com/missions/
In order to set up a freelancer account on the site and put in bids you need to be registered with a siret number.

I was taken on as an online tutor by a state-approved training organisation based in Paris without any formal qualifications, but I do have a degree in languages and linguistics and I had prior experience. As DMU says you do need to be hot on grammar esp if you will be teaching adults - they're quite capable of asking you out of the blue to please explain the rules for when you use the present perfect and when you use the past simple, or how do form the past perfect continuous, or whatever tense they suddenly get a bee in their bonnet about.

Unfortunately the English tutoring market in France has always seemed to be pretty saturated with wannabe tutors. I was very lucky to get work (I actually got it by responding to an ad on the motamot site I mentioned). I did it for around 2 years, it earned me a decent living and it was enjoyable on the whole, but there was a lot of admin in addition to the teaching hours, it was sometimes stressful keeping students on schedule and getting their paperwork off of them, and could be frustrating when they kept cancelling or forgetting lessons that had been arranged. And the days could be long - some liked to have a lesson from 7;30am to 8.30 so they could get to the office early and have their lesson before the rest of the staff arrived, and some liked to have their lesson at home at 8pm, and you have to fit round what suits them.

Good luck, there is work out there and if you're determined you'll pick something up, but honestly I wouldn't rely on immediately finding enough regular tutoring work to live on.

south_bound

My wife set up as Auto-Entrepreneur at the start of last year to do exactly that. She offers individual and group classes for children and adults partially through a local private language school and also privately with her students. She was certainly surprised at the level of demand and also the good rates she has been able to charge, so much so that she is now turning down business as she is too busy. Remember that there is lots of preparation to do which has to be added to class contact time and so it would be unreasonable to expect 35 hours of paid classes per week (I think 20 hours would pretty much feel like a full time workload). She has no formal qualifications but did do a TEFL Master course beforehand and had some previous experience in an educational environment. Many of her students prefer having a native English speaker which is an advantage when comparing with local, even if they claim to be bi-lingual. I have also noticed some frantic internet searching to find the answers to some obscure grammatical question from some of her adult students!

dmu

Good to see theoretical advice confirmed by experience!

Sukahutan

My sincere thanks, everyone for your guidance, and south_bound, your wife's experience is encouraging. I have already had the experience of running a business under a Siret number here in France and some years teaching outdoor skills so, perhaps it's not all alien to me. I'm feeling good about pursuing the qualification even with everything else that's going with moving house, schools etc. What is life if not a challenge? Thanks again.

Purple Jim

To supplement my income, I did a TEFL course on-line (quite tough at times) which took about two or three months to complete. As an "auto-entrepreneur"/"micro-entreprise", I then approached my local Chambre de Métiers (Faculté des Langues) and I was soon coaching professional people, one-on-one, either at the F. de M. or at the company's premises. That experience enabled me to respond to other offers from many "sociétés de formation". You are able to use the same SIRET and accounting as an already existing micro-entreprise, in another domaine, if you have one.
However, I'd say that it is essential that you can speak French fluently in order to teach in this way, in the right conditions. Guidance, discussion,...
Watch out though, the legislation is changing in 2019. Companies won't be able to claim back the expenses as much as they have done in the past. More emphasis will be on on-line, self-learning within the companies themselves. It depends on the different organisations involved.

Sukahutan

Thanks, Purple Jim, thanks for adding to this and I am encouraged. As luck would happen, I answered an ad in Connexions on line for someone to come and talk to a group learning English. The advert, it turns out, was two years out of date but the group's existing teacher is seeking to retire. After spending the afternoon with two groups, I've been asked if I would like to plan to take the groups on in the not-too-distant-future and I've subsequently started my my TEFL course. My French is good, and I see this as very much the way forward. I've heard about on-line learning so will look into this and I've been auto/micro for some years. Don't we just love it when a plan comes together!

Purple Jim

Keep going and when you have the TEFL certificate, sign up to recruitement websites like Jobrapido, Indeed, etc... there are many job offers every day. A lot of demand out there.