dann2010

Hi I'm trying moving to Italy in the summer, apart from teaching English does anybody no of any popular jobs for English speakers? am currently learning Italian but not yet fluent. Any tips or advice would be great,

thanks,
Dan.

Mr Posh

Where are you going to stay? Once you have picked your area just send the bigger hotels your CV it could be a start...

37100

There's not much else. A hotel will expect you to speach at least 2 foreign languages. If you have any sports skill you might find work in a summer camp etc. teaching kids in English.

dann2010

Hi thanks for the advice, i have sent of for a few of the summer camps just waiting to hear back. im not sure were in Italy to go, i'd just like to find a job before i move but it is hard with me not speaking fluent Italian. do you no of any local business that hire English speakers?

ononno

Ciao, a suggestion. Contact all the major and medium sized UK tour operators. They are always short of staff for Italian resorts as reps/transfer reps/concierges. e.g. Thomas Cook, TUI/Thomson, First Choice, Travelsphere, Page & Moy, Shearings, Voyages Jules Verne; and many more. You just need to be presentable, and pretend you can speak a bit of Italian.
And I would second the hotel suggestion, especially in areas where there are NOT many English speaking tourists. For a hotel in these spots it is often a bonus to be able to say they actually have English speaking staff. e.g. Cilento, Capo Vaticano Area, Western Sicily, Versilia, Gargano. Good luck in your search.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

ballerina

Hi,
Depending on where you go, you could consider working as a tourguide, that's what I did.... GREAT MONEY!! BUt it's comes with a price, unlicensed guides get arrested and fined ALL the time and for me, it was not worth the hassle, particularly as my OH was in the military, I didn't want my misdemeanors affecting his job.
the other downside is that all day long, and while you are busy being charming with paying tourists and hoping for tips as well at the end, you will be assaulted by Italian tourguides who will abandon their groups, bewildered, and run screaming at you flapping a piece of paper (which I think is supposed to be their licence, but on lots of occassions, I noticed it was nothing official, just a prayer card from the vatican gift shop!!!). You need a thick skin.

It's two years since I stopped the tourguiding game, which was intermittent with police crackdowns. I have heard from friends that continued that it has become harder and harder to find work, but I reckon there will always be a need for mother tongue english guides who can deliver with a bit of humour and lightheartedness/friendliness. The Italian guides always seemed a bit unfriendly and uninterested with their groups IMO.

If you are planning on staying maybe a couple of years max, it could be worth considering. If not the actual guiding, then maybe promoting/giving out leaflets for a tour company, that can be good on commission and is generally hassle free if the company has the right documents for you to hand out flyers.

I teach english now in a specialist English language school , because although thousands of tourists comeinto La Spezia every year, there is sod all for them to see or do! The money, compared to guiding is pathetic. The hours are a bit scattergun, an hour here, and hour there, so lots of hanging around which I don't get paid for. Also English teaching is so bloody boring! At least where I work I don't have to spend hours preparing becuase it's all done for me, but last month for example, my paycheck what the same that I could've earned in a DAY guiding and selling tours including tips. You are right to not consider it!

Good luck! if you are interested in tourguiding and will be in Rome, I can give you some numbers of people who might or might not be interested in hiring, if you pm me. However, it's been two years so I don't know what the situatuion is like now. I should also mention that giving tours (and in Rome/Florence, they consider taking a friend or family around and SPEAKING about or POINTING to a monument 'guiding)', without a license is illegal.

Mick_P

Ballerina - so how about if one wanted to become an 'official' guide, with the right to wave about a prayer card from the Vatican gift shop? Is that a difficult process (bureaucratic, almost certainly), and would it have a major impact on earnings?

ballerina

Hi,. yes, it is notoriously difficult to get, Ididn't even bother trying because IMO it was a big con to get money from foreign (good) guides who wanted to do it as a career, they don't publicise the exams, it's difficult to even find info about them for places like Rome or Florence and at the end of the day, they very rarely pass anyone who is not Italian. I got my hands on the records of those who were awarded licences in Rome from the last exams and out of about a hundred or so (can't remember how many but it was a long list) there were only a handful of English or American applicants. You also have to be a resident of the region.

another way is to have a European professional qualification and seek to convert it, like the London Blue Badge qualification, which I did. Technically, according to European laws, that should be entirely possible, but of course, it is not, really.

At the end of the day though, the earnings are believed to be not as much. Becuase you have to pay taxes, which I heard, btu don't know if it's true, are really high if you work in the tourism sector. I also heard (but can't verify it) that you have to charge a minimum of 60e per hour for the service. which is a lot, unless you want to take around massive groups of people.

However, I think the licence thing varies from region to region and I read in the Bllue Badge Guide magazine from someone who applied for the Liguria licence and said it was ridiculously easy (campared to Blue Badge, which is more work than a degree, really).

michaeljonathan

re becoming a Tourist Guide in Italy, very few areas (provincie) are offering courses/exams right now, milan and rome being two notable exceptions, and without the all-important patentino you will indeed be fined - even in relatively unexciting Genoa but where the existing guides are desperate to hang on to their 'privileges'. I too am a Blue Badge Guide for London and Wales but over here it cuts absolutely no ice at all (if you know differently do tell me how) except for clinking glasses at FEG and World Fed jollies. As for EFL teaching well there is plenty to be had - in fact i am looking for a helping hand for a business course in la spezia right now - and if you combine teaching with accompanying tours (for which you are less likely to be fined in Italy than as a Guide) and some translating and interpreting (introduce yourself to the local tribunale - professionally I mean!) you should be able to jog along nicely. This is my first posting on this site which Ihave only just joined, but I am looking forward top some good exchagnes and meetings. bw.

grammyhowes

HI I am an English Hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner also using Hypnoanalysis to treat such things as obesity with the Hypno Gastric Band, weight loss with hypnosis and NLP, stop smoking, dealing with anxiety stress depression and panic attacks, sports improvement and much more. I want to work in Italy and understand that I may have to focus on NLP as there are seemingly some problems with using hypnotherapy in Italy? I am also an actor, teacher, playwright and theatre director.

I very much want to work in some part of Italy - Rome or Siena or Florence perhaps but open to suggestions! I could afford to buy a premises or would be interested in working with a pre existing practice or for a hotel or private get away from it all retreat.

Can anyone help me?(SNIP)

Regards!

Graham Howes

tokyonights7

There isn't much out there besides teaching English, sadly, especially if you aren't yet perfectly bilingual. You can make very good money, however, working with young children. All you have to do is speak to them and play with them in English. You can easily ask for €20 an hour doing this. You may not be passionate about it, but it IS easy money. Heather

HADENOUGHPIZZA

You will need to be fairly flexible in your approach and perhaps consider teaching to start with while you find out what openings there are in your field. English is very much in demand but for most jobs you will need to speak some italian as well. There is quite a lot of interest in alternative approaches to health especially for stress related problems but I have no idea if your qualifiactions would be recognised here.

criodain

I used to work for an Italian company as a technical writer / technical translator. I was translating user manuals from Italian to English. I never studied Italian, but learned it while I worked there previously as an EFL teacher.

I have often thought of what types of jobs I could apply for if I ever thought about going back, which I do from time to time. I wouldn't go back to Rome, would probably be somwhere in the North if I could help it.

I do notice jobs on monster for online marketing specialists, some of them requiring English speakers. Also, technical writing jobs would be advertsied, as well as online marketing roles.

Would it be possible for a qualified teacher to get a job in a high school in Italy as an English language teacher?

Look at what you are specialised in, and if you can get a job in a bar or teaching, just to tide you over while you improve your Italian, you would eventually be in a good position to get a specialised job. If you think of companies over there who deal with international clients and the likes....

M_B

"Would it be possible for a qualified teacher to get a job in a high school in Italy as an English language teacher?"

Its extremely difficult if you aren't a resident and don't speak Italian.

HADENOUGHPIZZA

I think that it is not easy to get qualifications recognised and that getting a job in the italian education system is not easy because its done by '' concorsi '' , all the same I know that some bigger seconadry schools have what are called '' readers'' who are english and take convesation classes so ther must be some way in . Private schools may have different rules but I'd agree that some Italian is going to be basic requirement .