Eligibility to become a Teacher in Ireland
Sharing the information on Teaching in Ireland will fall squarely on what passports (you and your spouse) have.
Where a person themselves holds an EU/ Irish or British passport holder, or their spouse holds one of these passports, they will need to do the registration process and then seek work either from South Africa or once they are in Ireland. As these people do not need to apply for a visa to be resident in Ireland as such, their right to be in Ireland does not form part of the discussion of how to teach in Ireland.
The spouse of a Critical skills work permit holder will be similar to the above where their residency rights are not based on their need to apply for a work permit in their own right. The spouse of a CSEP work permit can attain a Stamp1G and therefore can work in Ireland without restriction, so for them registration is the only aspect to look at.
Where teaching in Ireland is problematic is if you need a work permit in order to teach in Ireland.
Where you are looking for a work permit yourself to work as a teacher in Ireland
If you require a work permit to be in Ireland, teaching here as your work permit requires will have many obstacles to overcome:
- Many teaching job offers in Ireland are part-time (so many hours per day) or fixed term (8-10 months of a year not a year contract). This is an issue because for a work permit your job offer needs to be a full-time and permanent post. That’s not to say it’s impossible to find these jobs, it’s just to say that after paying the money for the registration, you may find yourself unable to find work in order to apply for a work permit.
- If you are at primary level, learning Gaeilge is part of the process, at a cost of €1400, registration costs €300 over 3 years.
- Your degree or diploma and having that recognised in Ireland. Not all teaching institutions in SA produce degrees or diplomas that are recognised in Ireland.
- The restrictions of a General Work Permit not allowing family members to join for 12 months often puts applicants off this route.
- SOC code (coding for work permits)
- 2311, “Teacher, university” would be Critical skills. So these are at University/ Tertiary education level, with a QQI 10 (see NARIC) be teaching specific skills and level: Involves delivering a programme largely or wholly concerned with information and communications technology, which leads to a major award at QQI level 8 and/or level 9 as validated by Quality & Qualifications Ireland. So you are teaching people at QQI level 8 or 9 in specific skills. (CSEP work permits) So this is where you have a PHD, teaching at Uni level, in IT skills to post grad students
- 2314, “Teacher, secondary” and 2315, “Teacher, primary” would be General Work permit holders, subject to the permit constraints of the GWP (General work permits)
General Work Permit:
As a result of all the above, we have not seen a successful application on the basis of a General Work permit for South Africans moving to Ireland as yet.
That is not to say it will be impossible, but it may be highly unlikely.
Critical skills:
Getting your qualifications recognised and registering:
At Primary and Secondary level is done with the teaching council to get your qualifications verified. Teaching council
- For teachers with qualifications from outside Ireland FAQ: Teaching Council
- Primary and Secondary School – Done through the Teaching Council. The application forms are online. Assessment fee of €200, and registration fee of €90.
For a South African’s perspective on recognition of your qualifications and how to register (NOT how to immigrate, NOT work permit side of things) and on what teaching is like in Ireland, join South Africans Teachers in Ireland facebook group
Creche/Pre-school work – Done through the DCYA (Department of Children and Youth Affairs). The application form is online available to download, there is no fee. (This will be for Eu/Irish/British and their spouses)
My experience of being a creche teacher in Ireland
There is no point us re-hashing in full how to do this process when it is on the website, so below are some hints and tips and how-to’s
The DCYA and TC are 2 seperate entities and neither has anything to do with the other, so if you chose to start off in a creche and move onto formal schooling, your qualifications would be assessed twice.
It would be recommended to get these applications filled in in SA, as you will need a module breakdown and original transcripts from your place of study (not the ones you could simply download) – The form also needs to be signed by a Dean and stamped. Trying to do this from RoI is quite a task, so do try get this done while you are still in South Africa. If you are a work permit applicant then this can ONLY be done from South Africa.
PRIMARY SCHOOL:
Here are the link for the Irish language training breakdown, you have to be fluent in Irish (this is assessed on going and several exams – oral and written as well as class observation), The reason for this is because you have to be able to teach any year from Junior Infants up to 6th class, not like in SA where you would be Foundation or Intermediate Phase.
You have to spend 3 weeks living in an all Irish area too.
Irish Language Requirement – modules and timetables
For people on EU/Irish/British or their spouses, there is another option:
For this would apply for a job as a Special Needs Teacher. You need a degree in Education and an Honours / Post grad in Inclusive Education/Special Needs. Irish is not needed or this route. You can also work as a SNA (special needs assistant) without any formal training in special needs- a leaving cert suffices, but be advised it is NOT a teaching position at all – you are simply there to assist the class teacher.
POST PRIMARY/SECONDARY SCHOOL:
You have fulfil the Irish History and Education – this is an exam you will have to study for.
For both Primary and Post Primary, if your registration is successful, you’ll be provisionally registered until you have fulfilled the shortfalls.
To find jobs in Teaching see:
Make sure you use the Filters on these job searches to Mainstream class teacher and permanent if you are seeking a work permit
Some past comments from people who have attempted/ started or
done the registration process in full or in part from our Facebook group below:
- For primary school teaching you need to do an Irish course, you have 3 years to do this and will have continuous assessment throughout and an exam at the end of the 3 years. You can only do the course approved by the Teaching Council, at a cost of €1400. Registration costs €300. You would be registered provisionally if you pass the Irish exam.
- download the form, there is a lot of paperwork to gather from the university where you studied as well as the Dean needs to sign the form.
- if you have studied at Pretoria or Natal your degree will be automatically recognized as they are on the approved list. If you studied at any other university, you would have to make an application with the Department of children and youth affairs to have your degree verified and approved.
- You cannot get a work permit to work in a creche (it’s ineligible). But if you or spouse has EU/Irish/British passports you can work at a pre-school level. The pay could be anything from minimum wage up to €14 an hour – depending on qualifications etc, hours are terrible – 42.5 a week (excl lunch) so I got to work at 8:30 and left at 6 (an hour lunch) It is a long day with 2 teachers and 22 kids the whole day. But we have never in all the years of this group seen a work permit approved for teaching.
- For secondary level teaching, you would then have to complete shortfalls in your own education in certain subjects and possibly exams to get qualified to teach these subjects in Ireland. For example, Irish history is vastly different to SA history.
- QUESTION: I am busy getting my papers together to apply with The Teaching Council. I read posts from 2019 that said they needed a letter from SACE to confirm membership. They also said to get that letter costs money and you need a Police Clearance also to go get that letter. Is my current payslip (with my SACE deductions listed), my school police clearance done in 2017 and my SACE certificate not enough? REPLY: the letter from SACE is a letter of good standing / good conduct. The letter is show you’ve never been suspended off the teachers roll and such. SACE charges R400 for the letter.
- A Police clearance certificates expire after 6 months, so you may need to apply for a police clearance for the application and then do it again when you move over.
- They are hard to come by, especially permanent positions. I’ve been told by a lecturer at the Teacher’s Collage in Dublin, that when a teacher gets a post, 95% of the time, that teacher will stay in that post for the next 30+ years.
- There are lots of maternity / fixed term / substitute posts – which is problematic as already mentioned for a work permit.
- A list of what is included in the Primary and Secondary school curriculum: Curriculum
