Assistant teacher

Instead of spending your year abroad at a university, it is possible to teach German conversation for nine months as a "foreign language assistant" / "assistant teacher" at a school in an English-speaking country. These posts are part of an international exchange programme organised in Germany by the Pädagogischer Austauschdienst (PAD) and are intended primarily for Lehramt students. Assistant teachers receive a salary that is sufficient to live on in return for 12 hours' teaching a week.

This is usually an enjoyable and rewarding way of financing a stay abroad, and it allows Lehramt students to gain valuable teaching experience. An assistant teacher year is to 9 weeks of the mandatory Praxissemester; the remaining 4 weeks need to be completed at a school in Baden-Württemberg.

Who can apply

You need to have German nationality or to be a native-speaker Bildungsinländer. By the time of starting work in the UK or Ireland, you need to have completed at least four semesters at university. Applicants to Canada and the US need to have completed six semesters; candidates for Australia and New Zealand are required to have their 1. Staatsexamenby the time they start work. All candidates must be no older than 29 by the time they take up the post.

When to apply

One year in advance, at the beginning of the winter semester.

How to apply

There is a meeting towards the end of the summer semester at which Kay Henn gives details on the application process and, much more importantly, students who have just returned from the UK and Ireland report on their experiences and answer your questions. Watch out for the notices informing you of when & where the meeting will be, and make sure you come if you are at all interested in an assistantship. If you cannot avoid missing the meeting, make sure you pick up the step-by-step guide to a successful application: this is a handout available from outside her office from the end of the summer semester onwards.

Please note

No one at this department or university has an official role in the application or selection processes. The PAD occasionally changes the regulations from one year to the next, and when this happens, its updates are carried out after the meeting Kay Henn holds in the summer semester. 

Preparation course

This is held in the summer semester and open to all those taking up assistant teacher posts later that year. Apart from allowing you to get to know the other people who will be in Ireland / the UK at the same time as you, this course gives you a chance to learn a few standard techniques and to gain confidence in conducting classes.