Africa

Marcus_Crassus

Hello,

I travelled through several African countries -- South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda -- for a protracted period and would *love* to live somewhere in Southern/Eastern Africa.

Anyone have any advice on getting a job over there? Could I teach English?

I am a qualified electrician, but I doubt that would be useful/viable in most African countries. Although, some people in Namibia did tell me they were in demand and got paid well.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

TO_ARTHUR!

Marcus_Crassus wrote: »

Hello,

I travelled through several African countries -- South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda -- for a protracted period and would *love* to live somewhere in Southern/Eastern Africa.

I am a qualified electrician, but I doubt that would be useful/viable in most African countries. Although, some people in Namibia did tell me they were in demand and got paid well.

Are you saying that they don't use electricity in the other countries?:pac:

Marcus_Crassus wrote: »

Anyone have any advice on getting a job over there? Could I teach English?

I'm sure the fact that you're an electrician would have a use over there but I would recommend getting a TEFL or CELTA certificate because I think that in the countries where English isn't the number one language there is a huge demand to learn it. I'm living abroad at the moment and when I tell people where I'm from, they start speaking English with me. Some even ask me to teach them the language, even though I'm not qualified to teach it. Didn't stop me though:cool:

Unfortunately, I can't offer any advice about Africa but as I'm sure you know, you should explore all your options before heading off somewhere to work.

Daisies

Marcus_Crassus wrote: »

Hello,

I travelled through several African countries -- South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda -- for a protracted period and would *love* to live somewhere in Southern/Eastern Africa.

Anyone have any advice on getting a job over there? Could I teach English?

I am a qualified electrician, but I doubt that would be useful/viable in most African countries. Although, some people in Namibia did tell me they were in demand and got paid well.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

I'm currently living and working in Malawi so I'll give you the info I have about this little country. Luckily I had a job before I came over.

For teaching English, afaik Malawi does not really have a TEFL tradition. You may be lucky and end up teaching in a private school as a friend of mine with a CELTA qualification is. She has a 2 year contract in the capital city Lilongwe.

As for working as an electrician, the only option for making a decent living would be to make contacts with bigger firms that have contracts in the countries you are interested in working in. In Malawi tradesmen have a huge issue making money as there are so many of them. However if you can get a contract with, for example, a South African country with a contract in Malawi you could make a fair wage.

Where would you like to live? Living in South Africa would be very different to living in Tanzania for example.

Hope this helps

sarkozy

There's also lots of work going in Mozambique, though Portuguese would be a problem.

South Africa is basically a developed country where the majority are as poor as people living in other poor African countries. Outside of Afrikaans speaking areas, you would get by much easier with English, but you might have to look to large companies/contractors dealing in specialities. Your average electrician would be low-paid, and therefore you'd be less likely to be hired.

Well, these are my impressions having worked in the region.

Ditto for Nambia. A very organised country with some large enterprises and contract work, I'd imagine, particularly in mining, fishing and infrastructure. I didn't get the impression there's a lot of construction going on.

There *is* construction going on in Angola due to oil wealth, but again, best to go the contractor route.

As for teaching English, I'm just not sure, but tourist centres with outdoors activities such as in Western Cape around Cape Town, Durban, safaris/game reserves in Eastern Cape and some of the interior could give you some options. There's always bar work in central Cape Town, which I've known people to come by.

Forget it about Lesotho, though. It wouldn't be on your radar anyway, but electricians come in via South African companies.

It's a fantastic region of the world, though. Keep livvin' the dream!