Acquiring multicultural experience, strengthening soft skills highly desired by the labor market, significantly increasing the ability to perform in a second language, and developing a remarkable and fruitful network of professional contacts; those are 4 real advantages for those who decide to jump out of their comfort zone and venture out to test their professional skills in a new country.
We live in times when the limits of the professional geographical space are increasingly blurred and, of course, globalization has strongly impacted the tendency for more workers to decide to overcome their own borders. It required? In the first place the security in the performance that offers to know their own profession in depth, and secondly, the adaptation and flexibility to adapt to a different cultural context.
Thus, one of the first aspects that will define the potential of an international worker is related to his soft skills such as resilience, autonomy, determination, self-confidence and cultural openness, among others.
The other aspect, no less important, is to have a clear vision of the purpose and conditions sought by the professional by obtaining professional experience abroad. In this sense, it is recommended to have carried out a prospection of the target countries to target, determine the characteristics of the labor market in the eligible country or countries and, of course, be clear if the learning obtained can be used to develop their own skills in your home country.
The importance of organizational support
Although being willing to face uncontrolled situations is part of the logic of the professional adventure abroad, the truth is that today’s workers can also count on the support of organizational structures that facilitate logistical aspects for professional people. One example is the Participate Learning program, designed for educators who come to teach a second language in the United States. To date, in a country like Costa Rica, since 1987, 250 educators have been part of this exchange, of which there are 60 who are actively working in the USA.
Participate Learning is a complete program that provides educators with more than 2 years of full-time experience, the possibility of doing their job without having to worry about aspects such as managing a work visa on their own, organizing themselves to rent a house, procure a transportation mechanism that takes you to employment, make sure you have legal, well-supported working conditions and with all the benefits and guarantees that a citizen of the country can have, or even have to worry about the immigration status of the worker’s family if he decides to travel in the company of his close ones.
In the case of the Participate Learning program, all the aspects mentioned above are facilitated by an organizational structure that helps the selected educators so that, after the due recruitment process, they have the necessary conditions so that they can concentrate 100% on their professional performance.
As of August 2021, the Participate Learning program opened its registrations to apply for the recruitment process with 100 places for new teachers who want to travel to support bilingual teaching and cultural exchange in the United States. Other requirements to be eligible, in addition to having 2 years of experience as a full-time educator, include advanced command of the English language, being officially licensed teachers, having a current driver’s license and driving experience.
At this time Participate Learning has open applications for elementary education positions, in 2 languages, both the alternative in Spanish/English and in Mandarin/English; in addition to places for teaching social studies, mathematics, or science in 2 languages (Spanish/English).
Educator Rebeca Pacheco has been one of the people recruited into the Participate Learning program. For her, this international experience has helped her to develop as a professional, to learn new work methodologies, and the management of technology within education.
