What if My Spouse Doesn't Teach?

You love to teach. You love your spouse. You’d both love to live overseas. There’s just one problem—your spouse is not a teacher. Well, first of all, you just need a bachelor's degree in any field to teach English overseas with ELIC. We ensure you are well equipped with a master’s-level TESOL certificate and plenty of classroom training before you leave (not to mention ongoing academic and professional development opportunities while you’re overseas). But if either you or your spouse really aren’t interested in the classroom, there is good news—you don’t both have to teach! ELIC has plenty of Co-Laboring Spouses supporting the team in other ways while their spouses teach, and they are just as important to our teams as their teaching counterparts.

Here’s how co-laboring spouses impact lives on ELIC teams:

Fully Supported Team Members

Rather than having a separate career outside of ELIC, co-laboring spouses are full, contributing team members. This means they are also fully supported. You'll be trained specifically for this role before you leave for your host country and at our annual conferences. You’ll also have the option to be paired with a more experienced co-laboring spouse as a mentor while you get started. 

Translation and Community Work

Without the teaching load, many co-laboring spouses devote significant time to language learning. This not only gives them connections in the community through a tutor or language school, but it can also make them a great resource to help their team communicate as their skill grows. 

They can also help their team on the administrative side of things, making connections in the local community outside of just the school. They play a huge role in planning team events and hosting local friends and students. Even without a presence in the classroom, they can show cross-cultural hospitality to students and local teachers while they build their own community of friends.

Parenting

This is a common reason for a co-laboring spouse to choose this path. Growing up overseas can be a beautiful thing, but it has its challenges. For some families, it can help to have one of their parents at home. This can also make homeschooling possible (one of several good options for educating kids overseas). Every family has different needs, and for some, one parent serving as a co-laboring spouse, even just for a season, is part of what makes this life sustainable for them in the long term. 

Whether one or both parents teach, you’ll have access to a wealth of resources to help your family thrive.