“There are still jobs out there... you just have to know where to look.”

Stop.  Read this carefully.  Footprints Recruiting® is hiring now.  We have literally hundreds of teaching jobs starting every month.  If you apply today, you could have a job in a week and you could be abroad teaching in a little over a month.

Footprints Recruiting® is the ESL Teacher Placement Agency.

Our recruiters are experienced teachers who understand what it's like to be a foreigner teaching abroad.  We are the industry experts and we are your advocate to help you get the best teaching job with the best school with the least amount of challenge or confusion to you.  We aim to make this process simple for you.

Events of the summer of 2009 serve as an example of the integrity of Footprints services to teachers.

In the last week of August 2009, Footprints was contacted by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) to let us know that they had over accepted and that almost 100 teachers who had been accepted for teaching jobs and who were in various states of departure readiness would not be required to teach with the SMOE.

They informed all the recruiters they were working with and required each recruiter to cut positions from teachers who had already been offered contracts, many of whom already had visas and some of whom already had plane tickets.

The most important function of our teacher placement services is our commitment to teachers; our slogan is "Placing Teachers First".  We stand by our teachers throughout the duration of their contracts.

It is so nice not to be a student any more. 
I love teaching abroad and earning money while I travel and experience things I seriously had never even considered. 

To be completely frank, I had never really ever considered Korea and here I live.  This is after teaching for a year in China where I went to the middle of nowhere in a country where I thought only two cities existed... really all we ever hear about is Beijing and Shanghai.

1. Age - started in 2001. Footprints Recruiting started in 2001 and we are the leader in ESL teacher placements worldwide.
2. Over 5500 teachers placed.

Going abroad is made easy when you're a Footprints Teacher.

All Footprints staff are former ESL teachers so we know what it's like to be literally on the other side of the world wondering what the heck you're doing there.

Understanding that teachers need friends and resources, we have taken the time to develop elements of our website to help support our teachers.  Here are a couple of the advanced features of our website for our Footprints Teachers:

If you're on the east coast or in Boston, please feel free to contact us through our Boston number and you will be routed through to our Head Office in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Footprints Recruiting recruits teachers from every native English speaking country in the world.

Established in 2001, the Footprints Recruiting Head Office is located in historic Gastown, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Footprints Recruiting offers teachers in Korea support from within the country in our centrally located office in Daegu, South Korea.

Footprints Recruiting proudly offers our services in Australia to assist teachers from Australia and New Zealand who are interested in teaching English overseas.  Please feel free to contact us at your convenience with any questions you might have about teaching abroad.

Co-Founder - CEO

Adelaide, Australia Office

My inspiration to become an English teacher came from my father. No, dad isn't an English teacher or a lover of literature, and he isn't much of a speller either. Pops mis-spelled my name when he filled out my birth certificate and the constant teasing I received led me to my calling in life - spelling. At least I am luckier than my brother Danny, in a big Freudian slip dad filled out the name on his birth certificate as 'Danial.' I'm just happy dad didn't want to name me Humperdink.

Operations Manager

Vancouver Office

I started at Footprints in February of 2007, and am currently the company's Operations Manager.
Well, where to begin. I was born in Halifax, grew up in the 'burbs of Toronto (Brampton), spent summers in beautiful Charlevoix, Quebec, and then off to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Korea General Manager and Placement Coordinator

Daegu, South Korea Office

Footprints Recruiting Korean Representative Scott Kim has 5 years of management experience as the Director of Foreign teachers at one of the largest language schools in Korea. Scott is available to support Footprints teachers for all manners of problems and is working with Footprints to ensure we represent the best schools in the industry.

Private Language School Korea, China & Taiwan Placement Coordinator

Vancouver Office

I was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. I always dreamed about exploring the world since I was a little kid.

I majored in Chinese and Chinese literature in university and I started my adventure shortly after I graduated. Japan was my first inspiration but it did not feel different enough from Korea.  I jumped at an unexpected opportunity to go to Europe was given to me following my sister’s study in Germany.

Experiencing a completely different culture had a huge impact on me. It opened my eyes to see the big ocean of endless opportunity in stark contract to the small pond in my back yard.

In House Legal Counsel

My path to Footprints was indirect, full of zigs and zags.  I have worked, studied and traveled on five continents, making new friends and enjoying myself every step of the way.

South America Business Development Specialist

Born in Buenos Aires Argentina, I landed in Chile when I was 9. As time passed by, I got my professional degree in Architecture and curiosity. That is how, along with my life-time partner, I began a search for those things that we have always felt passion for individually and collectively. For us, travels were the path to discovery. After quitting the comfort of the big city, and while on our way back to Chile from another long, long trip, Vancouver Canada became the last stop before returning to a more settled kind of life in Chile. That return was everything but such, and found us packing again as soon as we arrived in Chile and we were heading back to Vancouver, where a masters in sustainable design and great friends were awaiting.

Screening Department Manager & Georgia Placement Coordinator

Vancouver Office

“Sean is by far the greatest thing to happen to the ESL industry since the invention of the whiteboard”

This is just one of the things that people never say about Sean, the Screening Department Manager at Footprints Recruiting.  Let me take you on a journey, a journey to discover something special about this elusive creature known as Sean.

Korean Public School Placement Coordinator - Footprints Alumni

Vancouver Office

It was twenty minutes until the start of my high school graduation. One of our school’s guidance counselors was having us write our future plans onto old cue cards for her to read as we walked down the aisle to receive our diplomas and mine stayed blank as I tried to think of what to write. As she walked down the line, collecting our futures, I had a fit of panic and indecision and wrote that I would either study physics and become an astronaut or start exploring the world through teaching English. Both seemed like large enough goals to be read aloud to the crowd assembled. While the counselor mispronounced my name, she got the ‘teach English’ part right. A family friend was able to point me towards China and I spent the next year in Ningbo.

Assistant in Korean Public School Department

Vancouver Office

I was born in Mississauga, Ontario and grew up sleeping on the floor under airplane seats. When I got too big to fit I move up to sleeping in the seats, which are actually far less comfortable. My dad was an international pilot and I got to travel with him all around the world.

Placement Coordinator & Footprints Alumni

Vancouver Office

I grew up in the town of Chilliwack, BC where I lived a pretty sheltered life in the suburbs, but I always knew that there was more waiting out there in the world for me. I first caught the travel bug in grade 12 when I went on a school trip to Europe. Although it was only a two-week trip, it was enough to make me realize that I was destined for a life of overseas adventure.

Director of Marketing

Vancouver Office

As the kid of two English teachers and with a brother who - after ditching political sciences - decided to become an English teacher as well, it is perhaps not completely surprising that I ended up here, working on campaigns, copy, materials and strategies to lure in English teachers to send far, far away.

Georgia, an emerging democracy in the South Caucasus, has embarked on an ambitious program to staff public schools with 1,000 native English speaking teachers by the end of 2010.

As the first state sponsored ESL program in Eastern Europe, this is a top priority for President Mikheil Saakashvili’s government to prepare Georgian youth to take part in the global economy.

With recent cut backs and teacher redundancies in California, Ben Glickman of Footprints Recruiting recently went to Education Departments in California to tell California teachers that we have teaching jobs for them.

Ben Glickman, co-founder of Footprints Recruiting, flew to Georgia to meet with the Ministry of Education and enter into a contract to recruit a minimum of 500 teachers.  This is a major project for Footprints Recruiting and it is a landmark step for the country of Georgia in stepping forward to bring a new level of English language proficiency to the people of Georgia.  The following is an excerpt from the press conference that followed the signing of the landmark deal.

This is a great interview with Ben Glickman on a CBC radio program called The Link.

On December 17, 2010, Ben Glickman, co-owner of Footprints, met with the Dimitri Shashkini, Minister of Education and Science of Georgia to sign a contract to recruit 1500 teachers for the Teach and Learn in Georgia program.

Asian Pacific Post - Taiwanese authorities are planning to work with Canada to dismantle a Vancouver-based drug trafficking operation they say was run by an English language tutor from B.C. who is now facing trial before a court in Taipei.

Toronto Star - Ben Glickman, co-owner of the Vancouver based company Footprints Recruiting Inc., one of the largest suppliers of ESL teachers to Asia, signed an recruiting contract with Disney English Language Center in Shanghai, China.

Disney English Language Centers are part of The Walt Disney Company and are sure to spread throughout China quickly.

In August, Ben Glickman interviewed with Nina Lex of the National Post on a story she wrote about a growing number of Canadians who were seeking work as teachers abroad in light of the dim prospect of getting employment upon graduation. 

Here is an excerpt from that article:

TORONTO -- A growing number of recent graduates from Canadian universities are becoming English teachers overseas, discouraged by a tight job market during Canada's deepest recession in decades.

Footprints teacher Philip Kunz will be returning to Georgia for a second term and recently was the subject of an article in his local paper in Helena Montana.

Excerpt from article in the Helena Independent Record

Want to stay with a family in a village in a post-Soviet republic, on the frontier between Europe and Asia and in the middle of its own bumpy transition to global economy and culture? Interested in teaching English to empower youth, and do it with minimal supplies and comforts for about $300 a month?

The Vancouver Province - Inmate 6071 at Taipei Prison's drug treatment unit is a 29-year-old English teacher from Port Moody who's making use of the long days before his sentencing by learning Mandarin.

JoongAng Daily - Alexis Cuperus, an American living in Korea, says she won’t be going home this year, and maybe not the next year either.

Just hours before the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, the official torch run wound its way through the streets of Gastown in Vancouver before lighting the cauldron to start the games.

At around 9am on February 12th, Footprints staff took a moment to go downstairs to see the torch pass right by our front door.  We cheered on as the flame going past displaying our national colours. Currently in the office we represent six different nations with staff from Canada, US, China, Korea and our current interns from Japan and Switzerland.

Footprints Recruiting® recently had a meeting with one of our largest clients in Japan regarding their pressing need to assist the Japanese public schools with filling 75 vacancies with Assistant English Language Teachers. Due to recent events a significant number of teachers have dropped out of the program, but as the situation in Japan stabilizes there is strong desire to bring back some routine and get the country moving forward in a positive direction. Children in Japan are craving the stability of the familiar, which for many includes ESL classes. For ESL teachers this is an opportunity to support a country they admire that is recovering from a devastating blow from mother nature.

Asian Pacific Post - A Vancouver-based company is looking for hundreds of teachers to begin a class act in Taiwan.

Footprints Recruiting is planning to cash in on the shift by the Taiwanese government towards the use of native English speaking teachers in classrooms around the country.

Footprints on Facebook

Footprints Recruiting offers teachers opportunities to network in a variety of spaces and they are using the powerful social networking platform of Facebook to help their teachers connect worldwide.

Check out our Facebook presence to see what we are up to now.

Wikipedia, one of the worlds largest online encyclopedias of information has a listing of Footprints Recruiting.

Check out more information about Footprints Recruiting here on Wikipedia or here on our own website.

Several Footprints Teachers were featured in this article by the New York Times. The article offers a realistic view of teaching in Georgia and the challenges and benefits of the program as it continues to grow.

TWITTER - Footprints joined TWITTER on March 17th, 2009, and is looking to create a profile that will provide advice, inspiration and guidance to teachers worldwide. 

We aim to provide information information through tweeting in the following areas:

• esl teaching jobs worldwide.
• events worldwide that relate to teaching English.
• updates on Footprints and what is happening with the company and our fantastic staff.

Footprints Recruiting® is pleased to announce that a memorandum of understanding has been signed with Mr. Khalifa Al Mansoori to open a joint venture company in Abu Dhabi. The new company will be named "Footprints Recruiting - UAE."  The central focus of this company will be to serve the growing demand for English language educators in the U.A.E. and the nearby Gulf countries, including Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.

Lisa Maiorello, a teacher from Washington DC, who was placed to teach in Georgia by Footprints is having the time of her life.  The BBC story talks about the excitement of teaching as the first foreign teacher in school number 34.

Over 130 Footprints teachers arrived in South Korea last month to start their public school contract with EPIK (English Program in Korea).

These teachers were placed in various locations throughout Korea ranging from Gangwon Province to Jeju Island. Our very own Scott Kim was there to meet the teachers as they arrived at the Busan airport.

Footprints teachers were greeted with a Footprints t-shirt and an arrival package. We have heard from a few of the teachers already, and they have made it safely to their school and apartment and are ready to enjoy their year abroad! We wish all of the teachers in Korea a wonderful year to enjoy everything Korea has to offer!

Well besides spending the lunch hour admiring the often rainy view of the North Shore Mountains, our interns get to do a little bit of everything from calling EPIK and Georgia applicants for the purpose of scheduling phone interviews, to handing out fliers about teaching ESL abroad. Occasionally, they even get to make gourmet coffee first thing in the morning to wake up some of the Placement Coordinators and put a caffeine smile on their pillow creased faces.

Movember at Footprints!

Footprints jumped into the Movember campaign in 2011 by donating the upper lips of all the Footprints 'bros'. Check out our progress in this video made by Tamara- a Footprints 'sista'.

Watch for our team next year... perhaps we can get more Footprints Teachers involved in this great effort to support prostate cancer research.

Check out the Footprints Movember Video On YouTube:

Footprints Recruiting ® let out a huge sigh of relief today as the last unaccounted for former Japanese intern sent back an email to confirm that both she and her family were safe. Despite surviving the terrifying earthquake that struck off the northeastern coast of Japan on Friday, the emotional toll for the survivors is evident. Former Footprints intern Saori, currently back in Tokyo, recalls the chaos that ensued shortly after the enormous quake “it was the first REAL evacuation of my life, even though all Japanese have had evacuation drills many times…all my family are fine so far, but we still feel the earthquake at short intervals, I cannot believe what has gone on in Japan”.

Footprints is the leading supplier of teachers to public schools in South Korea.

By Sean Harris, Screening Department Manager

Hello internet people. My name is Sean and I head up the screening team here at Footprints. I deal with all of your applications and emails as they come in and am generally your first point of contact. Over the next few weeks I will be blogging about ways to be successful in the hiring process here at Footprints. I’ll be doing this for two reasons;

1. I want as many of you to be successful as possible.
2. The Dutch overlord of communications at Footprints has demanded it.

This weeks entry is entitled:

Surefire ways to make a terrible first impression

Whether you're a teacher or a school, you can be assured that Footprints Recruiting looks to work with the best.
Despite incredible international attention from both schools and teachers, Footprints has kept a firm grip on growth since 2001, ensuring that we represent the best of both worlds.

Current Opportunities at our Vancouver Head Office:

• Internships available in the following departments & capacities:
  • Advertising & Marketing
  • Data Entry & IT
  • Teacher Placements
  • Contact us for more details.

Working at Footprints Recruiting® is a rewarding experience.  Check out a video presented to Ben and Jeff from one of our interns who is dearly missed.

Foosball has been part of the Footprints office culture for many years now. Both the guys and some of the gals take part; long time staff as well as interns. Competition can be fierce. Feelings can be hurt. Victory can be sweet. Losing is crushing. Then 1 o'clock comes around and it's back to work again. Here is a little taste of what goes on during the lunchtime lunacy that is Foosball at Footprints.

Dim lights