Love took me to Sweden, but teaching helped me stay

Colm O’Connor moved to Sweden 17 years ago after meeting Susanne in Zimbabwe where both were working as development workers. It took the Kerryman a long time to get fully qualified so that he could teach geography and English at secondary school level there. Now, however, the 41-year-old lives with his fiancée and their 15-year-old son just a 30-minute cycle away from the school where he works in Gothenburg. Here he explains how he became a qualified teacher in the Swedish system.

When I moved to Sweden I was not a teacher, I hadn’t taught a single day in my life. It was very difficult to get work in the area in which I was qualified. The job opportunities were few and the fact that I didn’t know any Swedish was a huge minus. I soon understood that I had to get a better grasp of the language before getting a job. I studied Swedish for about two months and then I got a job on the production line in a pharmaceutical company, work that was completely new to me. It was however a great way to learn the language as most of my colleagues were not very comfortable speaking English.

Although I had spent four years at university in Ireland getting a BA in Irish and geography from University College Cork and a higher diploma in remote sensing and GIS from Maynooth University, I began to feel quite unemployable in Sweden even after beginning to grasp the language.

I started to look into doing something completely different. Becoming a teacher felt like the natural thing to do as a foreigner, not to mention the fact that I have it in my blood as both my father and grandfather were teachers.

Doing a TEFL or other similar course did not appeal to me; I was in it for the long haul. My only option was to go back to university and do a teaching degree.

Swedish university

In order to get into university in Sweden one has to have a certain standard of Swedish and the courses that I had done were not adequate.

So I got a language qualification and had my previous studies evaluated. This meant I could get a place on the teaching programme at Gothenburg University. My plan was that after three years, I would be an English and geography secondary school teacher.

After having my studies at University College Cork and Maynooth University evaluated, I was told I could include geography in my teaching degree, all I had to do was prove that I knew Swedish geography (pretty ridiculous really).

This I would do through self-study and a written examination. By including geography in my degree, I would save 1 ½ years of study as the degree here is 4½ to 5 years long.

There are no tuition fees at Swedish universities and students are entitled to a student grant and a student loan. The grant is small so most people opt to get the loan too. There is a limit to the number of years a student can get the loan. I think it’s five years of full-time study. Once a student has graduated and found a job, they must start paying back their student loan. I will be paying mine back until I reach 55 at about €60 per month.

Teaching English

After three years, in 2006, I had completed all the necessary courses except the Swedish geography self-study part, which I had not got around to doing. Soon after graduating, I got a job teaching English to kids who have at least one parent whose mother tongue is English as a “mother tongue” teacher. In Sweden, all kids are entitled to be taught in their mother tongue.

I was not teaching the age group that I was qualified to teach so I did that for about a year while waiting for something better to come along.

My next post was as an English teacher at a secondary school. This was out in the country at an school where the pupils specialised in agriculture, equestrian studies or animal care.

I got the opportunity to work on some Comenius projects at this school, which I really enjoyed, and which took me to France on several occasions and also to Bulgaria. The Comenius programme aims "to help young people and educational staff to better understand the range of European cultures, languages and values".The 40-minute commute to work and the very early start in the morning were the negatives with this job so when another position came up closer to home I took it.

Substitution roles

Since starting to work as a teacher I have worked at many different schools. Most of the jobs that I have had have been one-year to two-year substitutions and they have all been part-time jobs. At one point I worked at three different schools at the same time. Looking back I don’t know how I managed.

The reason I could not get a permanent position was because I was not fully qualified. The government had introduced new legislation a couple of years ago which meant that all permanently employed teachers must be properly qualified and be certified teachers. Without having completed my geography studies I could not become qualified and therefore was not entitled to certification.

Geography is not a widely-taught subject at upper secondary school in Sweden and I have hardly had the opportunity to teach it. Most teachers in Sweden are qualified to teach at least two subjects. I really only had one subject in which I was qualified, which meant that I could only get part-time work.

During the summer of 2015 I finally completed my Swedish geography studies so now I’m fully qualified and a certified teacher.

It’s very funny but it was only when I got my degree papers in the post, nine years after finishing at university, that I realised that what I had been studying for was a master’s of education. The road to that master’s was a long and rocky one.

I now work part-time as an English teacher and mentor at a music school in Gothenburg city centre, a 30-minute cycle from home. This is my third year there so I hope to be made permanent as I really enjoy the environment I’m in, both in terms of my colleagues and pupils.