Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

As a Senior Teacher my responsibility is to oversee the trainees at our projects, to lead the ABCi program training and assist with the overall development of our trainee's teacher skills.

On a typical Monday I drive our trainee teachers to our project before the beginning of school, communicate with our point of contact in the staff and ensure that everyone is clear on who, where and what they are teaching. Over the course of the day I will observe the trainees, teach lessons, liaise with the local teachers, organise future projects and follow up on past ones and work on improving our program before escorting the trainees back at the end of the school day. In the afternoons I am either leading teaching inputs with the trainees or working in the office.

There's something very invigorating about our method of teaching, always coming into a new classroom as the outsider, and often teaching students who have never met an English-speaking person or even a foreigner of any kind before (rural Austria can be quite isolated.) The first thing we do when we come into a classroom is move all of the tables aside and make a circle in the centre where everyone has a chance to speak, and being able to take the students out of their ordinary classroom structure like that and create our own learning environment always leads to interesting and enjoyable exchanges. For students who are used to weekly vocabulary tests and learning verb conjugations by rote, our program which is focused on communication, active learning and creativity is a breath of fresh air that almost everyone enjoys. And teaching new students every week or every day, in a range of abilities and ages from 6 to 18 or older, gives you a breadth of teaching experience that not many jobs can claim to match.

It's a long day for our teachers, beginning early in the morning (covering projects all over Austria - where school tends to start around 7:30am - makes for long commutes) and continuing into input sessions in the afternoon. And our program focuses on active learning and communicative teaching, which demands a lot of energy from both the teachers and the students. While the work is intensely rewarding, both in terms of the experience working with students and the potential for developing as a teacher, it also requires a lot of motivation from the individual.

I first went into ESL because I was interested in teaching, enjoyed working with children and was also looking for an opportunity to travel. ABCi seemed like a great opportunity to gain experience in the classroom working with a variety of students. And when I came to ABCi and had the experience of travelling to new schools each day or week and teaching our program to a new group of excited students I fell in love with it. Once I finished as a trainee I already knew that I wanted to return as a member of staff.

Prior to coming here I went to the ELTC of the University of Sheffield and did an intensive four-week course to earn my CELTA, a qualification which has obviously been a huge help roles teaching, training other teachers and creating and developing the ESL program that we run here at ABCi. Also, I previously graduated from Sheff Uni's Germanic Studies department, and though at the time I didn't have any concrete plans for working in Germany or Austria it has since turned out to be very useful in living here! In my actual job, however, I don't use very much German at all, as our aim in the classroom is to create an immersive English learning environment. In fact, most of our trainees and Senior Teachers get by with only very basic German knowledge, if any.

After graduating from the University of Sheffield I spent some time travelling as well as working on my personal and professional skills (earning my driving licence, volunteering at local schools as a teaching assistant, and so on.) My first full-time job was at an inbound call centre, which mostly served to fund my four-week intensive CELTA course at the University of Sheffield's ELTC, after which I fairly quickly took up a trainee teaching position here at ABCi. Once I finished my course I returned fairly soon as an Academic Intern, then soon after was promoted to a full-time role as a Senior Teacher.

Right now I'm quite satisfied with my role here at ABCi, as it gives me the opportunity to both work in the classroom and supervise and train other teachers. In the future I see myself either moving on to another teaching role elsewhere in the world, which with the past two years' experience will likely be quite easy to achieve, or working towards the DELTA and moving into full-time teacher training.

The ABCi program isn't suitable for those looking for a few months of light work while travelling around Europe and partying. But for those with a real interest in taking up teaching or ESL as a profession, or teachers who want to expand their experience in a new direction, I think ABCi is one of the best opportunities around.