{"id":16305,"date":"2011-01-20T20:52:01","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T00:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=16305"},"modified":"2011-01-20T20:54:31","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T00:54:31","slug":"national-ajets-life-after-jet-andrew-sowter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/20\/national-ajets-life-after-jet-andrew-sowter\/","title":{"rendered":"National AJET’s “Life After JET”: Andrew Sowter"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>National AJET<\/strong> shares former JET participants\u2019 experiences \u2013 and a little advice \u2013 with current JETs in their new monthly interview, <\/em>Life After JET<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 Contact lifeafterjet [at] ajet.net<\/strong> to be featured in future posts<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

*************<\/em><\/p>\n

This month, we further explore ways to build a teaching career in Japan from the JET experience. We interviewed Andy Sowter<\/strong>, a former-Prefectural ALT who taught at high schools and elementary schools for four years in Nara<\/strong>. After completing a Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics \/ Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)<\/strong>, he is now a lecturer at Kwansei Gakuin University<\/strong> in their Intensive English Program<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Andy recommends that JET participants looking to use JET as a springboard to teach at a Japanese university need to start preparing early. Many universities look for experience presenting and publishing and \u201cthe Mid-Year Training Seminars are a good place to start.\u201d In addition, he recommends that university job-seekers \u201cjoin JALT<\/strong> and attend a few meetings to get a feel for the people you will be competing with for jobs.\u201d For more advice from Andy, see the full interview or check out AJET’s Life After JET links page<\/strong><\/a> to find more information about the qualifications, resources, etc mentioned in this article.<\/em><\/p>\n

National AJET:<\/strong> I know that you started working on your Masters while on JET. Since you didn\u2019t have a background in linguistics before that, did you need to do any extra preparation?<\/p>\n

Andy Sowter:<\/strong> I started doing my Masters during my 3rd year of JET, I finished JET after my 4th year to complete my Masters full time in Australia. Working and studying with a young family was difficult [so take] advantage of the extra free time that JET often gives you to study (either Japanese or a qualification).<\/p>\n

To apply, I had to write a letter to the program chair stating the reasons why I thought I would be able to complete a degree in Applied Linguistics coming from a science-based background. Before applying I corresponded with the program chair to make that personal connection, I think this helped. However, I did also have a CELTA degree and three years of teaching experience to back up my application.<\/p>\n

I was very happy with my results as I think they reflected the amount of effort I put into my studies. Seriously, anyone who decides they want to do further study has to commit, it takes a huge amount of time and effort.<\/p>\n

NAJET: <\/strong>Can you tell me a little bit about your Masters programme?<\/p>\n

Andy Sowter: <\/strong>My program was done through an Australian-based university called Griffith University. They had a distance education masters program [that was recommended by other JETs]. The program was designed to be completed part time over two years. It was completely course based (i.e. no thesis, just huge assignments). Two of the courses required evaluation of classroom teaching and lesson planning. I chose to go back to Australia to complete these but I could have done it externally if I could have found someone here in Japan willing and qualified to do so. By going back to Australia and completing my courses internally I managed to complete my degree in 18 months.<\/p>\n

NAJET: <\/strong>What kind of requirements are there for teaching in Japanese universities?<\/p>\n

Andy Sowter:<\/strong> It is getting harder and harder to get jobs as student numbers decline. To succeed in the Japanese university system you need a Masters Degree. In addition, you [must have] teaching experience in a university, [be published], [have Japanese language proficiency], and contacts [to] acquire better teaching positions.<\/p>\n

When I started out, I took part time jobs. I managed to get some publications and made good contacts. After a year teaching part time, I [got] a full-time contract position and then relatively quickly a second better full-time (contract) position (my current job).<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for the rest of the interview.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National AJET shares former JET participants\u2019 experiences \u2013 and a little advice \u2013 with current JETs in their new monthly interview, Life After JET.\u00a0 Contact lifeafterjet [at] ajet.net to be featured in future posts. ************* This month, we further explore ways to build a teaching career in Japan from the JET experience. We interviewed Andy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[73,10,25,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice","category-career","category-interviewprofile","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-4eZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16305"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16309,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16305\/revisions\/16309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}