ABCi Volunteer Program

I spent 3 months with ABCi in Austria and it was the most incredible experience!
As a nearly qualified Primary School teacher, I had had plenty of experience of teaching children from 5-12. The experience gain at ABCi has been invaluable and I have been highly commended during my university course for taking part in such a program.
I arrived late as I had to finish my dissertation, and the program leaders were very accommodating about this and were able to support me whilst I was 'catching up' with the rest of the group.
Teaching a different class every day/week requires a massive degree of flexibility and can be challenging, however this is a skill which particularly as a teacher needs to be developed and my time in Austria has been a huge support to my teaching back in England.
The children taught were generally lovely- a big change from children in England- this is the main difference which I found. They were so eager to please, friendly and helpful!
The program was very different to what I've previously taught, ABCi pride themselves on using an active teaching approach which requires alot of energy and enthusiasm (there's no room for bad moods!) This active method means that you can have heaps of fun with your class- just make sure they dont push it!.
We were regularly observed, which I was super nervous about- but actually the feedback gained is an integral aspect of the program- and all senior teachers are very friendly and deliver criticism in a positive and constructive manner.
As part of the qualification gained each teacher was asked to create a game to trial with the children and present to their peers- this was a great way to incorporate your own thoughts and ideas into the program and feedback gained from peers and senior teachers was very useful.

All of my weekends were free and most evenings, Austrian schools finish around 1.30 (ish) so despite the sometimes very early mornings (some as early as 5am) the afternoon was generally free.
We were asked to act out the activities as a group, which I found very useful and as we were all friends, this did not seem like a chore!
There is an interactive classroom where we were asked to 'run' 1 session a month (roughly 2 hours) where we were able to talk to the children which had bought into the program- again, not really much to ask, and not a chore!
We did have reading and grammar exercises to complete each week which we would feedback to the rest of the group with the support of the senior teacher. I found these sessions very useful and motivational do actually complete the reading (this is for the test at the end).

Austria is a very beautiful country and somewhere were I would like to visit again- the nature of ABCi meant that I was able to see alot of the country!

It almost seemed to good to be true when I read the advert. If youre down for a bit of hard work, loads of fun and great teaching experience this is the place to go!
I was able to expand my teaching skills, gain a qualification and more importantly I have made some life-long friends through ABCi. So thank you!

I spent three wonderful months with ABCi and, honestly, it was one of the best experiences I've had. I learned so much as a teacher and, although I found the initial training pretty overwhelming, it was totally worth it.

The first month or so, I admit that I was not the best teacher. With the support and help of the senior teachers as well as the reading booklets, my progress over the course of my time with ABCi got better and better. I was even awarded a "most improved teacher" certificate which I was, and still am, thrilled about. I can't thank the senior teachers enough for being so patient, calming and always approachable.

The children I taught were just incredible. Obviously, like every school, there were some menaces. Looking back, though, I say thanks to those little menaces because I learned how to improve my behaviour management - a wonderful tool you learn with ABCi. Each week (excuse me if I get this wrong - I don't remember correctly) I was instructed to think of a new game or a new song which could be played or sung in the classrooms with the children. I often found this tricky but applying the game or song to the kids was great fun. The funny thing was finding out if it worked or not. At one point, one of the games I tried out kind of completely failed - the kids were BORED. But when it works, the feeling is almost as good as victory.
My favourite part of the week in school was the performance on the Friday of the project week. Everyone is super excited, there are lots of songs to be sung and danced to, and some of the kids' dramas which they make up are fantastic. All staff at each school was sociable, kind and always made sure everything was going good. It was very emotional leaving the children and teachers behind after each week, or sometimes each day if it's a project day.

Throughout my three months in Austria, I stayed with other volunteers. I became very close to my group and they are truly some of the greatest people I've ever met. I can safely say that you definitely make friends whilst volunteering with ABCi. You almost always have weekends off to do whatever. I think out of all weekends, there were two Saturdays or so when I had to do something work-related such as a First Aid course and teacher training. Also, after school there is often scheduled time to go over games and songs to make sure you understand what to do/what to sing. The time spent doing this can be exhausting and all you can think about is bed but it's the best time to ask questions if you're unsure of anything or to really pay attention if you have no clue how a game goes. You always have some free time though.
Most mornings are early - some as early as 5am if your accommodation is located far from the school. This was tough at the start of the course but it got easier and I rather enjoyed some fresh super early morning air.

Austria is such a beautiful country and being able to teach here was just brilliant. I got to see SO many parts of Austria: Gmunden (beautiful little town where the headquarters are based), Windischgarsten, Leonding, Linz, Vienna, Liebenau, Spittal, Salzburg (standing right where Maria Van Der Trapp sang was an incredible feeling), Zell am Moos, Sankt Pantaleon, Tulln, Krems, Grunberg, Attnang Puccheim, Hallein - where we WALKED to Germany - and so many more. Before volunteering with ABCi, I never thought Austria would be a country I would love as much as I do. So much that I now live in Vienna!

To sum up, I strongly recommend volunteering with ABCi. The senior teachers are awesome, the children are so precious, you meet fabulous people and the memories are definitely worth making. If you're prepared for early mornings, working hard, ups and downs, but also so much fun, laughter and enjoyment then I definitely suggest signing up to volunteer with ABCi.

Massive thank you to ABCi! :)

Luckily Austria is a beautiful, friendly country and the school children are for the most part a pleasure to teach, because volunteering with the Austrian Bilingual Classrooms Initiative is not something I would recommend.

For a start, the program revolves around games ('Active learning', which means children running around) and songs. Expect to do a lot of this, and very little real English teaching. There are a few games which have useful grammar and language content, but they are minimal. If you do not enjoy being in the role of cheerleader, this program is unlikely to provide you with much teaching satisfaction. It will also pay to dispel any ideas of Not-for-Profit goodness early on, as this program charges the children a fee for participation, while being well funded from other sources besides.

Secondly, constructive criticism is not welcome, nor are complaints. The managers are either rude or temperamental (the director, did not introduce himself and I did not meet him until I accidentally bumped into him a week and a half into the program). We were provided with very limited food supplies for the first week, and when I complained about this I was told that I raised the matter at an inappropriate time, that disciplinary action was needed; that all ABCI's crushing force would be applied to such dissidence in the ranks.

Expect to be working flat out and FULL time. Getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning is not unusual (despite what they will tell you). The schools are usually a long commute from wherever you are staying, and even in Vienna it is often necessary to take public transport for an hour+ to reach schools on time. When you get back late in the afternoon, there is usually something to prevent you from relaxing too much (meetings, the Virtual Classroom, or practicing new classroom content in front of colleagues when they decide you need to learn a whole new program). In short, all of this means that this program is more stressful than any paid position I've been in-- there is no time or place to talk to anyone or discuss grievances, and you end up feeling exhausted and unmotivated.

They will tell you that all of the above is to be expected, because it is a training program for which a qualification is awarded. Don't be fooled by this-- you will get a piece of paper which is worth very little in real terms. Unless you happen to be an 18 year old school leaver with no qualifications, it is unlikely to be of much use to anyone.

Also, don't expect anything to happen efficiently unless it is of benefit or consequence to the organization. As a trainee you are expected to be punctual and well organized (fair enough), but they will not return this favor where it is your time or resources at stake. Expect long waits for people to turn up, don't expect prompt reimbursement of your monies (my flight reimbursement arrived 2 months after I left; the certificate took even longer). Disorganization is the norm, so from time to time you may have no internet access, or no washing machine for a couple of weeks. Similarly, safety of participants is taken rather lightly-- there was a seat belt missing in a vehicle, which I mentioned early on. Nothing was done about it, despite high-speed travel on the auto bahn being a regular phenomenon.

The academic side of the program is equally sloppy. You will be asked to create new content (preferably original) for which no reference is included in any of the program booklets. As anyone with any academic background will know, this effectively constitutes plagiarism.

And finally, the staff predominantly consists of young males, particularly amongst the teachers. Some may not mind, but I believe it does influence the outlook and attitude of the organization to some extent. On the plus side, the senior teachers are for the most part a great bunch-- it is the managers that bring it down.

If you are young, unqualified and willing to tolerate all of the above, this may be the place to develop your cheerleader skills. If you are not, then I'd recommend trying another program.

I volunteered for ABCi for three months and had an incredible experience. I was able to travel all over Austria and live in Vienna, Graz and up in the Austrian countryside, surrounded by breathtaking scenery. The programme is run by a small and friendly team who are extremely hard working and passionate about their programme which creates a motivating work atmosphere and you feel an integral part of that process during your stay. The programme is not for the work-shy; the mornings are early and you are expected to teach for at least 6 hours a day plus tefl training. However, this all pays off and the teaching experience you receive is invaluable. You will come out with a good grounding in core teaching skills and experience in teaching a variety of different age ranges and abilities (not forgetting a tefl certificate to prove all this!) progress is monitered closely by a senior teacher during the whole programme and they will give you regular constructive feedback on your lessons which is a huge help to your development as a teacher. The kids in general are well behaved with some interesting characters and you will have a lot of fun with them! The programme looks after its volunteers well and all food, accommodation and travel expenses are all paid for . There is always someone available to contact if you have any issues or complaints during your stay. The social scene is awesome, the abci team are a friendly bunch and organise team building activities regularly for their volunteers. you need to have an open mind and expect to live in close quarters to fellow volunteers, you may need to share rooms regularly but you become very close, very quickly to your colleagues as a result, and make life long friends. In short , the experience I had with abci was incredible. I met some wonderful people, I felt I was working towards something meaningful and it was a challenging but very rewarding experience that I would highly reccomend.

ABCi is a brilliant, emerging company which seems to be going from strength to strength, and hopefully has a very exciting future ahead, as English is integrated into every class room in Austria by 2020. The staff at ABCi are very hard working, particularly Ben, Frank and Helen who create a great family atmosphere within the company and work long days (nights and weekends usually included).

I would highly recommend this company to future applicants, the surrounding area of Gmunden is beautiful, there are stunning lakes, mountains to climb, and places to visit.

So I was was working as a volunteer for ABCi for three months and just returned a couple of weeks ago in April. It was great fun, learnt a lot, became a much better teacher and made some good friends. At first it was certainly a lot of work! However after the first week things began to get a bit easier, by the second month it was much more chilled and the third there was lots of chilling.
You travel around with two other volunteers and we had a really good time together, even though I was sharing a room with one of them for three months. The programme you teach seems a lot to take on board at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly and at the end of the three months you will feel a very confident teacher and it will be pretty easy to go into a classroom and be creative. Generally speaking the kids are really sweet as well, there are naughty ones, but you develop your ability to deal with those kids, so it offers that side of teaching development as well.
I got given a jar of honey from one school which was great, because it sorted out my souvenirs for when I returned home!
Oh and that's not to mention the total of ten bottles of wine I secured from schools over my time there.

Austria is a really beautiful country, if you haven't been to a mountainous country before, then it is mind-blowing. The office is in a lovely town with some pretty big mountains and so its pretty easy to get straight into nature.

Overall it was a great experience, try it out!

I worked for ABCi for a three-month placement from December through to the end of February, and really enjoyed my time with the company.

The general work day was approximately 6 hours at a school (taking 6 50 minute periods), which, when combined with travel time and training later in the day, often resulted in some pretty long days, particularly in the first month. Over the course of the placement, the post-school training sessions become less frequent and we had more leisure time in the afternoon.

The lesson plans/activites are all provided by ABCi and are clearly explained, and are a lot of fun to run with a class of Austrian school kids.

As a relatively inexperienced teacher, I found the placement very useful for several reasons. Firstly, you get a lot of teaching experience with kids from different schools, of varying ages (between 6 and 16). Because you run the same activity programs regularly, it allows you to focus on different aspects of teaching (such as behaviour or time management). The head teacher will often observe you teach and provide useful feedback both during the class and later in training sessions. Finally, you get experience running a large variety of activities, including songs, theatre and sport workshops.

I found the staff to be friendly and supportive, and the accomodation comfortable. Overall, if you are happy to work hard and looking to get some teaching experience, I thoroughly recommend ABCi.

A great way of seeing the real Austria and a very good introduction to teaching as you are thrown in at the deep end. Social scene was good as you will be sharing your experience with at least 2 people.

The hours are very long in the week with 6 hours teaching during the day often followed by 3 hours training along with some long (but very scenic) commutes. A very central location in Vienna which is fantastic.

Friendly staff and beautiful surroundings!