employment opportunities for a school psychologist

[xveruskax]

Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

If you apply for a "dependent visa" for your spouse at the same time you apply for your work visa (suitably sponsored by your employer-to-be) the spouse can accompany you. But the spouse cannot work. You have to declare your spouse along with your original visa application if you want him or her to accompany you.

I don't know the precise status of the spouse on a competences et talents visa, but I'm betting the spouse doesn't get work privileges unless s/he is part of the "projet" proposed by the main applicant (and essentially gets his or her own competences et talents visa).

You may be confusing the status of the spouse of an EU national resident in France. The situation for us non-EU nationals is quite different.
Cheers,
Bev

"France wishing to improve the organisation of professional immigration has created the “Compétences et Talents” (skills and talents) residency card. If you are talented and want to expand your work horizon in France, this three years renewable card allows you to exercise the activity of your choice in connection with your professional project.
In addition, your family (spouse and children) will receive residency permits allowing them to legally work in France."

The new residency card ?Compétences et Talents? - France in the United States/ Embassy of France in Washington

[Bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by xveruskax

"France wishing to improve the organisation of professional immigration has created the “Compétences et Talents” (skills and talents) residency card. If you are talented and want to expand your work horizon in France, this three years renewable card allows you to exercise the activity of your choice in connection with your professional project.
In addition, your family (spouse and children) will receive residency permits allowing them to legally work in France."

The new residency card ?Compétences et Talents? - France in the United States/ Embassy of France in Washington

OK, then I guess you'll be going for the competences et talents card now. Do keep us informed how that is coming along.
Cheers,
Bev

[jojo]

I'm probably speaking out of turn here, but what worries me most about this whole post is that you seem more concerned with getting yourself to France than about the fact that you'll be responsible for possibly psychologically damaged children and in charge of helping them. Even the simple things involved like writing out their problems and reporting them in an articulate way and conversing with them at their level... none of that seems to be important to you. Just as long as you can live in France with your family

Surely if your children were unfortunate enough to ever need a psychologist, you would want someone that can fully understand the whole picture, nature and issues that might be involved, not a foriegner who's main interest in the job was that he and his family could be in a foreign country.

Sorry if that sounds unfair or heartless, but thats how you seem to come across IMO. I hope it works out for you tho

Jo xxx

[minesthechevy]

<<< but what worries me most about this whole post is that you seem more concerned with getting yourself to France than about the fact that you'll be responsible for possibly psychologically damaged children and in charge of helping them........................... Just as long as you can live in France with your family >>>


My thoughts entirely.

[xveruskax]

I really do not feel the need to explain my motivations behind working in the field that I have chosen. If I were a financial advisor or working at an embassy or an IT, this wouldn't be an issue yet those are positions of employment that do directly impact the well being of other people. When other people, like yourself, migrate to any country in Europe, they usually look for employment in the field that they are equipped to work in. I am no different.

You are speaking out of turn. You are assuming too much about me and before you do that you would do better to ask me instead why I have chosen this field of work and why I would complete a masters program at a university that offers the highest level of training for the work I must accomplish in the area that I live. Again, you assume too much.

[minesthechevy]

All Ive done is read what you wrote - all I'm guilty of assuming is that what you wrote are the priorites that you wanted us to read.

Soddit, 'life's too short'.......

[jojo]

Originally Posted by minesthechevy

All Ive done is read what you wrote - all I'm guilty of assuming is that what you wrote are the priorites that you wanted us to read.

Soddit, 'life's too short'.......

I agree, thats how you seem to come across. Thats obviously a misunderstanding on our part, and English is our first language

Jo xxx

[xveruskax]

Originally Posted by jojo

I agree, thats how you seem to come across. Thats obviously a misunderstanding on our part, and English is our first language

Jo xxx

Misunderstanding, indeed. I just wanted advice on transitioning into France. The internet in general gives very little advice on finding work as a teacher, professor, or in the special education field with children with disabilities in other countries like France.( Actually, I saw that England recognizes educational psychology and employment is possible but I'm not interested in living there).

I saw a thread posted by "jikenberry" in june of 2008, inquiring on employment as a school/educational psychologist. The recommendation was also to look into private school since the french public service sector is very particular about hiring "foreigners". Is there a specific authority that oversees private schools?

[frogblogger]

Nonetheless, I made some very pertinent comments based both on my experience in a related field and my knowledge of the importance of the subtleties of language that are invariably missed when not completely bilingual. You chose not to respond to the points I made, and this fact will hardly have discouraged the follow-up posts from jojo and mtc, with which I agree entirely.

If you are looking into the possibility of practising your chosen profession in an English-speaking environment, then that is an entirely different matter.

In passing, a friend of mine is the director of a private college near Aix in the south of France. I cited your case to him last night, and he put your chances of finding employment in this field, involved with francophone children, at precisely zero. It didn't matter to him if you had a doctorate and had written several bestsellers in the field, the key question was whether you spoke French like a Frenchman. He also mentioned the fact that the great majority of educational establishments do not have a 'school psychologist'. They share 'social assistants' between two or three schools, and serious problems are referred to psychologists and psychiatrists in private practice.

Education is one sector where there is considerable pressure for cutbacks, witness the regular industrial action taken by teachers and other professionals involved. Caring for the mental health of pupils is one area which is unlikely to prosper in the present economic climate, given that schools are being asked to cope with less teachers.

As it happens my children's mother died suddenly when they were in their early teens, so I have specific knowledge of the process involved. In two relatively prosperous areas of France where we have lived since, in two colleges and two lycees, there was no such animal available as a 'school psychologist'. The process involved regular meetings with the assistant social, but any more targeted psychological help was external to the school system.

[xveruskax]

Originally Posted by frogblogger

In passing, a friend of mine is the director of a private college near Aix in the south of France. He mentioned the fact that the great majority of educational establishments do not have a 'school psychologist'. They share 'social assistants' between two or three schools, and serious problems are referred to psychologists and psychiatrists in private practice.
Education is one sector where there is considerable pressure for cutbacks, witness the regular industrial action taken by teachers and other professionals involved. Caring for the mental health of pupils is one area which is unlikely to prosper in the present economic climate, given that schools are being asked to cope with less teachers.

You do not know what an educational psychologist does. Caring for the mental health of pupils is a small part of what such a professional does. I am sorry for your loss and I'm sure your kids went through a tough time but educational psychologists do not deal with children suffering from bereavement. They primarily deal with academic difficulties in learning and behavioral problems as they relate to their learning. Students suffering from broken homes or emotional turmoil are often referred to psychologists and psychiatrists, often by educational psychologists.
There are thousands in the whole of France who work as educational psychologists but certainly not enough, which may explain why your friend has not seen them. They exist now and there are many who want to become trained in France, but there are only a handful who graduate every year. There is a huge shortage. I have sources if you'd like to see them.

Others have directed me to sources and information where I can inquire on the possibility of finding employment and how to go about making a home in France.
Thank you to them.