Become a volunteer teacher

Teaching is an important field to be involved in as you have the chance to shape and redirect someone’s future into something brighter and better. 

Skills development at every age

Our volunteer teaching programs have welcomed participants from a ton of different backgrounds over the years. Some have been students and graduates looking for first-time experience as a volunteer teaching assistant. Others have been further on in their careers, wanting to specialise in volunteer teaching abroad for qualified teachers, or purely wanting to spend time doing work that meets their personal calling. That diversity makes GVI’s teaching abroad programs valuable to our program partners and their communities. Our volunteer teachers represent a range of backgrounds, stories and perspectives. We plan together, teach together, and learn together, too.

Volunteer teaching abroad for students

While many graduates and older participants enjoy and find great success through volunteer teaching opportunities, students enjoy the added bonus of receiving academic credits for their programs with GVI. 

Students with a passion for teaching can start living their dreams early on by taking a gap year to join a program. 

If you’re looking to give your teaching career a kickstart, be sure to check out our international teaching internships. 

Boost your resume by teaching

Volunteer teaching abroad is an appealing experience to have on any resume. It tells a recruiter that your interpersonal communication is strong, you’re able to connect with others and gain their trust, you’re a keen problem-solver, and you’ve got a strong character. 

Negotiating different languages and cultures while finding your place in a new community and totally new surroundings, all while keeping your commitments to your students, indicates great leadership skills and an open mind. These are highly-prized qualities in the fast-evolving job market.

Teaching opportunities across the world

GVI’s volunteer teaching and teaching internship programs are based in stunning locations across Africa, Asia, Australasia and Latin America.

Take a closer look at our bases offering education programs: 

• Ghana
• Madagascar
• South Africa
• Cambodia
• Nepal
• Thailand
• Fiji
• Costa Rica
• Peru

Culture is at the heart of a community and the experience of working as a volunteer teacher in each of our bases is completely unique. 

Chat with our team of enrolment experts to find a volunteer teaching program that best meets your goals.

We teach so we may learn

As a volunteer teacher abroad, the focus of your workday could be on delivering lessons that align with a formalised curriculum, or you could be responsible for more informal activities, such as running extracurricular activities both in and out of the classroom.

You could work with kindergarteners on early childhood education programs or with adults on human empowerment projects, such as assisting girls and women entrepreneurs to help improve their access to business opportunities. 

Your volunteer teaching could be rooted in developing English literacy, numeracy, sport or art. You could assist with community development programs geared towards public health support, conservation and climate action.

Your teaching abroad options with GVI are wide. For example, you can:

• Teach English in Cambodia to novice Buddhist monks as well as some of the province’s most underserved students ranging from three to 18 years old.
• Support climate and environmental education in Ghana, including giving talks in local schools and working on community recycling programs.
• Work on women’s empowerment in Nepal, you will help deliver numeracy and literacy classes to women entrepreneurs, as well as vocational training to women and girls.
• Gain experience in early childhood development in Fiji, delivering developmental sessions for children under five and running workshops with their caregivers.
• Contribute to education for conservationists in Madagascar as you hold conversational English classes with the staff of Lokobe National Park.

Browse all our volunteer teaching opportunities.

Working with children

GVI’s programs are designed within a framework of strict protocol and ethics when it comes to working with children and vulnerable adults, and our Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy is implemented on each program.  

 Before conducting any practical volunteer teaching, our participants are trained to follow safety and protection guidelines. We hold ourselves accountable to our students, participants and partners to ensure GVI’s volunteer teachers can make educated and confident decisions while teaching.

As part of the Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy, participants will be required to complete a DPS check, police clearance or a National Background Check where necessary, and to comply with the policy.

Our impact

GVI’s volunteers play a vital part in the success and long-term sustainability of our teaching projects. With the support of our volunteers, GVI and our partner organisations are able to provide these children with a safe environment and the support, supervision, socialisation and education in a range of subjects including English, maths, art and sport.

Our stance on orphanage volunteering

In all our work, we are guided by the research and ethos of our local partner networks, international frameworks informing the ethics of social development work, and the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

In this context, GVI does not work with any residential care institutions and is not involved in any orphanage volunteering programs. 

Rather, our focus is on family reunification and foster care models, and we partner with organisations who share this perspective. Our volunteer teaching programs that focus on early childhood development are typically offered in kindergartens, schools or community centres through our project partners.

For more about GVI’s stand on orphanage volunteering programs click here.