Each year, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research (BMBWF) seeks recent college and university graduates interested in teaching English (ESL or ELL) in Austria. Fulbright Austria (the Austrian-American Educational Commission) has been responsible for recruiting US citizens for this outstanding program since 1962. More than 4,000 US teaching assistants (USTAs) have made a difference in hundreds of thousands of young Austrians’ lives over the decades.
The objective of the BMBWF’s teaching assistantship program—which also brings native speakers from countries such as Russia, Spain, France, and Italy into Austrian secondary schools—is not only to expose young Austrians to native speakers, but also to arouse their interest in other cultures based on cross-cultural dialogue and personal contacts.
Fulbright Austria facilitates the placement of assistants at schools in all nine Austrian provinces under the auspices of this program, which is funded by the BMBWF. Teaching assistants receive a monthly salary along with medical insurance and are required to apply for the appropriate work and residency permits. Although Fulbright Austria administers this program, US teaching assistants are not Fulbright grantees, but rather salaried employees of the provincial school districts employing them. Those interested in applying for US Fulbright student awards in Austria should consult the US Fulbright student page, which includes two awards that combine teaching with the student grant.
Fellowship Website:
https://www.usta-austria.at/Fellowship Contact:
KHuetthaler@fulbright.at