guidance in planning my TEFL career

[regimechange]

Hi all,

I'm a 25-year-old native English speaker who has decided to go into teaching.

My plan is to spend about five years living in Spain and South America teaching English while travelling and surfing (waves, not the net), which is my passion.

After that I intend to return to England to do my PGCE (Masters teaching degree) in English and after working locally for a year or two to go off and become an English teacher in an international/private school somewhere warm.

My question is regarding qualifications..

I think I will most probably go for a CELTA as it seems to be well regarded in Europe and will give me a better chance than if I were to attain a standard TEFL certificate. I should note that I am also teaching myself Spanish and will soon be taking Spanish classes so that I will be fluent by the time I leave (probably 12-18 months from now)

Does my plan sound feasible?
Would I be able to find decent-paying work in schools in Spain with a CELTA or would it be wiser to just do my PGCE AND a TEFL/CELTA straight away to ensure that I would have a chance of gaining sufficient employment in Spain? The idea of teaching in schools fulltime sounds much more attractive than working 20 hours a week.
Anything else I should be aware of?

I very much appreciate any replies, I realise that my post is quite long. I just need some guidance/feedback from people already in the field before I seriously commit to this career.

Thanks :)

[systematic]

The idea of teaching in schools fulltime sounds much more attractive than working 20 hours a week.

20 - 22 teaching hours a week is about the maximum any teacher can cope with. Full time in a school won't give you more lessons to teach, but more work to do :!: And eventually, maybe just a tiny bit more job security.