FCPS Careers

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has many jobs available, from the classroom, to the cafeteria, to offices. These jobs are located in all parts of the county, and can provide good hours for students with children in school. You can learn more about all of these positions at www.fcps.edu/careers. Read below to find out more about the different kinds of work available.

Student Monitor

Student Monitors help teachers manage students throughout the school day, in the classroom, in hallways, and during drop-off and pickup. This is a great entry-level job to get started working with students and practicing English. Click here to read about an adult English student who worked as a Student Monitor.

Instructional Assistant

This position helps teachers and staff in the classrooms. Qualifications include a high school diploma, ability to understand directions, and at least one year of experience working with children in a paid or volunteer position.
For more information click on the job below:
- Elementary School Instructional Assistant
- Middle and High School Instructional Assistant

Substitute Teacher

Would you like to get experience, but don't have many hours available or just want to try it out? Substitute teachers help teach classes when the normal teachers are absent. You can choose the days, times, and locations where you work. Find out  more here.

Health

School health aides and nurses make sure students stay well and get help when they need it. Right now, there are also positions helping to monitor COVID cases in our community.

Food Services

Many professionals are needed to help with food services. This includes working in school cafeterias preparing food, as well as drivers, kitchen managers, and cashiers. There is also a position called Dining Room Assistants, who help students during lunch time. This entry-level job does not require any experience or education.

Drivers

FCPS hires drivers for many different jobs, including transporting children as well as products and food around the county. 

Custodians

Custodians are needed to keep schools clean, orderly, and safe for students. 

Security

There are many security and safety positions at FCPS. They help monitor students and visitors to schools to make sure everyone learns safely.

Family Liaisons

Family Liaisons work with parents to make sure they understand how to help their children succeed. Being bilingual is very helpful in this position!

FCPS Adult and Community Education (ACE)

There are many jobs with ACE, the program where you are learning English. ACE provides training and classes for adults on many topics and provides certifications and other job training programs. ACE offers many part-time jobs and often needs people who speak other languages! You can find part-time jobs with ACE, such as customer service representatives and building coordinators, here.

Professional Jobs

If you have a certificate or degree, you can work in a job such as accountant, data analyst, human resources professional, and more.

Visit www.fcps.edu/careers for more information and to search for jobs. Need help? Contact Rachel Buczynski, Career Navigator, at rsbuczynski@fcps.edu.

Choosing a Career Path Using Your Primary Intelligence

Teacher Deborah Secrist's Advanced AM class used a lesson on multiple intelligences to develop a
presentation on how your strengths could help you choose a career path. Click here to view the presentation:

• Google Slides 
• PDF

Thank you to the class for sharing their work with us!

There are many online assessments to help you learn more about careers you might like. Here are just a few!

• Career Cluster Interest Survey: https://careerwise.minnstate.edu/careers/clusterSurvey?do=0
• Virginia Employment Commission: https://virginiaworks.com/
• My Next Move: https://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip
  

 

FCPS Employees Needed

FCPS is hiring for many entry-level positions. If you’d like to work with children for the school system, you can get experience and practice English by being a Student Monitor or a Substitute Teacher. 

Student Monitors

Student Monitors provide supervision of students throughout the school day, including in the classroom, hallways, lunch, recess, and at arrival/dismissal. They help maintain order; operate technology; performs administrative and non-instructional duties; ensure student safety; and work with individual and small groups of students.

Student Monitors are needed at schools across Fairfax County. Positions start at $15 per hour. You can learn more and apply by clicking here.

Walt Whitman Middle School in Alexandria is looking for new Student Monitors. If you'd like to learn more, contact Lindsey Miller, Administrative Assistant to the Principal. She can answer questions, give you a tour of the school, and help you apply for the job. She said many of their Student Monitors go on to be Instructional Assistants! You can email her at lmiller2@fcps.edu or call 703-660-2405. One FCPS ACE ESOL student already works at Walt Whitman Middle School - read her profile here. 

Substitute Teachers

FCPS needs substitute teachers. Substitute teaching is a great opportunity for stay-at-home parents, retirees, college students, and anyone who wants a flexible work schedule. If you are interested in substitute teaching, you can choose which days you are available, the grade levels you would like to teach, or the schools where you want to assist. 

Find out more and sign up for an information session by clicking here.

Including Languages on Your Resume

Source: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/resume-language-skills

If you're reading this, you are bilingual, or maybe even multi-lingual! That is a very important skill to
have, especially in Northern Virginia. More than 160 foreign languages are spoken in Fairfax County schools. Businesses and schools need employees who can speak to many different people. Here is how to include your language skills on a resume.

You should include a Skills or Qualifications section on your resume. This is where you include your special skills, such as software programs, technical skills, and languages. You can include languages here. For example:

Skills

• Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Website management
• Languages: Spanish (fluent), English (advanced)
  

If you speak many languages, you might want to make a separate section:

Languages:

• Arabic - Fluent
  
• English - Intermediate
  
• French - Intermediate

Here are some different ways you can describe your language skills:

• Beginner: The beginner language skill level covers those who are just starting to learn a new language. They know some basic words and phrases, but would not be able to create a grammatically correct sentence or carry on a conversation with someone in that language.
  
  
• Intermediate: An intermediate language speaker can hold a basic conversation in the language while speaking at a slower pace than a native speaker and requiring some repetition to understand the conversation. They have limited vocabulary knowledge, understand grammatical rules and have adequate reading abilities.
  
  
• Proficient: A proficient language ability involves the ability to speak, read and write the language with minimal difficulty. Proficient speakers can hold a conversation with a native speaker easily but may need some things repeated or colloquialisms explained. A proficient skill level means they are able to converse in the language
  
  
• Fluent: A fluent language speaker can comfortably speak, write and understand the language with ease. They have full knowledge of the language, including colloquialisms, but are not native speakers of the language.
  
  
• Native: A native language ability refers to a language you grew up speaking and have mastered all aspects of, including grammar, complex concepts and extensive vocabulary.

Learner Profile: Caro

Caro was an Advanced Student in the FCPS ACE ESOL program. She moved to the United States in 2000 from Ecuador, and Spanish is her native language. 

She worked for a school as a family services assistant for many years, and wanted to get a promotion. She had interviewed for the new position before, but didn’t get it. She contacted the Career Navigator for practice with interviewing. After practicing for the interview several times, she was able to get the promotion!

She has good advice for other English learners. She says that most importantly, “it is essential to understand that learning is work.  Sometimes it is easy, and sometimes it isn't easy, but there is always work involved.”

She recommends these strategies for improving your English:

• Don’t rely only on technology like Google translate. Try to do simple things like using a dictionary when you do not understand a word or to find the synonym of a word to comprehend the word's meaning in a sentence.  
• Listen to music, communicate with people, and listen to audio books in English. 
• Write down the benefits of learning English and how your life will improve if you learn English.
• Study one hour per day.
• Read things that interest you, whether it is non-fiction, fiction, novels, horror books, etc. 
• Record yourself speaking English and listen back to improve your cadence and pronunciation.
  

Caro says something that helped her was to have a collage of pictures in her room with the things she dreamed of having in America, like a house, a good job, and a college education. 

Caro says that it is important to have patience with yourself and not compare yourself with other people; some students learn English fluently in a year, and others take years to master the language. She says to set a realistic long-term goal for yourself based on your current life.

As Caro says, “The way to achieve good fluency and vocabulary is to lay one brick every day. This means to practice and study every day to achieve your goal.” She sends her best wishes to all the current learners!