EMMA GUION, 39, has based her career on skills learnt teaching English abroad, where she also met her Turkish husband. “I started teaching abroad because I wanted to experience different lives, languages and cultures,” she says.

After completing her course in teaching English as a foreign language in 1992, Guion left the UK with no idea whether she would be away for a month or a year. As it turned out she lived in France, Syria, Turkey, Switzerland and the Czech Republic and returned 12 years later. She now works at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, teaching English to people studying for masters degrees at UK universities.

“I got this job based on the experience I had working abroad,” she says. Aside from directly relevant work experience, Guion also learnt how to speak several languages plus lots of personal skills. “Flexibility and adaptability are the two key skills you gain from working in lots of different situations with different people in different cultures. You also learn lots of communication skills, especially when you are dealing with people who don’t speak the same language. Of course, it also requires a lot of organisational skills to move from country to country.”

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