Hello,

I'm a Polish guy currently working as a teacher of English in Poland (I have MA in methodology of teaching English). ICT has been my big hobby for 15 years or so. Unfortunately, I'm not that good at maths and thus I haven't been able to take up some decent IT studies - I have only finished post-graduate studies in the basics of IT (I can teach ICT up to high school here in Poland).

I've been thinking about going to the UK to work at school (and teach ICT) and establish my own company (and then slightly switch from school to the company) - this would be a web hosting+web design company in some large city in the north of England (I love Liverpool! : ).

Anyway, for my main question here. This one goes to people from England and Scotland (my primary destinations).

What's the situation on the market? Is it full of web designers? What's better - to practice more DTP and printed stuff or stick with the web?
What's the level of trust towards newcomers, especially from the East? I will definitely work on my portfolio (to group everything in one place and present it in some nice way) but I don't know yet if I should (and whether I have some good chances) apply for a designer's job or start with teaching job plus freelancing.

Finally, is Xara recognized as a decent tool (in Poland it's very rare for agencies to know Xtreme) or is it just Photoshop and Illustrator? I'm quite strong with Xara and Corel but not so much with Adobe products (I use only legal software and Adobe is expensive as hell, in Poland it's 30 per cent more expensive than in the USA).

I know you might not welcome someone like me in your country (one might call me "competition") but I will be grateful for any pieces of advice you can provide me with.

I've talked to some agencies over the phone and I'm sending my papers to England soon in order to get the Qualified Teacher Status but I'd like to work with graphics as well.

Thank you in advance,

Milo, Poland