Where to start, what course and what countries

[gordon]

Hi, im looking into teaching English abroad and hoped you guys could give me an idea of where to start and things.

My background is in IT but I now currently work with Youth Work. First I was wondering what the best course is to do i.e Celta, Tefl or Tesol. Also if I do complete one of these courses, most probably be one of the longer running courses and not the weekend, would I be able to apply and get jobs abroad, preferably in Asia, South America and Africa.

I have taught English when I was in Asia but would like to get some proper qualifications before returning to do it as I plan to do this as a living.

Any help you can give would be much appreciated, cheers

Gordon

[systematic]

Hi Gordon,
The best thing to do would be to check out all the other threads and postings on TEFL and TEFL training on this site and yoiu will come across many answers to your questions. Some discuss TEFL courses at length. Some discuss countries and the regulations and requirement. After that, if you decide for a particular country, then it might be an idea to visit some of the country specific websites for a deeper insight. For example for information on Thailand you could visit the Nittayo English Language Centre website, it's very informative.

[ICAL_Pete]

As to qualifications, you might like to check the article "Qualifications for Teachers" under the Teaching FAQ category in the ICALwiki at www.icalweb.com/wiki

[systematic]

The Nittayo English Language Centre of the Education Department of Bangkok Archdiocese which governs 43 first class non-profit Catholic schools in Thailand also gives excellent information on Living and Teaching in Thailand on its FAQ pages.

[cmu]

Hi, Just a simple plug but I love Chiang Mai in Thailand. We have it all. We've got great restaurants, culture and the mountains. We run a very successful TEFL training program here on the beautiful Chiang Mai University Campus in addition to our ONLINE coursehttp://www.teflcmu.com.
Our URL is http://www.teflcmu.com

Good luck
The TEFL CMU

[Kid Gorgeous]

Hi, Just a simple plug but I love Chiang Mai in Thailand. We have it all. We've got great restaurants, culture and the mountains. We run a very successful TEFL training program here on the beautiful Chiang Mai University Campus in addition to our ONLINE coursehttp://www.teflcmu.com.
Our URL is http://www.teflcmu.com

Good luck
The TEFL CMU

Hi,

I took a look at the course offered at your university. It does not mention job placement, is this included in the course? Also, are students expected to arrange their own accomodations and meals?

Thanks,

[systematic]

Hi, Just a simple plug...

How's your new affiliate programme coming on? I subscribed but I didn't get an answer.
If you want another free plug you can have one at the link below too.

It seems to be a trend now to offer job placements with TESOL courses, theoretically a win-win situation for the course providers as the schools are paying them to get the the teachers. However this may be a necessary sideline for the TESOL institutes as the recent dramatic increase in their number (from 2 to 30 in 8 years in Thailand ) has meant less takers for them all. Some in Thailand, are reporting as much as a 50% drop in enrollments this year, but this could also be due to several factors including the new regulations for teachers, political instability, or just plain bad management and/or marketing - some institutes seem to be hell bent on getting themselves a bad name, although they probably don't deserve it.

It does not mention job placement, is this included in the course? Also, are students expected to arrange their own accomodations and meals?

Good marketing (i.e. a fast-loading home page) would include this information, but very rarely do TESOL institutes consider professional marketing strategies or good websites as they are afraid that such such services may be disproportinately expensive, but here is a solution for good, low-cost web design by marketing experts with a profound knowledge of the TESOL industry.

[cmu]

Hi,
Thanks for all the input on our services. Our courses, including the ONLINE TEFL, are running at full capacity each month. I have heard that other training programs are having difficulty but we have not experienced that here at the Chiang Mai University Language Institute. Perhaps it is because we are part of the uni and our new modern facilities house such a large and diverse array of language learning opportunities that we seem to attract so much interest. We just seem to be growing.


First, I'd like to answer the question in the first post about job placement. Being such a large language institute-we offer hundreds of English language courses, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese etc. - and being part of Chiang Mai University, we are in constant contact with dozens of employers.

Therefore, we do offer job assistance but don't guarantee a job. Many course providers guarantee job placement but that is not that difficult. There are literally hundreds of jobs on offer in Thailand, China, Vietnam etc. For us to guarantee you one of these jobs would be very simple. What we do with our trainees is get feed back from them about where they want to work, what they want to teach, how much they want to earn and then literally contact employers we know, and try to arrange an interview. This approach has been working quite well for us and a number of our graduates have even been chosen to work with us hear at the Language Institute or within other faculties on campus.

The CMU TEFL program does not include accommodations or meals within the price of the course. We do offer twice daily catered coffee/tea and snacks and provide housing arrangements. The housing is a simple ten minute walk through the back campus entrance past dozens of places to eat, a student market and coffee shops.

In regard to our affiliate program, we apologize for missing your request. It's just taking off so please contact us again and we will set you up ASAP.

Take care,
The ONLINE TEFL TEAM
http://www.teflcmu.com