Degrees esential?

[rickyyiddo]

Hi, I am a 31 year old mortgage advisor, since school I have served in the British Army for 4 years and since 2002 worked in financial services, after being made redundant in 2008 I decided to travel and visited Asia. It was there I met various teachers, all teaching english. It was at this point a new I wanted a career change doing something I was passionate about. However as I never went to college or university I have no degree. I have enquired about completing CELTA in Oxford but after looking at jobs available a UK degree seems to be almost compulsory. Is this correct, if so is there any point in doing CELTA? or does my life experience and job history count for anything with potential employers?

[Briona]

More often than not, the requirement for a degree is to satisfy visa conditions. Unfortunately, if you don't satisfy these conditions, you won't be issued with a work visa and thus cannot work legally in that particular country. That said, once you have five years' relevant experience, some countries such as Vietnam, will issue you with a work visa even if you don't have a degree.

The list of countries where you can legally work without a degree is rapidly decreasing. Currently, your best bet is China, and I suspect that you could still find (legal) work in much of South America without having a degree. I know Ecuador doesn't require a degree. Of course if you are in possession of a British passport (or another EU member state passport), the whole of the EU is open to you. Some schools will still insist on you having a degree, but there are plenty that won't.

[JWightman]

Providing potential teachers satisfy visa requirements, have permission to work and have a TEFL qualification (preferably Celta or above), as a DoS I'm looking for personality, character and a sense of humour. You need to be a people person, to have empathy, patience and imagination, to have plenty of energy, be motivated, preferably organised, good at time-management and prioritising. Some of our best teachers do not have a degree. A university degree is absolutely not a necessity, just a bonus!

[Dziekuje]

A lot of places do want a degree, you will be able to find work without but you can't be as choosy. I have been working in Poland for most of the past 10 years without a degree. Some training centres will allow you to do the CELTA without a degree, you just have to prove that you are fairly competent. I did my CELTA with IH London in 2000. They also helped me to find work (another advantage of going to one of the biggies!)

The British Council won't touch you with a barge pole without a degree but the majority of times you require a degree is, as the previous poster said, for Visa requirements. You seem to have done your homework as I did, just make sure that you do a proper CELTA certified by Cambridge University or Trinity TESOL or you may find that your qualification is worth little more than toilet paper!

Good luck