Newbie advice needed for China and Training

[watl1]

Hi all

My partner and I are both 28 and would love to teach in Thailand. Unfortunately, neither of us have degrees so understand it will be very hard to find employment. Therefore, we've both also been looking at China, which seems a little more relaxed.

Currently, we have a few choices and wonder if anyone can advise on what they think might give us the best chances of getting work:

1. Do a CELTA course here in the UK, which would allow us to afford to live comfortably in China for one month without a job. My worry with this option is that although a recognised course, it doesn't focus on working with children (which could limit our choices)
2. Do a 120 hour course in China with practical experience, then attempt to find our own work there. Finances would allow us to live comfortably for one month. There are also options for a guaranteed job placement, but as this is a little more expensive, we could probably only survive for about 2 weeks without work!
3. Do an online 120 hour course (with no practical experience), then afford to live in China for up 3 months to find a job

Any suggestions/recommendations would be much appreciated!

Thanks

Louise

[ICAL_Pete]

HI Louise,

I don’t think you should limit your choice of course to those that target specifically young learners. A good TESL or TEFL course should cover all sorts of teaching scenarios and prepare their teachers for all age groups. And as a teacher you don’t want to be tied in to one age group.

As for which course to choose it really depends on how much time, money, and commitment you are prepared to invest.

CELTA for example is a fairly intensive certificate program in terms of finance, workload and commitment, and a bit of an overkill if you are on a gap year or just trying out teaching for a while. Unless your intention is to remain within the ESL industry and build a career for yourself in this field then you could quite happily opt for a basic TESL/TEFL Certificate.

Online courses offer a great training opportunity at entry level. They can provide a thorough grounding in a new career and the right tools to approach a new profession within a manageable amount of time and finances.

[KevinUK]

Hi Lousie,

I'm in the same situation. Looking for a good quality TESOL course. However, it is not as easy as I thought it would be. There are many different courses on offer and I'm not quite sure which one to take yet. I don't have any degrees so that limits my possibilities.
I have thought about taking a CELTA course but the ones around the Midlands do not start util September and can be intense. I'm thinking about a 120 hour online course with some practical teaching at the end of it which I believe might be my best choice as I believe if you're going to do an online course do the whole thing, not just a few hours of study. The courses I've looked at and narrowed down so far are;

global-english.com, TESOL level 2 certificate. Unsure about the 'ACTDEC' accreditor though.
tesol-direct.com, TESOL certificate, College of teachers is meant to be respected.
intesolinternational.com, OCNW and ODLQC are the accreditors
intesoltesoltraining.com,
tefl-tesol-online.com

The problem with these online courses are the accreditors. are they genuinely recognized? These forums have a lot of good information so I'm still deciding which one to opt for. I'd be interested to know what your decisions will be.

Kevin

[systematic]

Hi Kevin and Louise

You may wish to take another look at the very recent thread where Kevin's questions there on accreditation were answered in great depth and detail for him. Accreditation is a hot subject and deserves to be examined very closely. My long posting on that thread gives in-depth background on many accrediting organisations, and provides the wherewithal to carry out further research on them and any others, and links to the many other topics on TEFL.net that discuss course providers and accreditation extensively.
See: http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2580
.

[KevinUK]

Hi systemic,

Thanks for all your input and patience so far. It is really appreciated. As I'm new here there is still a lot I have to read and research regarding these courses and there is a lot of it to browse through.

I have noticed though, that some of these course require no qualifications and some of the courses require some qualification of some sort. Strange that. I have thought about getting an on-line degree as well as a TESOL qualification to up my odds in finding work but that is just a thought at the moment.

I read in one of these forums that being an older maturer person can have it's benefits so I think with the right attitude and professionism I believe I could give a good impression. It's all about selling yourself.

Thanks. Kevin

[systematic]

Hi, I'm glad we've been of help Kevin.
On the subject of qualifications to enter a TEFL course, most requirements are arbitrary. We are all aware that a few course providers appear to be more interested in money than in the quality of the candidate - or even their courses - and these might not insist on any entry qualifications other than a near-native level of English. This might be, but not necessarily, also an indication of the quality to expect. However, most of the well known courses, such as the Cambridge CELTA, only require:
"a standard of education equivalent to that required for entry into higher education"
which would be British A-levels, a German Abitur, or a French baccalauréat; I'm not sure what the US, Canadian, or Australian equivalents are called.