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Advice for teaching in France

Posted: 09 Sep 2016, 16:30
by Dan88
Hello,

I will be graduating next year with my degree (criminology) in the UK, and moving to France with my family when this is done.

I'm looking at teaching English.

I can't afford or take a month off for the CELTA.

Will I get work (with an aim to build on my qualifications as I progress) if I

A) do a 120 hour TEFL (100 hour online + 20 hour weekend) with TEFL.org.uk

And

B) do some voluntary teaching at a language school here in the UK before I go.

Thanks!

Re: Advice for teaching in France

Posted: 18 Sep 2016, 09:38
by Phil_2016
I can't speak from much experience I'm afraid but looking on the other posts on here it looks like most EU countries require CELTA.

I'm in much the same position as you as in I don't have the time or money to do CELTA, plus I don't want to risk time and particularly money on a course I might not pass as like what happened to one chap on here. That would be a waste of 1K so not a good news day.

The other option you could look into is do a CELTA course out in France where it might be cheaper, but of course look this up first. For ease of getting employment in a country like France, CELTA looks the way you'll have to go for you though. I think the main reason for this is that there is a lot of competition from others looking to teach English out there in main/big/popular EU countries.

Out in the Far East, China, Vietnam, etc its a different story as there is not as much competition as its more remote. Myself I'm looking to teach English in Russia, probably St. Petersburg or Moscow, but I hear where they were starting to ask for CELTA a few years ago now they are less likely to as Putin's hostile stance towards the West & Ukraine is putting off English teachers from going there.

So for me a TEFL (internet & classroom combined) and will probably be fine with a bit of voluntary experience, but I'm not looking at it to seriously support myself while out there. An informal, easy going short term position will suit me, I'm not fussed I'm doing it for the interest more than anything.

To be honest though, I get the impression that all of these TEFL courses are a rip off of the CELTA course. The info is good enough in them (hence why I think it is derived from CELTA info) but it looks more like they are just basic training courses to inform you of the profession rather than an official qualification, i.e its the schools certification you get rather than any officially recognised qualification. Most of the bodies that these TEFL say approve them just don't exist, they are just made up by the school (there is no official UK or International TEFL association). The jobs these schools promote on their websites may also be dubious - they never list where it is (naturally of course) some list some in Vietnam, or outside Europe that might be bona fide but the rest.

Myself I'm really just using it as early/taster training as no point paying a grand if I don't take to it at all well, plus my English is ok but they get into the odd side of it all in these courses, phonetic charts, grammer and the rest. This I can all find a bit heavy and weird so will take me a while to get into it I think. I do think though for you a TEFL might not be worth the paper it is written on. Anyone can basically just copy into their own words CELTA info and they stick together an online training course, its easy money if you get enough people in. I guess the ones where there is a combined component like we are doing are a little more reputable but for where your thinking off I don't think it will do.

If still interested in doing a combined TEFL there is another one you could look at, same deal as your one but a bit cheaper it looks & plenty of centres around:

The TEFL Academy
https://www.theteflacademy.com/course-information