Hi there,
ren_aj wrote:I just wanted to know if the place where you do your TEFL course has any direct implication on your career prospects. For example, I'm from India (and no, I don't have an accent), and although I can do the 4 week intensive training right here, I would like to go to Spain or Italy and attend the programme there. Is this going to give me an upper hand while searching for jobs?
When it comes to where to take your TEFL course, there are two contrasting views. The first is that a brand-name course such as the Cambridge CELTA or the Trinity CertTESOL is standardised, suggesting that no matter where you take it - be it New York, New Delhi or Newcastle - your experience will be the same, and employers will hire you because you have the certification rather than because of where you did it.
The other view is that taking the course in the country where you want to teach will give you an edge over others because you will get experience teaching learners from that country. Furthermore, most course providers have links to local employers, which may mean you land a job more quickly. That said, I took my course near Barcelona in Spain, and went on to work in Vietnam, Portugal, Poland, and the UK, before finally coming back to Spain.
Unfortunately, as a non-EU citizen, things are a little more complicated. First, you cannot just move to the EU and study and work as you please; you will need to apply for a visa. To qualify for a work visa, you need to have a job offer, which brings us to the second issue. Employers in the EU cannot just hire a non-EU citizen - they first have to prove that there were no suitably-qualified EU citizens who could do the job. When it comes to teaching English, this is not a very likely proposition, meaning that your chances of finding legal work are slim to none.
ren_aj wrote:...I just don't want to spend all my savings going abroad and finally ending up with nothing. I'd really appreciate your help!
If you are serious about working in the EU, you need to go about things the right way, otherwise you'll end up getting burned. Your best bet for a legal route into the EU is to invest in a student visa. However, to qualify for this visa, you need to be a genuine student. That is, you must find and pay for a recognised course of study to be issued with the visa.
The good news is that here in Spain (and probably all around Europe) some TEFL course providers offer visa assistance. One such provider is TtMadrid* (
https://ttmadrid.com/course/spanish-tea ... n-program/). They can organise a one-year student visa (for a cost, of course!), which allows you to work for up to 20hrs a week. Employers can and will hire you with that visa. I believe it can also be renewed in-country when the initial one-year period finishes, although you'd need to check with the course provider to be sure.
Hope that helps, and if you have any other questions, please ask.
Briona
*Disclaimer: I don't work for them, and I never have. I'm just aware of them because I lived and worked in Madrid for three years, and they have a very good reputation there.