Job Discussion Forums

[43]

Hi all!

My husband is doing his PhD in Jena, and I was hoping that I could subsidize our miniscule income with teaching English. I have taught many different things for many years and feel I have a wealth of experience. But, I've never taught English, so I thought that it would be a good idea to get certified in Germany, by the Germans to insure that everything is in order.

It seems that there are not many schools that offer TEFL training, or at least the websites I have visited are out of date. CELTA Berlin seems to be one of the only (I would like to school in Berlin/Munich).

What do people recommend?

As well, I do not have the option of choosing which city to teach in, and from my research, there are no English schools in Jena. There is a vocational school that teaches english - has anyone ever taught in vocational schools?

Fredrich Schiller University is also in Jena, does anyone have experience setting up private/group lessons at universities? I was also thinking of editing papers as well. Anyone?

Thanks everyone - as you can tell I'm a little lost

[BerlinCELTA]

Hello!

Glad to hear that you are considering training in Berlin (but working as I do at the CELTA centre there, you can expect me to be positively biased about that!)

Our website is a little disrupted by reconstruction at the moment, which may have gven you the impression it is out of date: I recommend you email us at the school directly at [email protected]

Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschulen) can be quite open to proposals by freelance teachers to run credit and non credit bearing semester length (or equivalent) courses (at least, in my experience).

Other options in Jena would include the local community college (Volkshochschule). Many Kindergaerten are also engaging language specialists to support the permanent staff as English for early years becomes more popular with parents, too.

As I say, we would be very happy to hear from you and answer any other questions you may have, either about our course or about working in Germany.

Best wishes,

Anthony Gaughan
CELTA assessor & tutor
Berlin & Hamburg, Germany

[puhutes]

I think it really depends where you are coming from. Are you from a native English speaking country? Can you speak German? When I arrived in Germany, none of the schools even cared that I paid the $1000C to do my a TESOL/TEFL/CELTA, (whatever you want to call it) training. They were mostly interested because English was my mother tongue and that I can speak German. I don't doubt that the course helped, but I feel I learned a lot more while teaching and my schools helped me out in the beginning as well (watching other teachers, was given material, etc). So maybe just see if you can get a job first and then do the certification, but it is really up to you.
LG Jennifer