Job Discussion Forums

[king-nex]

Hi I am currently attending college in Canada and I will be graduating next year. So issue I'm facing right now is that most of the Asian countries requires University Degree not a college diploma... which I think it's BS. I know it's difficult but I would like to get a teaching job in Japan specifically in tokyo. I have TESOL/TEFL certificate and I'm going to get TOEFL (don't know if it will help or not). Is there any other programs that I can apply? I know AEON but I'm hearing lot of crap about them. PLEASE help! I'm really desperate

[Maitoshi]

If it's a 4-year program (BA/BS), you will be fine with a diploma. If it's an AA or some other certificate, you will have trouble. Not sure if you would qualify for a working holiday visa, but it is another way to get in the country.

[king-nex]

My program is only 3 years and it's just a diploma. I don't know if its BA/BS I will have to check that, but is there any programs that I can apply? that is the part I'm struggling with... I contacted couple agencies but they say I will not get a job since I don't have university degree

[currentaffairs]

Might be better to look elsewhere. Japan is quite strict with the university degree for work visa requirement. I don't know about Korea, Hong Kong or Taiwan... Other countries in Asia might be more flexible.

[nightsintodreams]

As mentioned earlier, you can find work as a teacher on a Working Holiday VISA. Peppy English school is one place that will employ without a degree.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Basically, you need to have a degree to work in Japan (unless you arrive married to a Japanese citizen and can get a spousal visa, or you have a lot of experience in your area and can get accepted based on that).

Maybe your TESOL certificate provider told you otherwise. If they did, they meant you could get a 'working holiday visa'.

Rather than trying to find a quick fix to get around Japan's visa requirements, your goal should be to find a way in your education system to obtain what Japan requires if your goal is really to work in Japan. Japan's visa requirements are not "BS" BTW. Countries peg requirements based on their own culture and system. Most people serving coffee at Starbucks these days in some parts of Canada have an undergraduate degree. Do you really think the requirements to sling coffee in Toronto should be set higher than teaching? The term 'college' means different things in different cultures (you may have noticed people from the US asking if it's a BA and 4 year. That's because 'college' means 'undergrad level of university' to many Americans). Think about the other people applying for jobs in Tokyo. They have degrees, and may have been living in Japan for quite some time. They may speak Japanese. They may have contacts already. Why WOULD someone hire you? (and you basically need to get a job before you can get a visa. Employers don't want to risk hiring person A from abroad who has no degree - because that would be like walking into a 7/11 in Japan and recruiting whoever is standing there to be a Japanese teacher- when they have a stack of people who actually have the qualification. In fact, there are people in Tokyo who have graduate degrees doing entry-level ALT jobs because of the competition).

Have you looked into getting an 'applied degree' from your college, or transferring to another college that has one? (Maybe this only applies to colleges in Ontario. Even if it does only apply to Ontario, can you transfer credits from your college in BC [or wherever you are] to a college in Ontario from which you can get a degree?)

list of Ontario College degrees:

http://www.ontariocolleges.ca/SearchResults/_/N-1z141x8

A college is much more likely to accept prior college credits at face value. If you end up having to go to a "university", then be prepared for your three-year college diploma to count for less than a year of your three or four year degree.

In Ontario, you can do a TESL Certificate as a one-year postgraduate certificate at either a college or a university. Even at the college level, (for most, if not all of them) the entry requirement is a university degree. That's because that is the bare minimum to work as an ESL teacher in Ontario, and it's the bare minimum to work overseas as an EFL teacher. So your goal needs to be to get an undergrad degree if you are thinking of doing this as a career. Your best bet is to see what options you have from the college level because if you need to go to the university level, then you may well find that your credits aren't considered to be theoretical enough.

[Lionheart123]

Isnt there a difference between these two?
TESOL being the US version where TESL is the standard for both home and abroad.
Aren't you needing a Degree to have your certificate recognized?
What are the real differences between a TESL cert that you can get in a month online vs the college versions that are a year long costing 1000's?
This is based on the Canadian versions just to clarify.
Maybe a difference between provinces. Quoting colleges in Ontario and Alberta

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Sure, there are differences between a month online and a full-time academic year in-class.

TESOL means Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. It means that throughout the world. It refers to both contexts:

TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language): Teaching English in an English medium context (and English majority speaking country like the US, Canada, Australia, UK etc)

TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language): Teaching English in a nonEnglish medium context (like a non-Engish-speaking country like Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Mexico etc)

The real differences between a month online and an academic year in terms of programs:

A year-long program is like the one-year B.Ed (when it was one-year and not two). (You need an undergrad degree t get in, and usually (almost always?) it needs to be an undergraduate degree that is in a language-area [English is very common. So is French or a foreign language. Probably a lot of Linguistics undergrads do them, too.]) though other humanities areas aren't uncommon, I think (you'd get turned down if you applied with an engineering degree, though, probably). You do classes in many areas of language teaching taught by people who are specialists in that field. You have an extensive practicum in which you are told what you do well and what you need work on. You work with real students. You observe and often act as a teacher's aid in university or college programs (the goal most people in these programs is to become a tertiary