Job Discussion Forums

[jstopa]

I will be taking my TEFL certificate course in October with Oxford Seminars in Vancouver and am curious if anyone here has also gone through them. From what I have researched before hand they seemed like a reputable company, I just don' t know anyone who has used them.

I suppose I should have asked this question before I signed up and paid... ... oh well...

Any thoughts?

jstopa

[Cdaniels]

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=28298&highlight=oxford+seminars

Here is an thread about Oxford, complete with an entertaining flamewar!


In this forum and various books, Celta and Trinity seem to be best for the widest range of opportunities. Other certs seem to be just as valid, and helpful, in Latin American and large parts of mainland Asia. This is my best guess based on my research, anyone who has a different opinion, feel free to contradict me.

[Guy Courchesne]

Quite the flame war indeed!

To the OP...why not try contacting lizcat100 since she would have recenty completed the program with Oxford.

[tw]

Also check the thread at http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?p=287401

I am a Vancouver (UBC classes) Oxford Seminar graduate too.

[APPENDED August 1, 2006]

Beware of Oxford Seminars job placement service for its graduates! You are better off finding a job yourself. I activated my job placement service in May and the so-called coordinator never took the initiative to contact me other than to confirm that she had received my activation and later, the documents needed to process my case. I was told a recruiter had been working on my behalf to find me a job but I never heard from this recruiter, or any others that the coordinator later told me she had given my documents to. When I e-mailed her, she told me that because (1) I was not a university degree holder and (2) because of my Chinese background the recruiter was having a difficult time finding positions for me. She also used this excuse that because I had "insisted" on working in Dalian it made things more difficult. That was of course a lie because I had only said that my preferance was Dalian, but never did I say Dalian ONLY. As for the no-degree and Chinese-face problems, I received plenty of job offers from my own job search and even had to turn down a few contracts before deciding on well-paying job in a northeastern Chinese university.

The Oxford Seminars course is useful for anyone without any teaching experience. To me it was just spending some money to buy a piece of paper in order to increase my marketability.