Job Discussion Forums

[mindymoo]

I'm a complete noob to this site, but I loved it after reading my first few threads, but I have some questions and I hope someone can help. I am currently learning to teach on a Graduate Training Programme in the UK doing on the job training. Basically I will (hopefully) get Qualified Teacher Status in September, however I don't want to hang arond in the same area where I was born forever, and after a stint of travelling a few years ago I am desperate to get away again. I have a science degree and am teaching science.

Do I need to get a TEFL or CELTA or will my teaching exp and qualification be enough. If it is enough, would I get much more money if I had a specialised qualification? I'm very confused about what is needed in different situations! I don't know where I want to go yet, but probably East!

Thanks,
Mindymoo

[Glenski]

East is a big destination. Could you pin that down a bit?

[JDYoung]

You would need to look at a particular posting to see if specialized training is required but, personally, I would recommend a 120 hour certificate program with supervised teaching practice as teaching language is rather different than teaching content. It certainly gave me more confidence in approaching a class of nervously smiling faces when I knew they wouldn't understand much of what I said.

[Cdaniels]

On the other hand, you don't need TEFL training, and you won't get more money from a TEFL certificate. If money is this biggest consideration, and you have some sort of teaching experience, you might jump right in!
Use the Search Button underneath the "Job Discussion Forums" to find discussions about certification, CELTA vs. Trinity and other good things.

[keepwalking]

I've got a PGCE in English, which I got after doing a TEFL cert and a few years abroad, but I would still recommend doing the TEFL cert before heading overseas. Okay you know how to teach, but language is a specific subject of its own, and being a native speaker doesn't make you able to teach the difference between the past progressive and the past simple. You may not need the classroom hours associated with the TEFL course and so should look at the online versions, for a course in grammar and language teaching ideas more than teaching practice.

With the GTP do you have to do an additional year post-qualification, like you do with the PGCE, to gain QTS? Worth checking that out before you head off, find a place you love and then have to return to do that 'probationary' year before you'd be considered for jobs in England - you may want to return someday!

[Chris_Crossley]

In my case, it is a question of my having a science degree (amongst others) and QTS so that I can teach science (physics, mainly) to 11-18 year-olds in England and Wales. However, nearly six years after I qualified to do this job, I qualified to do the TEFL thing with the Trinity College Certificate in TESOL and came to China in the autumn of 2001.

Apart from an 8-week gap back in the U.K. in the autumn of 2003 (fruitlessly looking for teaching jobs, only to find none, so I came back), I've been here ever since, so that means that I have doing TEFL in China for just about four whole years now.

To be quite frank, I don't envisage going back to England and teaching in schools for 11-18 year-old pupils, either in the private or public sector, since I have managed to carve a career for myself out here in the Middle Kingdom, as well as to get married, become a dad, and have a mortgage since my wife and I jointly own property (and she drives the family car, too!). Hence, things have worked out better than expected since I first came out here as a complete newbie to working overseas (I had not even done it in Europe), so I am quite satisfied with my lot at present.

You will find that any relevant qualifications for the job will be helpful to when you want to approach an employer, although there is no guarantee that you will automatically be entitled to any more pay than someone who has no such qualification. In a private language school, where the aim of the management is to make money, you are likely to have your qualifications looked upon favourably if only for publicity purposes, so that your employer can go on about how he or she has "qualified" teachers, yet, realistically, there is little chance of your making any more money. When I started at EF English First in Wuhan, I was paid exactly the same as anybody else just starting out; the fact that I had QTS was totally irrelevant to them.

On the other hand, if you are fortunate enough to have a centre principal or centre manager who is a Westerner and who thus recognises the value of "proper" teaching qualifications like a B.Ed. or a PGCE, you are more likely to be paid what you are worth. Hence, it is always worth having a PGCE, especially if is likely that the number of international schools (especially in China) is going to increase in the next few years in order to capitalise on the desire to set up shop in what is supposed to be the future second-largest economic powerhouse in the world. Such schools will always need teachers with the right qualifications; some international schools even accept newbies, if the brief bios of teachers that I have seen on some school websites is anything to go by.

[sheeba]

If you are going to China I wouldn't say you needed the CELTA . It's a different ball game once you are faced with 30-50 students and you'll learn most actually on the job .

But I highly recommend the CELTA . I learnt more on that course than my degree taught me in 3 years . I would do the CELTA if you are serious about teaching English in the future otherwise i'd save your grand.

[mindymoo]

Thanks you have all been really helpfull!! Still not sure what I'm going to do (say here for another year and save more pennies or spend all that I have on TEFL course and bugger off) but at least I have some ideas of what is expected.

Ta

[lozwich]

Why teach English? With a teaching qualification you could get a job teaching science in an international or bilingual school.

Just a thought.

Lozwich.