Job Discussion Forums

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

No, it is a rip off.

Rooster_2006 · Joined: 24 Sep 2007 Posts: 984

I agree, unless you're starving and broke and a second-rate certificate is your only option to get a job, or unless you're an unpaid volunteer, you should go for CELTA or something good. You owe it to your students if they're giving you money, through taxes, tuition fees, or otherwise. I'd be really pissed if my Korean teacher left, only to be replaced by one with a 40- or 60-hour Korean teaching certificate earned online. That would not be cool.

I guess an exception to this could be if you're being paid such insulting wages, it's like you're a volunteer. For example, if I get a position in the US teaching ESL there, and they pay me $5.85 and hour, they can't expect a CELTA. However, in China, if they're paying me $5.85 an hour, then I should have one, because it took my students much more effort to assemble that $5.85.

Vixter · Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 64

I did the Via Lingua CTEFL cert at Kent English in İstanbul and can highly recommend it. I'd love to know the difference between it and the CELTA as, as far as I can tell, they are identical. The trainers at Kent English were fantastic. As ever, I'd steer clear of ay internet 'qualification'.

Listener · Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 140 Location: Istanbul

I also did the Via Lingua course at Kent this year, and it was pretty good.

jayzel · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 14 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

I don't know where this disinformation comes from, but Via Lingua is not some shoddy internet operation. It's a chain, yes, but it has standards. I went to the Via Lingua in Budapest, Hungary and I felt it was top-notch. And I'm not some brain-dead state school student. I graduated with a 3.5 GPA from Boston University.

Via Lingua's program is exactly the same as a CELTA. It was a 120-hour course with 10 hours of observed teaching practice.