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Hello all. I'm Andy, from Glasgow. I just completed my TEFL course, the 20hour course and am in the final two months of an English Honorary Degree.
I will be travelling this summer, my preference would be South America. I would REALLY! appreciate it if anyone could offer em any advice on applying for jobs when away, the best and most effective approach. Laughing

AND also information on how good a currency my 20 hour course and English Degree will be when I am applying for jobs when away. Laughing

Thanks very much,

ANDY MCGOVERN Smile

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

There are lots of fairly current threads on the value of various TEFL certificates--if you read those you will see that, unfortunately, a 20-hour course isn't worth much. The standard entry-level qualification is a 100+ hour course (some are 120), with several hours of observed practice teaching with real students.

In South America, you can get jobs without a certificate--I'd say your best bet would be to go for one of those (even though they're at the lower end of the scale in terms of salary and conditions) because jobs that ask for certificates will get CVs from job seekers who've completed 100-hour courses.

When I was looking into working in South America, the advice I got was just to go there and start knocking on doors. That made me nervous, so I went with one the the schools that hires from abroad, via phone interviews--BIG mistake! (There's a reason they hire from abroad: people already in the country already know that they're crap!) I wish I had listened to all those folks who told me just to go there are start looking.

Good luck,
d

Chancellor · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:00 pm Post subject: Re: newbie (first time on forum)

Chancellor · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:01 pm Post subject: Re: newbie (first time on forum)

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

See my PM about teaching in Peru.

ithos · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 40

Hi Andy I'm a newb too, one bit of advice I can give you is don't post your email address on a public forum, there are bots that trawl for em to add to spam lists. Apart from that theres plenty of good info here, good luck!

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:47 pm Post subject:

Is that the i to i course? Just a guess- doesn't really matter. 20 hours, probably at distance...

...Hate to be the one to tell you- but a 20 hour qualification is a non-qualification.

Your English degree may interest schools, but if they want a certificate, according to most standards, you don't have one. Sorry to be harsh, but that's how it is.

Here in Ecuador, you're likely to find work- there are a lot of low-end English institutes that don't worry about quals.

But...you probably won't be able to stay long. It's very hard, right now, to sponsor a visa for you once you're in the country. It usually has to be done (only in Ecuador mind, can't speak for other countries) before you arrive. And the kinds of institutes that will do that will look for more quals than you have, in most cases.

So in Ecuador, you'd be looking at low-end work until your tourist visa runs out- then you'd move on. (Three months)

Best,
Justin