Job Discussion Forums

[lightsail]

Ok here are my basic stats; single white male, 58 years old, healthy, with a BFA. I am a widely published, artist, designer and photographer.

I will be older than most of the people doing this, I have no teaching experience, and no ESL certificate and I want to teach adults, in a large city, preferably Shanghai, with as much travel as I can fit in.

Is this going to be doable or am I asking too much? It was suggested to me that I get a 50 hour ESL certificate online. Is this worth anything or is this a waste of time.

Ultimately, What I want is to make a living, absorb what I can of Chinese culture, history and language and find inspiration that will lead to a new body of work.


Thanks,

Dave

[Voldermort]

To be blunt, you are too old. Most schools will have a cut-off age at between 55 and 60, regardless of your health. Especially in a place like Shanghai, where there is ample supply of FT's, it will be extremely difficult for you to find stable employment. Having a TEFL/CELTA is not going to help you much. I am speaking in regards to publuc schools here, it may be possible for you to find a part time gig within a private school (mostly young children) or if you're lucky a company looking to teach it's staff.

[wangdaning]

Start applying to jobs and see who responds. A much better indicator of possibility than asking people who cannot hire you.

[nickpellatt]

It is also worth looking at the newbie forum as there are a number of threads and discussions about online certificates. The value of them is mimimal most of the time, but popping over to the newbie forum will let you see the discussions regarding them.

[dialogger]

I have one of these (Teach International).
I think their usefulness falls into 2 parts - to you and to an employer.
To you, it is a confidence booster and gives you some inkling of the types of student sectors you may encounter - young learners, adults etc and the various testing systems (IELTS).
To an employer, it gets you recognition that no qual at all wouldn't get.
In the current climate with so many young US grads on the China market with Masters quals the inevitable 'creeping credentialism' occurs. With the Chinese being so status conscious, the inevitable happens. To be fair, the Chinese are recruiting blind and if the highly qualified incompetent gets through and fails, 'He looked OK on paper' is a pretty good exonerator.
I understand, nobody gets the nod if over 60 now and even past teachers looking to come back can't get visas. That is the Foreign Experts Administration coming in there. This is for standard year-long contracts at State funded universities, I think.
The situation for limited term contracts (summer school) may be different.
During your summer gig, if you get one, get around the local language schools and eyeball the DOS. Things that are impossible from outside become suddenly possible on the ground. To a DOS, stress reliabilty. Be someone who will turn up and teach. Schools with business house clients will probably go for mature teachers - particularly those with some business background.
Good luck!

[OuterBanks13]

Forget the TESL.
Look around and you'll find something. The TESL certificate is really not that impressive to sweat shop employers.

[Raindrops]

I sought that a legit TEFL/TESL required 180 hours.