Job Discussion Forums

[Volta]

The more I look at it, the more I am sure that teaching English abroad is the right job for me to pursue, but, so far, the obstacle to jumping into this world has been the cost of certification itself. A little while ago, I applied to a school in Spain that runs a Trinity TESOL course, and the whole process went smoothly until I started looking for funding sources. I'm from the US, so I started by looking for federal aid, but you have to be in a degree program. Private scholarships typically have the same requirement. I also looked at private student loans and even career development loans, but it seems that the only ones available now are school-certified, so if you're not attending a college they're a no-go as well. I graduated college recently, and what little savings I had were eaten up by various expenses, so I'm rather poor right now. The only other funding options that I'm aware of, then, are personal loans and parental aid, but, as you may imagine, I have very little credit history, and my parents, who have always come through for me until now, refused to help out.

Honestly, I was really surprised that there doesn't seem to be any funding available for TESOL training, especially since I know that this field appeals to a lot of folks in my demographic. The burning question then is, are there any other options left? I really want to get going with this soon, but I don't know what to do at this point.

[mozzar]

Do what most do: work a dead end job for a few months and then use those savings to pay for it. That's the only way i know of. You could probably use that time to do research, planning, or learning the destination country's language.

Also, as you're from the US, have a look at various threads in the Spain section of the forum about legality and the chances of you getting a job.

[Chancellor]

[Justin Trullinger]

If it's a TESOL cert you want, the dead end job is probably your best option.

Most funding sources in the US are government tied- These aren't really a public service, but are tied to some archaic idea that society in general is improved by having people get educated and trained.

With that in mind, a TESOL cert, which is mostly going to be used outside the US, isn't really part of the picture.

However, a good cert provider within the US might be eligible for some aid I don't know about.

Best,
Justin

[coledavis]

I'm afraid that for the vast majority of us, it's a case of forking out cash.

[Volta]

Well, that's what I suspected. Nothing wrong with saving up money, but the time spent doing some dead-end job just seems like a waste to me. I was hoping to get certified by the year's end and get working in the field soon, and, well, I haven't given up yet.

Right now, I'm in the process of registering for a month of Spanish classes (after the TEFL course) at a university in Barcelona so I can qualify for a student loan. I've always wanted to get better at Spanish anyway, so why not hit two birds with one stone, right? Hopefully it'll also give me some more time to find a job.

Has anyone gone about it this way? Well here's hoping that it works out!

[coledavis]

I hope you don't take unkindly to this, but this reminds me of people working hard trying not to work. The time you spend trying to get funding could be spent getting trained and then into a job abroad. Then, if you get the sort of deal where accommodation is thrown in free, you can save money and pay your debts off (check that it's a country where you are allowed to take money out in reasonable amounts).

Put more simply, the idea of a job is to make money; therefore you get your CELTA or Trinity in order to get that job.

[Volta]

I'm not sure how it sounds anything like that. It's not a matter of working to avoid working, it's more of a catch-22 situation where I need money to get certified for a job and a job to earn money. It doesn't take a long time or a lot of effort to get a student loan. If we were looking at a time frame of several months, then it would certainly make sense to get the aforementioned dead-end job for a while or a job where a cert is not required. Unfortunately, I've had really bad luck finding work lately. I even went to a few temp agencies and never heard back, so I'm not really optimistic about local employment opportunities.

Ultimately, I just wanted to find out if anyone knew about alternate funding sources that I may have missed. I'm not wasting lot of time looking for them, but it doesn't hurt to ask, right?

[Chancellor]

[coledavis]

[dirimini]

I must be missing something, but I don't see the problem here.

Get a job, scrimp and save, and then pay for the cert course. Many, many people do this when they want something they can't afford right away.

This apparently widespread idea that there is a loan or funding for everything everyone wants to do, any time, is actually quite disheartening.

[Volta]

[naturegirl321]

Where have you sent applications out to? Places in Asia (China and Korea) have a high acceptance rate.

[coledavis]

[justcolleen]