Job Discussion Forums

[elliot_spencer]

I sent an application to ILA (I have a degree in TESOL, a CELTA at grade B and 3 years experience), I then recieved a reply from a lady called Suzanne saying:

Thank you for the interest that you have shown in working for our school. Your TEFL course does not meet this requirement. If you are interested in doing such a qualification, please look at the teacher training section of our website www.discovereltvietnam.com/celta

How can this be possible!!

Has anyone else recieved a reply like this?

[sigmoid]

Let it go dude... basically you don't fit the ILA profile...

i.e. you're not green enough.

btw - don't forget that I after E except after C rule.

[snollygoster]

Yes- and I am certainly not alone. If you don't pay for and do their CELTA course, they don't want to know you.
Simple business-you give us your money-we MIGHT employ you.
There are better schools and Colleges that will employ without ILA's CELTA, and in fact some schools show a marked preference for TESOL/TEFL.

[beetlil]

Your TESOL cert has to be 100+ contact hours for ILA to accept you. Many TESOL courses don't deliver their cert in this way. IT's an ILA rule and helps to weed out a few more of the 'fly by nighters'.

[inky]

beet, the guy got a CELTA Pass B so your comments don't apply to him and don't explain this mysterious reply from ILA.

The argument that ILA only hires their own CELTA grads is illogical. They hire many more teachers than they have CELTA grads, and at that many CELTA grads move on to other countries, limiting the candidate pool even more. And I know older, more experienced teachers who have been hired by ILA who earned their CELTAs or equivalent ESL certs from other schools.

I wonder if they simply misread the CV, looking at the degree in TESOL without realizing he also had the CELTA. I think it was most likely a clerical/communication error, either on the part of the person reviewing apps, or in the way in which the CV is worded. If it had been me, I'd have recontacted them.

[Mrguay84]

Surely a (3 year?) degree in TESOL is better than a (4 week?) CELTA cert (or equivalent) isn't it??? Or otherwise the TEFL World is too crazy

[barabbas]

From my experience, ILA are pretty much like IH (I think they modelled themselves on IH)... they don't want too experienced or qualified or old and savvy teachers, as they like to keep people under control, and get away with paying low... the interview I did at ILA is the only one I have ever stopped myself, midway, having realised what was going on.

[Green Acres]

They are not the only ones who do this. It's becoming a standard practice in many places, and really I cannot blame them, since the industry has become a cookie-cutter McDonald Duck money making machine. I'd do the same if it was my business.

[mcsensei]

[Zembekiko1Aegean]

So, you're saying that by just getting your Celta you automatically become experienced? Give me a collossal break. Everyone knows that for the first year teaching ESL here you get shat upon. ILA has a rep. Most schools prefer green teachers who don't know what there worth is. Most newbies are just happy to have a job. To further inflame....You can allways tell an ILA teacher in Saigon, they're the ones who walk around sulking, heads down, rumpled and disillusioned. Ahhhh...for a teacher's union.

[Buffalo Boy]

ILA teachers....They don't call it "the factory" for nothing. They like teachers young and preferably straight off the CELTA, especially if they've just paid for it from ILA. Of course they get pitched into the kids classes, despite the A in CELTA standing for adults....

Try riding past their big school on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai on a weekend when the kids classes come out. Young guys with pasty skin and loud ties heading to Lotteria for lunch. Sometimes I almost pity them.

Churn and burn. There's plenty more warm bodies where the last lot came from. This is the future of ESL in Vietnam.

[Zembekiko1Aegean]

Try riding past their campus on N. Thi Minh Khai at night. Lit up like a disco. All about glitter. That's what ILA's customers are paying for.

[Buffalo Boy]

Ride a few doors down and pull up at Kareoke Nice- much better time to be had in there.

[drandreasbrown]

I got the same response too, even though I had a CELTA and five years teaching experience, but when I reapplied with documentary proof of my CELTA having 100+ hours they interviewed me. All this conspiracy stuff about they only hire new teachers is a half-truth, basically I'm assuming it's some bureaucratic requirement connected to getting a work visa. Not everything in the ESL world is mercenary or sinister. If you want to work there just write back to her and ask how you can demonstrate your CELTA meets the requirements.

[Green Acres]

I hope they hire you, Drandreas, and I hope you take the "job".