Job Discussion Forums

[mamma mia]

Can anyone recommend a good TEFL school in Florence? I am going to Florence to get my TEFL certificate this summer.

I found these school so far:
-Via Lingua
-TEFL International (has an academic board to approve course)
-EuroTEFL (independent, used to be aff. with Trinity)
-World TEFL (I think is the same as EuroTEFL)
-Windsor TEFL (other courses in other cities are Trinity)

But NONE are accredited by Trinity (which I read thru these threads is the best brand of TEFL cert.) Is there anything else that is good?

Thank you to anyone who responds!

[Alfredo]

Hi.

While I lived in Florence I didn't actually teach there or get qualified there. If it's just schools to obtain your TEFL qualification that you're after I'm afraid I can't help, but if you're looking for schools for teaching positions I should be able to find my old list somewhere, so let me know.

If you want to know anything about living in the city, rent and where to go you can drop me a message and I'll help you if I can.

Good luck, and a great choice of city !

Al

[bobinet]

Hi Al

I would be very pleased to be recommended schools in the Florence area, especially Pistoia and Lucca.
I am an ESOL teacher at a college of further education in Nottingham and have applied via TEFL.com to over 200 schools with few replies and yet have an excellent cv and references. I am a young 54. Could it be my age?

Bobby

[SueH]

Bobby, doubt it's your age but maybe your qualifications scare them! Perhaps you've got the resources to come over and find work in situ? You may find this easier and might find ignoring the schools and doing your own thing another way to go.

Either way as an ex-ESOL teacher (PT) in FE the best thing I found was not having to bother about Sc/E1 4b and all that other codification overhead, and you may be of the same opinion! (If I had wanted to use code I could have stayed in computing and earnt 3 times as much.)

[bobinet]

Hi Sue

Thanks for your answer.

I think I will try out your suggestion as I plan to visit again in October.

True, the curriculum codes are extremely tiresome and the paperwork gets worse.

I have the Trinity cert TESOL and am about to start the PGCE which I would prefer not to do.

I have been teaching for two years now with great success and excellent observation references from the standards officer.

Kind regards

Bobby

[bobinet]

Fortunately, I do have the resources to just go over but ultimately would like some sort of secure(whatever that means, lol) income.
I have wonderful and helpful friend in Pistoia so initial accommodation is not a problem.

Bobby

[SueH]

Just a few ideas: apart from private lessons, where it helps to have Italian for organisational reasons, try training agencies, companies, adult education, local schools etc. Usual professionalism rules apply: contactable by phone, Italian CV, business card, network etc.

[robitusson]

I thought I'd post here rather than start a new thread.

Anyone got any experiences on teaching in Florence currently? I'm looking to study there and hopefully teach part-time to help finance the study. Anyone know about teaching English in the evenings or weekends?

Thanks.

[florencebound]