Job Discussion Forums

[rascho2]

Hi all!
I graduate from college in May and while I am working this summer I plan on taking an online TEFL course in order to find work in most likely Prague for the summer. I heard though that an online course isn't looked upon highly. Does anyone know this to be fact?
Any other suggestions would be of great help.
Thank you
Rachel

[spiral78]

Prague has six or seven on-site TEFL training centres. One very important difference between on-site courses and online courses are that the on-site ones offer supervised teaching practice.

Because Prague has so many training centres, there are a lot of teachers in the city. The market is already in favor of the schools, not prospective teachers - the schools have plenty of candidates to choose from. They're not likely to choose someone with an on-line certification.

You also mentioned summer work - but remember that summer is the hardest time to get work. August, in particular, is holiday month. Even teachers who've worked regular contracts (September thru end June) sometimes have to just pull together what bits and pieces of work they can find for July/August.

You might search for some kind of summer school work, and if you find something that sounds good to you, you could ask that school what kind of certification they want. But online certs are generally not well-accepted in Europe overall. Remember you are competing with teachers who are better-qualified because, at minimum, they've had live training in actual teaching of real students.