Job Discussion Forums

[monti]

I am hoping to get some feedback from individuals who have taken the CELTA Program at IH Belgrano. I've searched the forum and found some feedback about EBC and BridgeLinguatec. I've seen IH referenced a few times but nothing really conveying anyones experience about the program.

If I've overlooked a post, please let me know.

Thanks - Monty

[tinydizzy]

Monty,

Yeah, I just took the celta course in august at ih belgrano. a good experience. Lots of classroom time - 2 hours of practice teaching everday at both intermediate and elementary levels (in groups, so you end up teaching 2-3 times a week for 30-50 minutes per class, and observing the rest of the class). Lots of helpful feedback from the tutors and fellow students after each session. in the afternoon we mainly had "input sessions" - for example a session on teaching conditionals, or a couple sessions on language awareness, or on teaching young learners. We also did 6 hours of observing experienced teachers, both at the school and on video.

I don't know how it compares to the other programs (other than being cheaper - 1000 vs. 1500 dollars, and having a CELTA degree attached, which seems to be more respected). It's an intense experience. Lots of work - 4 written assignments, and very detailed lesson plans for each class required. The workload is not light at all. That said, I thought it was a blast and would reccommend it to anyone (though you do need to be handle constructive criticism, b/c it will come). It's a new program, less than a year old and is obviously a big money-maker for the program, but i have nothing but good things to say about the program and the tutors.

In summary: highly recommended, but come expecting to work.

[monti]

Tinydizzy,

Thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear that they work you hard, I'd be disappointed if they didn't.

Have they been helpful in regards to finding employment opportunities?

Monty

[babinanina]

hi monti
i'm also considering IH Belgrano vs. EBC. let me know anything more you find out. IH is cheaper. is it in the boonies? EBC promises the job afterwards. let's compare notes...
nina

[tinydizzy]

Sorry i haven't gotten around to responding to your questions.

1) How does IH help with employment.

They give you a 2hr. input session on finding work, including a good amount of time prepping for interview questions and the like. To be honest, I've interviewed with 3 institutes here and never had a single interview question asking me to explain a grammar or language point. so that was mainly a waste. They also give you a website with a list of schools/institutes down here, and they give you the link to the ih website with lots of different job opportunities around the world. However IH in Argentina WILL NOT hire its own Celta students, b/c they require working visa for all their foreign teachers - and they told us that takes 9 months (or something crazy like that) to get.

To be honest, it's a great program - i can't compare it to EBC or the other TEFL programs b/c i've never seen them, but for my money i think the Celta teachers come out as well prepared if not better prepared than those other schools. HOWEVER, job placement is the one area in which IH needs a lot of work. It's not that they don't want to help you, rather it's that they have no connections and no notion of what the job market is like in BsA. The tutors work for IH which is a somewhat isolated position, and so they aren't really that aware of the options out there. They don't know which insitutes are good, which ones don't pay on time, which ones like Celta graduates... none of that. Part of the issue is certainly that they are new at this, having just started last year. However, in my opinion they also aren't really making any strong effort to get to know the market. They have no connections with institutes, which would help students immensely. They offer a great program, but i think this deficiency is going to come back and bite them in the ass eventually. It's really not enough to say "Congrats, here's your certificate! Good luck finding work" when their competitors seem to be going far beyond that. They charge a lot of money for the program and quite honestly I expected more support in the job search than they have offered.

(sorry for the rant)

that said, i didn't have any trouble finding work, nor did most of my classmates who wanted it (it's shocking how many decided not to teach or only do a couple of hours a week). the market in BsA right now seems to be quite strong and in need of qualified teachers.


2) Is it in the boonies?

No. The Celta course is located in Belgrano - a residential and somewhat posh neighborhood just north of Palermo and about 20 minutes by subte from downtown. It's very easily accessible by the subte and by countless busses which run down "Cabildo" which is just 3 blocks away. If you want to live in Palermo the school is quite close. It's a bit farther from San Telmo, but not bad at all.

Long story short - I'd highly recommend the program as a great way to prepare for teaching english. however, be prepared to be on your own to find work.

d

[DeanJ]

I am a school teacher in California. I would really like to get my CELTA. I have tried to estimate: tuition costs, airfare costs, housing costs, and food costs for many of the CELTA courses around the world (including the one in San Francisco). It seems that IH Belgrano might be the lowest cost option for me.

It looks like I can rent a furnished studio apartment in the Belgrano neighborhood for around $425. Can anyone tell me how much money I will need for food for a month? I would plan on eating out about once a day, and then taking easy to prepare (or no preparation) food back to the apartment.

So, I will... enroll in the class, rent the apartment, buy my plane tickets, fly down there, make my way to the Belgrano neighborhood. Study during the week. Sightsee on the weekend. Then, head home.

Is there anything I have not thought about? Anything I should beware of?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[tinydizzy]

If you can afford 425 a month for rent, then I wouldn't worry too much about food expenses. If you go out for lunch - sandwiches and the like will run you 5-10 pesos (2-3 dollars) if you take out -- a sitdown lunch will run you at 15-25 pesos (5-8 dollars). There's a great little sandwhich place right around the corner from IH on La Pampa where you can eat well for cheap. Dinner will run you more normally - 30-40 pesos (10-12 dollars), if you want. Groceries are relatively cheap if you live off cheap stuff like pasta, rice, etc... beef is pretty inexpensive, especially compared to chicken, and fish is crazy expensive. I can't remember the last time i had seafood.... You can live off 150 pesos a week in food (50 dollars)... but don't forget about sampling the wines and beers. you're certainly going to want to hoist a pint or two wit your classmates. Really it depends on how you want to live -- if you live/eat/drink like a Porteno life is pretty cheap, but if you want to eat international food or drink imported beers, etc, you'll pay for it.

dt

[misteradventure]

I believe that part of the nightmare of being 'legal' in Argentina is having all of your paperwork apostiled before you come down, etc. Immigration is a nightmare in most Latin American countries, so I am not surprised that they won't hire in-country graduates.

Likewise, if everyone is using teachers from the 'shadow economy', IH can't exactly justify placing you in illegal jobs, now can they?

To put it in perspective, locals can live on wages far below what a foreign teacher needs to survive, simply because we don't have the insider knowledge nor family connections and extensive friendship networks to fall back on. It is one thing to know a dozen people; it is another if you can activate the network five levels deep to find the place that sells replacement doo-dads for your laptop and installs them at no extra cost.

If you could share what the average IH teacher salary is, that would be a great help. ESL teachers tend to live like rock stars compared to the locals, yet aren't on the 5-star hotel room trashing level of income.

Proofreading your posts is a great way to keep those people who have no lives of their own from heckling your typos

[jp]

I did my TEFL course with EBC and I was happy with the job placement assistance I received at the end of the course. I went on lots of interviews, the offers ranged from 16-20 pesos an hour and I eventually decided on 2 institutes who in my opinion were quite professional and also good payers. I also teach privately , meaning I have my own students who pay me directly but there are two sides to this. Sure, you can charge 20-25 pesos an hour BUT it�s a lot harder to argue with them over cancelled classes and getting paid for them. Going through the institutes, you teach the classes, you send in your time sheets and they pay you. Ok, you make more money billing your privates directly but that�s if they don�t give you a hard time over classes they cancelled 5 minutes before the scheduled start or they just don�t show up! So I guess you gotta weigh your options. So my take on this is .. if you work for reasonable paying institutes, stick with them , it makes things a lot easier and it leaves you stress free to enjoy the fun that BsAs is anyways . chau.