Job Discussion Forums

[jmsk248]

Hello,

I'm curious to the, I suppose, value of a TOEFL or other such teaching certification.

I'm a native English speaker with some ESL (about 7 months as a conversational tutor in Thailand) and academic tutoring (8 months) experience and an MFA in Writing (which technically qualifies me to teach at American universities). I'd like to know about my chances of getting a job as an ESL teacher in various countries, especially those in Europe. Asian schools seem willing to hire without a teaching certificate, but most countries in Europe (specifically interested in Italy, Czech Republic, Spain and France) appear to require it.

Thanks for any information.

[spiral78]

TOEFL is a Test of English as a Foreign Language - it's for students of English.

TESL/TESOL/TEFL stand for Teaching English as a Second or Foreign language.

You become qualified (at a basic level) in TESL or TEFL by taking a certification course.

In Europe, the standard course is 120 hours on-site, including at least 6 hours of supervised teaching practice with real students (not peer trainees). CELTA is the name brand course, but some generics meet the standard.

I am assuming you aren't British, from the wording of your post. If this is correct, getting a legal work permit for Spain, Italy, or France will be near-impossible. Most Western European countries have laws limiting hiring of English teachers to EU citizens-and there are plenty of well-qualified British teachers around to fill the legal jobs, at least in theory. You can read more about this (much more, if you wish!) on the individual country forums below. You might find that you qualify for a student or working holiday visa in one of these countries.

The Czech Rep and other 'new' EU countries DO still issue work permits to non-EU teachers, though it's a bit of hassle, it's do-able.

So far as getting certified versus not, it's market-driven. The majority of teachers on the market here have a cert, so if you don't, you're automatically at a disadvantage. Further, I'll point out that the economy's tight, and there is more competition for jobs just now. If you're going to try for Europe, you'll need all the basics.

Also, remember that teaching in this region will have little/no relationship to 'teaching conversation' to Asian students, and you are unlikely to land anything very academic - university jobs generally require related MA + significant experience.

[jmsk248]

MOD EDIT

As for everything else, no I'm not British, and essentially it sounds like I'm SOL (more abbreviations) but I know a couple of people who managed to land ESL teaching jobs in Europe without qualifications or even college degrees at this point, because they knew someone who knew someone.

Anyway, thanks for the info.

[spiral78]

I've been based in Europe for 12+ years now and have contacts all over the place.

The laws regarding illegal work changed in Jan 2009 and it's now far more risky to work without legal papers. That limits non-EU citizens to the 'new' EU member states, including Czech Rep, Poland, etc.

Unlike Asia, uni degrees are not legal requirements to get work permits in most European countries, at the newbie level.

As for getting work with no cert, well, the economy's tight, 95% of newbies on the job market have a cert, and experience in Asia is known not to be highly applicable to teaching contexts here. Your chances in Europe with no cert are small. Very.

[Sashadroogie]

MOD EDIT

That's fair enough, but it probably does matter to your potential European employers whether you are qualified to teach learners of English, both in terms of hiring you legally, as spiral said, and in terms of the quality of lesson provided in their classroom. An MFA in writing is a different qualification, not necessarily relevent to English language teaching contexts.

In answer to your question, there is a lot of value in having a basic entry-level qualification. I don't think your chances of getting decent work in Europe are much without it. Sorry.