Job Discussion Forums

[wayne1523]

May I ask you guys which are the most legitimate and popular websites/companies offering TEFL/TESL certificate programs (particularly in China, Thailand, Korea) that freshly graduated students or relatively younger people preferably enroll in? I myself am a fresh grad and 22 years old and would like to complete a TEFL/TESL program with a demographic around my age. For example, I have visited a website such as i-to-i.com and it has sections constructed like a community, with members that appear to be my age, blogs, forums, pictures, posts about experiences, etc. which definitely becomes more attractive when selecting which program to go with since there is an overwhelming amount of competition online.

One of my biggest problems when arriving at one of those TEFL certificate websites, in the seemingly infinite universe of TEFL sites, is that it seems to come off too business-like, as if almost a scam. For example "20% off TEFL program in the 3 days! Register now! Limited time only!" Only to come back 3 days later and the price still stands. Things like that make me skeptical. And without a community or forum, how do I know about anything further than the material merely presented on the websites? Who enrolls to this particular website? Why? What kind of people? What age group?

What do you guys know about i-to-i, for example? Is it as legitimate and full of a young community as professed on the website? I remember a representative of that company claimed to be one of the most popular destinations for people seeking TEFL certification. Is this true? Perhaps I am leaning towards them to make this process easier. One of the more important things to me when receiving training abroad is getting to know people around my age that are in similar positions.

If anybody knows of any other legitimate websites/companies pertaining to my concerns, please let me know and it would be greatly appreciated. I hope this message hasn't been too long. THANK YOU!

[Chancellor]

[spiral78]

and some people here (and some employers, especially in Europe) will insist that only those three courses are acceptable (never mind that the government of Canada, which should certainly be given more weight than people here, recognizes several courses.

Are you implying that European employers should care what the government of Canada thinks about cert courses?

As someone who reviews CVs and interviews potential candidates, the name brand certs are just easier - if I have 25 CVs to go through and (as would be true in our case) 18 of them feature a name brand course, I simply haven't time to research the validity of the no-name certs. Because I am all too aware that there are some very substandard courses out there - it's simply a matter of time efficiency to go for the tried-and-true ones.

Not necessarily fair, but a fact of life in many situations where the job market is full of newbies and we can pick and choose.

[santi84]

I was 24 when I took my TESL certificate at university, with two main age groups: young undergrads and experienced teachers (usually 35+ years old) looking to upgrade.

I would recommend avoiding a class with only student teachers your own age - very idealistic and clueless about life in general. I learned so much from the "older" students and their real life experiences in the classroom - everything from classroom management to material preparation. That being said, I went into the program wanting to learn how to teach ESL, not make friends.

[FrenchLieutenant'sWoman]

I heard that i-to-i now have a video teaching thing. I have no idea what that's about but it's been touted on other forums as making the certification much better.

I know sod all about the various TEFL certs out there as I don't have one so don't take my word for it. I did look into doing an online one but I had no idea whether that would add anything in my case so I abandoned the idea.

[mozzar]

Yeah, wanting to take the course with people in your own age group sounds a bit like you want to continue university with all the partying that might entail. I don't think there's any course that only has young, hip students but that is most definitely the most effective way to advertise.

[Chancellor]

[spiral78]

My European counterparts honestly don't care what the Canadian government thinks on cert courses, and I'm certainly not going on any campaigns to try to convince them.

Translation: we're just to damned lazy (and/or snobbish) to be bothered with anything other than the brand name courses.

Don't have time to do the research. No. Not snobbish or lazy. I have limited hours for this.

Quote:
Not necessarily fair, but a fact of life in many situations where the job market is full of newbies and we can pick and choose.
It's as idiotic as saying "Well, we're too lazy to look at candidates who don't have degrees from Cambridge or Oxford, so we just won't bother." Don't be so stupid as to presume that only those who have brand name certs are the best candidates for the job!

No, I don't presume that only Cambridge or Oxford (Oxford??? the Oxford TEFL course is generally considered substandard - we are talking about newbie level certs, right??) grads are qualified.

Nor am I stupid.




Nor have I much patience with being called snobbish or stupid. I've tried to explain clearly and objectively why brand-names go to the top of the pile for busy management staff in the region where I work.

Disagree if you wish - but the adjectives you've applied to me are unwarranted. Stop.

[Sashadroogie]

Don't know what Canada being an anglophone (and francophone) country has to do with European countries recognising teaching certificates. European Union countries had no trouble developing the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, for example, without outside help. This framework is also applied to English language learner materials. Similarly, there are common qualification frameworks as well, though this is not really the same for TEFLy certs that I'm aware of.

I doubt that the Canadian government is too concerned about any of this.

[Sashadroogie]

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

If the insults and name-calling continue, there will be sanctions of the severe type.

[Justin Trullinger]

Whew- this has always been a hot topic, but I haven't seen it go like this before.

I'll share a couple of thoughts; regulars here probably know about where I stand, but since it's a new thread, I figure it's a good idea to weigh in.

There's a reality issue that some of us here disagree with, but it is a reality.

School administrators are heavily overworked. If you want details on what this means, ask me, and I can tell you until you don't want to listen. REally. If you knew the hours I worked, and the stuff my lovely wife had to put up with, you would not think less of me for saving my time when I could. When I had time to investigate unknown qualifications on applicants' resumes, I did. When I couldn't do it within the time frame allotted, I went with the name brand certs. This didn't worry me overmuch because:


The market is completely awash with substandard certs. They are literally all over the place. They are big business, they work hard to be visible, and they publicise very well. What makes a cert substandard? Too many things to count. Bad trainer to trainee ratios, insufficient requirements for trainers' own preparation, lack of oversight, fake practice teaching, you name it. All available on the TEFL training market. Many of these worthless courses are more widely available (due to no caps on enrolment and internet dilivery) and more aggressively marketed than the good courses. In the five years I spent hiring teachers, from 2005 to February this year, the vast majority of unknown certs I investigated fell squarely into this category.

Best,
Justin

[naturegirl321]

I was 20 when I started teaching and did a TEFL course. poeple were old enough to be my parents in the course, as were some of the studnets I taught. people, like wine, get better with age. You can learn a lot from them.
I purposely chose a non name cert beucase I felt that I would get more personalised attention.

I disagree with the name brand stuff. I went to ABC uni, not well known, but still legit, been around for over 125 years. It's not harvard, but my BA is legit.

Ditto goes for TEFL course. There are bad ones, think the Univerisy of Phoenix Equivilant, but there are also good ones out ther.e Do your research andit'll pay off.

[spiral78]

people, like wine, get older with age




Did you actually mean that us 'olders' are better?
I think that's the conventional wisdom that applies to wine, at least.

[naturegirl321]