Job Discussion Forums

[Aurora78]

Hello.

I'm a newbie and, as every newbie, I am overwhelmed by all the information on the web related to teaching English as a second language and full of questions. So I'll be grateful to anyone that will have patience with me and reply to my questions.
Just to give you a picture of who I am, I'll say that I have a dual nationality (Australian and Italian) but all my education qualifications are Italian (bachelor's and master's degree). In the last 2 years I have worked in a London college as a research assistant. I was not happy with my job and have no intention of pursuing an academic career, so I left it a couple of months ago and came back to Italy. Now I am trying to find a more rewarding career and the idea of teaching English seems very attractive to me. I am thinking of investing my savings on a CELTA course. I'd like to teach to children rather than adults, so - first question - is the CELTA adequate or should I prefer the Trinity Tesol certification? I also know a little bit of Spanish, as well as Italian of course, so maybe this could come useful in the Latin American countries?
Anyway, my main problem is related to the education qualifications. I have been reading the other posts in the forum and some of the job offers, so I understand that most of the ESL employers require some kind of higher education background related to English-speaking countries. I was wondering if, after taking the CELTA, employers would be willing to consider my 2 years of work as research assistant at the LSE as a "substitute". What do you think? I am willing to invest time and money in taking the CELTA, but I really need to be reassured on the fact that even lacking those qualifications I will be able to find good jobs.
Any kind of suggestion or advice is welcome. Thank you.
Aurora

[tttompatz]

[coledavis]

CELTA is indeed a course for teaching adults, although people can and do adapt their skills later to teach children. I think the Trinity TESOL certificate can be more child-orientated; I think it depends on the centre offering the teacher training.

You do need a degree, but the main point from the employers' point of view is whether or not you yourself are deemed to be a native speaker. I.e. if you speak with an Italian accent and are not extremely fluent, they are likely to deem you not to be a native speaker; if you can present yourself as an Australian and are very fluent, then I think they will deem you to be one. I noticed your 'teach to' at one point. That might be a mistake made because you were typing at speed, or it may not, but the likelihood of employment really does depend upon both your level of ability and, I'm sorry to say, your accent.

[naturegirl321]

You might want to consider getting a teaching license so that you can teach kids and then work at schools such as those on www.ibo.org and www.tes.co.uk