Job Discussion Forums

[samuel82]

Hello, i have just finished my first year teaching in Indonesia and have just signed a contract to start my second. I have enjoyed the experience and the job so much that i have decided i have found my future career.
The big problem is i currently have nothing other than a TEFL certificate and as much as i love this country i do plan on traveling around in the future.

Obviously alot of schools ask for a degree so i have been looking into taking an English literature degree with the OU, i know this will take a while but im dedicated and willing to do it if it opens doors for me. The other option i have heard of is the DELTA. Some people are telling me this is recognised as a degree in many schools and is thus cheaper and much,much quicker to complete.

I would really appreciate any advice on this as i have researched the two endlessly and still cant really make sense of which to take as so many people say different things about the two.

Please could anyone help me with making the right decision, i would really appreciate it?

Thanks alot

[chezal]

If you really want to have teaching as a career I would recommend the BA route and then get your PGCE. With a PGCE you will be able to get into the better International schools once you have a few years of experience under your belt. The pay is far better than TEFL wages in Indonesia or else where (I've done both in Indonesia and I know which wage/job I prefer).

The DELTA won't be recognised as a BA. If you wanted to stay within TEFL teaching adults you would be better off doing a BA and then a Masters in TEFL. A DELTA is only ever really asked for in some countries for DOS jobs (you can be a DOS within one here).

Either way I think it will always be the better option to do a BA then you won't have to keep worrying about whether the DELTA is enough for visa regulations. You are better off having solid qualifications behind you to help you set up a solid base for your career.

I have a friend who worked in Indonesia whilst doing his OU BA. It was hard work but he did it and did it well. So it is possible to work and study while in Indonesia.

[Durian Tango]

I would recommend you get your BA. It's far more versatile and later on in your career, you may decide to leave teaching and try another field where the DELTA won't be any help, but the BA will.

[jimi1999uk]

I don't feel able to comment on the Delta vs B.A. argument but I can say my decision to start an OU degree (Eng Language and Lit) is the best thing I've ever done.

I put off starting for about a year because I wrongly assumed it would take SIX YEARS to complete. I'm about to start my final two modules for my degree without hons and from start to finish (presuming I pass these two courses) it will have taken 26 months.

It's hard to get into the study habit again and difficult to fight your own prejudices/anxieties about writing and so on but really it's not THAT difficult if you're just diligent and plod away at it.

One final thing to note is that you're very close to the Oct OU start date for a load of courses. If you're thinking about signing up you don't have much time to lose or can wait till the Feb window.

p.s. If you're in the U.K. at the moment and on benefits you can get the modules for FREE.

Best thing I've ever done. I don't think I'll ever regret my decision to take my degree (I even picked my degree with an eye to a TEFL career). Realistically TEFL will come and go but a degree is fo life babeeeeeeee

[samuel82]

Thanks guys, i kind of had the feeling a degree was the way to go. I've signed up for the October start on the arts and humanities module so it's back to school for me. Thanks alot again for responding it was super helpful.

[jimi1999uk]

Good luck with the course. I'm guessing it's the same one I did by the "Arts Past and Present" AA100 course. A few wobbles are very, very normal on and during it. Just perserver and try not to procrastinate the way everyone does lol. gl sir

[Tudor]

Yes, good luck with the course Samuel, I think you've made the right choice. I started my undergraduate study with the OU and did a level one Humanities course which I guess was the predecessor to the "Arts Past and Present" one. I was very impressed with the OU, they're an extremely professional and efficient operation and my tutor was fantastic. I did surprisingly well and so decided to "bite the bullet" and went to a bricks-and-mortar university as a full-time student to complete my degree; they did, incidentally, accept my OU certificate as credits towards my degree.

By the way, have you registered as being resident in England or have you told them that you're over here? Also will being in Indonesia affect your studies in any way - for example with regards to tutorials etc. It'd be interesting to hear how you get on.

[Tudor]

On the subject of DELTAs, I've heard that TBI are trying to get dispensation to have a DELTA recognised as equivalent to an English or Education degree in order to get around the work permit restrictions that they, and other language schools, are currently experiencing.

That's all very well in theory, but if somebody's gone to the expense and trouble of getting a DELTA would they really choose to work at a bog-standard language school like TBI? Especially as all their management jobs are apparently only open to local teachers now anyway.

In all honesty, I don't see much point in getting further TEFL qualifications (DELTA / MA) for Indonesia anyway - it appears to me that teachers get jobs and promotions on the basis of who they know and how much brown-nosing they're willing to do. I've yet to meet a DoS in Indonesia with anything more than a CELTA and an unrelated degree and there are some that don't even have them. C'est la vie!

[limakaki]

[bradleycooper]

[LinkH]

Get your bachelors degree. If you want to teach, get some sort of degree and go through student teaching to make yourself a teacher in your home country. I recommend some field that you can teach in other than TEFL. You could take a few extra courses in some US states and get TESOL certification or get a certificate in a one month program. That other field could be as a "regular English" teacher if you like.

The reason I say this is the TESOL field is notoriously low-paying. In Indonesia, I saw that if you were a teacher in your home country like the US, NZ, the UK or Australia, say, in math, science, English, or whatever, you could get a reasonably decent paying job at an international or national plus school. You can in some other countries in Asia, too. But if you don't and you get some sort of certificate to teach adults, then you have to compete with the hoards of teachers willing to work for less than $1000 a month. A low salary like that may be fine if you get your own room in a shared apartment in Indonesia if you are single, but if you get married and decide to have kids in Indonesia, then you have to pay for school for the kids. Let's suppose you want them to actually speak English. You have to shell out some big bucks for that. If you marry a local, maybe she'll have a high paying job where she gets a few hundred a month. Still not enough to pay for the kids school.

You can still teach TEFL, but your degree doesn't have to be in TEFL necessarily. If it is, make sure you are a teacher to teach kids. My guess is that MATESOL will have a negative return on investment even if you can land a university job with a masters. PhDs in that field don't get paid all that much for the time they put in. Though I suppose it's a decent life if you work in a developed country.

If you don't want to teach kids at all, you could get a business degree and a CELTA certificate or a business education degree and a CELTA, or any other comparable certificate under the name of a university. Then you would have a qualification to teach English, but you could also teach various business-related topics that may pay more money. Teaching kids at a school is probably a safer career in Indonesia now, though. But I would guess there is huge growth potential for corporate training if you are adventerous and a risk-taker.

[bradleycooper]

[bradleycooper]