Job Discussion Forums

[jimarmo]

Hi

I'm needing to 'spruce up' my resume and it's looking more and more likely that I will need some sort of degree to find half-decent work in Japan. I have over 14 years teaching experience including 7 years TEFL in China, TEFL/TESOL certificates but only high-school level education.

Does anybody have any advice on a good TEFL/TESOL or teaching related degree (Bachelors probably) I can do on line and in a year??

Regards,

Jim

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Undergraduate degrees are four (or three in some places) year degrees. Language teaching is a post-grad area in the majority of places (you need a degree to get in).

Distance degrees from reputable universities are usually designed for people working full-time at the same time and so instead of the usual four units at a time (full-time student) you generally take two units at a time. That means a four-year degree would take you eight years at two units a term and taking summers off.

A much faster route could be for you to do a post-grad certificate in TESOL from a university in Australia (that's a one term full-time, or two term part-time certificate [as in, a year off-campus]) or the UK. It isn't a degree. ***BUT*** if you do one of those then you can often apply to get into the masters degree in language teaching at the same university. AND they often count the post-grad units / modules as masters modules, so you wouldn't have to redo them (So you could have a masters degree in language teaching in two or three years from starting).

Look up universities to see what their policy is (look up ones in Australia, [and probably New Zealand] and the UK).

(You could still run into visa problems in countries that require an undergrad degree, unless they give out visas for having X number of years worth of experience, though. And, of course, it would likely still be difficult to get a job in a country where 99.999% of foreign English teachers have an undergrad degree if you did not. But if you want to do this and stay in countries that do not require an undergrad degree, then that wouldn't be an issue.)

[jimarmo]

Thanks for your reply and advice, it's very much appreciated!!

I will start looking into what you mentioned and hopefully find something suitable.

Again thanks,

Jim

[MotherF]

Or you could always go the other route---google life experience degrees.
Some employers will be able to detect this and weed you out--others will not.