Job Discussion Forums

[bradwelljackson]

I'm seeking to get trained as a TEFL teacher and I wold like to know which teacher training school in the world has the best reputation.

[tttompatz]

[Qaaolchoura]

Are you talking about the certs?

Whenever I hear someone name the "big three" it seems to be CELTA (British), Trinity (British), and SIT (American). Whenever someone talks about only two, they leave off the last of those. I chalk that up to British snobbery, though since I haven't taken all three I can't be sure. Maybe the Brits really are the only ones who can teach teachers. (Incidentally a previous thread established that the British Council, which is funded by the British taxpayer, only hires those who did the CELTA or Trinity. However where private companies are concerned, this doesn't seem to be an issue.)

You see a lot of "CELTA or equivalent" stuff in job ads, which I take to mean "120 hour onsite teaching course with observed practice using real students." I assume in those cases the CELTA is simply the most memorable brand name. (You also see a lot of "CELTA, Trinity or equivalent" or "CELTA, Trinity, SIT or equivalent" type ads, and they all seem to amount to the same thing.)

I suppose bottom line is if neither money nor location is an issue, take the CELTA, since it's the one every employer will know by name. If either if those is an issue, take the closest 120+ hour onsite course with at least six hours of observed teaching practice, unless you really want to work for the British Council, in which case take the nearest CELTA or Trinity course.

~Q

[Xie Lin]

[sparks]

CELTA, no contest. I have SIT and it has never been a problem and is a fine certificate, as is Trinity. As far as the most requested and most recognizable though, it's CELTA all the way.

[coledavis]

[Qaaolchoura]

[coledavis]

Qaaolchoura:

As is suggested by my previous post, other employers than the British Council specify CELTA and Trinity only.

Your presumption that such employers are mainly within the EU is wrong.

Your comment about managers being mainly Brits is dubious.

Your suspicion that British managers are behind "a genuine British-cert-only requirement" is almost certainly wrong.

The idea that Brits view non-Brits' employment within the EU in some form of xenophobic way is a ludicrous one. Its factual basis lies in the fact that UK and Irish citizens do not need a visa within the EU and thus can find jobs more easily than Americans and other non-EU citizens. Those who post to this effect only do so in order to inform Americans (and other non-EU citizens) that they face a harder search in the EU. Should they be apologising for trying to inform you of the facts? Just to make you feel better?

Such anti-Americanism as I come across is usually generated by the attitudes or behaviour of (some) Americans. Your comments are a case in point. You have the right to suspect snobbery, but you lack the evidence.

I would put to you the following points:

Managers have problems recruiting good teachers - until they come, they never know - so the best they can do is to look for courses they know are regulated. The reality of this is that, unfortunately, they opt for courses they know about. This is about the only point which is supportive of your suggestion of snobbery.

Most respondents to queries on this board do their best to assist in helping people find employment, preferably with decent employers. Unless queries relate to specific countries, a market-driven response is reasonable: go for the qualifications wanted by the majority of employers who specify particular certificates.

I wonder what your motivation is. It could be that you trained on the SIT and found it to be an excellent course. Fine. Then say so and tell people about it. But I do not think it reasonable to deny that other qualifications are called for by many employers (as I say, this may be unreasonable, but it is a fact of life).

It could be that you were on the SIT and want to make a post hoc purchase justification. It is even more unfair to advise others based on your personal psychology.

It could be that this was a politically motivated post against anti-Americanism or British colonialism. As for the latter, I don't think the British monarchy has been in your faces for quite some time. Get over it.

[spiral78]

[HLJHLJ]

IMO the problem with SIT is primarily poor marketing on their part, rather than any issue with the actual course. The branding is very weak, and it's hard to find information on it. If you search on Google with 'SIT TESOL' the main site comes up, but for SIT TEFL, SIT ESL, SIT EFL it's not even on the first page. There's plenty of links to resellers/trainers, but not to the main sit.edu site.

If you don't know what you are looking for it's not immediately obvious that those schools are all offering the same course. It just looks like a ragtag collection of schools offering TEFL certificates.

If they want the course to be internationally recognised as a quality brand, they need to market it internationally as a quality brand. At the moment it's just a mess.

[bradwelljackson]

There are some very helpful, respectful, and thorough answers here, and I am appreciative, as well as impressed. You all obviously know what you're talking about. To answer one of your questions, yes, it would be a certificate of the short kind, as opposed to university degrees, that I am asking about. To be even more exact, I was actually asking about specific schools. It seems that one of you wished to relay that it's not really the location (school) that matters, however, can I ask if it would be more profitable, as far as reputation goes, to get your CELTA at a school in England as opposed to, for example, a CELTA school in Thailand?

[tttompatz]

[Denim-Maniac]

Depending upon what your future plans are, it might be an idea to look into a course provider that has a chain of schools. International House might be a better bet than a course provider with a single school as your employment opportunities within the IH group might be better initially. Im thinking more access to employment opportunities as a newbie.

[spiral78]

[spiral78]

Oh, and, by the way, I wouldn't entirely agree with Denim-Maniac's suggestion of going for the chain school option (though to be clear, he's an excellent resource and I more often than not do agree with what he says in general!).

A chain school cert may be looked upon with some suspicion outside of the chain (though this isn't the case with an IH CELTA - it's a standard CELTA).

Chain schools do offer something more like 'job placement' (though that's a misnomer even in their case, honestly). The problem is that job openings in their more desirable locations are usually filled by teachers who've been with the chain longer-term- expect to serve time in their less desirable spots before moving up the chain.

Also, chain schools still have to abide by country-specific laws regarding where their staff can work. IH Madrid, for example, can't get work visas for non-EU citizens, and a branch in Asia wouldn't be able to get a work visa for someone without a degree. So, it's not a 'transcendent' advantage to be at a chain school.

They also tend to pay on the lower end of the scale in general.

Not saying it's a totally bad idea, but there are downsides.