Korean Job Discussion Forums

[xihtug]

I currently hold a Teacher's License here in Georgia (United States Georgia, of course) and have a masters in Social Studies Education (was a 4 semester program). No real classroom experience outside of student teaching.

From what I understand, you pretty much need a TEFL course to teach in Korea at the moment. I'm in the process of taking one, but the applications for Korea are due soon and I definitely will not have my course finished in time. Would you guys think that this is acceptable?

[newb]

Teacher's license will suffice.

[Triple007]

If you have a teachers license and a masters you can do MUCH better than EPIK. There are international schools and Universities that pay more, work less, and better benefits. Look into those. Consider coming to Korea and then finding work, if you have all of the documents and don't mind banging on some doors.

[JustinC]

I'd side with getting a great PS over a bad Uni. Best to do research on the institution you're going to, as usual.

[cheezsteakwit]

I was in a similar situation , but NOT with EPIK. I have an MA in Education from a Pennsylvania Univ. , & a Social Studies cert.

I was hired by a public school system outside of EPIK, and before I went to the orientation, I got an email 'requesting/ suggesting' that I enroll in a TEFL course, so I enrolled in a cheap $200 on-line course.

My recruiter said I didn't have to do that & a teaching cert. was more than enough, but the lady that interviewed me from the office of education asked me to take the course 'as a condition of employment' .

I later heard that the office of education wanted to be able to say that 100% of their teachers had a TEFL cert. There were other ( uncertified) people in my orientation class who hadn't finished their TEFL , as well.

I enrolled less than 1 month before the orientation but didn't finish it until 5 months after I was in Korea. (It had a 6 month expiration window of completion.)

Granted, my experience wasn't with EPIK, so you'd have to email an EPIK rep to see if they'll let you slide on completing it after you're here. (Maybe send them proof of enrollment or something.)

Anyway, I'm very happy at my PS job. I'm re-upping for another year and then I'll look into international schools and/or a good Uni gig here in Korea ( or elsewhere ).

I realize Int'l schools pay more & may have better benefits , but I got a good thing going here ( great school / town, friends, free Korean classes at the local Uni. & LOTS of free time to learn Korean & work on my teaching web portfolio.)

Good luck to you.

[xihtug]

Interesting, thanks for the responses. I'm still planning on finishing it. My EPIK application I filed already says "pending" so I guess we'll see how it goes.