TEFL/TESOL/CELTA courses

sqyiggle

Does anyone know about TEFL training courses? There is so much stuff on various websites many of which promoting their own courses that it is very difficult to tell what advise is impartial and what is sales talk.

I'm looking to do a 1month intensive Teaching English as a Foreign Language course with a school or training provider in thailand (as i am already in the area). These courses are pretty expensive so i want to make the right choice!

I know that the course needs to be accredited for it to be worth anything but there seems to be that many accrediting bodies some of which accepted by certain employers and not by others? I believe that accreditation by cambridge or trinty college London are the gold standard but are also the most expensive ($1600US)!

I'm looking at aycthailand.com (can't post links) 120 hour TESOL course in Bangkok Thailand with AYC thailand in association with the American Cultural Association. This is the most competatively priced ($899US) and appartently accredited by INTESOL (the course provider i think) as well as various UK bodies such as QCA, QAA, and ODLQC but unfortunately these are just letters to me and web research is getting very complicated. Has anyone heard of or had any experience with any of these providers or regulators, a google search didn't show up much in the way of reviews.

Does anyone know whether such accreditation would be accepted by the better employers around Asia such as universities or will I be getting what i pay for i.e not that much. I would hate to spend this much and still be turned down for jobs because I don't have the right qualification but don't have the funds to spend on the most expensive courses which could end up being unnecessary.

any help/suggestions/experiences would be much appreciated

property.advert

You would be far far better getting your TEFL from your home country rather than some place in Thailand.

My guess is that you are in Thailand, you don't want to go home and your money is running out and you think that by doing some course you are going to get a job and live the high life in Thailand ? how right am I ? 95% ? phonetically, gow-sip ha ? bad-sip ? คุณเข้าใจไหม ?

Do you know what salaries are for teachers ? do you know the visa regulations ? do you know about being paid only 9 or 10 months of the year ? do you have a first degree ? do you have a teaching degree ? etc. Do you speak Thai ?

There are jobs but they pay rubbish. You would probably have to do private tuition on the side just to survive. You have to get your head around the fact that schools, like hospitals, are businesses, just like BP, Microsoft etc. They just sell education. On the back of this is a huge industry selling travellers various courses with meaningless guarantees of jobs at the end of them. Again, all a business.

If you do want to stay and have at least some reasonable funds, then look for the jobs and see what they need as qualifications and experience. That will show you how far away you are. You will also see how shockingly badly paid the positions are.

Almo

Do you want to do this as a career, or just for a few months? If it's going to be a career, I wouldn't recommend doing anything other than a CELTA or TESOL course - I have been in the industry for several years now.

If you just want to do it to stay on in Thailand, well you might find somewhere in a smaller city or town that will employ you without a qualification at all (TEFL specific that is, I think you'd still need a degree) or you may be able to pick up some private tutoring. I know a couple of people who have done this but it was several years ago and I have no idea how the industry is doing in Thailand at the moment.

In a nutshell, if you're going to do a course, you might as well do the most widely recognised one, otherwise I wouldn't bother at all.

briona

Hi sqyiggle,

Unless the course includes a minimum of 6hrs assessed teaching practice, on the whole you will find that the certificate is not worth the paper it's written on. As you have rightly concluded the most respected and reputable courses are the Cambridge CELTA and the Trinity CertTESOL, and this is reflected in the price. Talking of which, US $1,600 is fairly standard. I paid €1,390 to do mine in Spain, which is around US $1,720.

According to Trinity's website, there are NO providers authorised to offer the CertTESOL in Thailand. Cambridge's site shows that there are only six centres authorised to offer the CELTA. For details, see the following link: http://cambridgeesol-centres.org/centres/teaching/search.do;jsessionid=36943E4CDCAE093CC6B3D23135CE3D87.node01?source=teacheraward&country=TH&qualification=10&Input=Search

Finally, note that in addition to a CELTA/Trinity TESOL certificate, many Asian countries insist on a four year university degree, without which, you may be refused a work permit.

Hope that helps.

Briona

property.advert

Furthermore I would suggest the OP, if they come back, visit the http://www.thaivisa.com/forums website and ask there as it has a wealth of Thai related material.