Online TEFL/TESOL courses

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GoingAwol
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Joined: May 26th, 2015, 3:07 am

Online TEFL/TESOL courses

Post by GoingAwol »

Can you get jobs with these? I'm looking at different ones and they look legit, but are they? As far as I can tell a lot of these cover the same material as the in-person courses. So are these worth getting? An online TEFL course would be ideal for me because they are cheaper and I don't live near a place where I could take a course in person. Thanks
Ghost
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Last edited by Ghost on October 24th, 2016, 7:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
GoingAwol
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Posts: 500
Joined: May 26th, 2015, 3:07 am

Re: Online TEFL/TESOL courses

Post by GoingAwol »

Ghost wrote:You can get jobs with them, but if your employer finds out it was done online...wouldn't be good. (The certificate won't state that the course was done online.) The courses themselves, if done with a legitimate company are really just as good. It's all about how the employers will perceive it. It'll cost a bit more, but take an on-site course. That way you don't have to hide anything and having direct experience is better anyway if you've never taught before. (Pro-tip: while you're doing your TEFL take plenty of photos and some videos of your practicum teaching - will be a good thing you can show employers.)

Best thing to do would be to save up, go take the TEFL course in your target country, then the company will aid you in finding a job directly after graduation.
But what are the legitimate companies? I found a school in Moscow called Language Links that offers a free on-site teacher training and tefl certification course. The beauty of it is they give you a job in one of their schools upon completing the course and you don't have to have a college degree to get in. The bad news is its free and anything free like that is going to be very competitive. So my thinking is having some kind of prior training,even if its online, would give me a better chance of getting in. Also, as part of the application process you have to complete a test that demonstrates your advanced understanding of English grammar and I thought an online course would help me to do better on that.
MrMan
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Re: Online TEFL/TESOL courses

Post by MrMan »

GoingAwol wrote:Can you get jobs with these? I'm looking at different ones and they look legit, but are they? As far as I can tell a lot of these cover the same material as the in-person courses. So are these worth getting? An online TEFL course would be ideal for me because they are cheaper and I don't live near a place where I could take a course in person. Thanks

You can get more detail at Dave's ESL Cafe online. I have been out of the game for many years, but I would say, yes, you can get a job with these. The last I heard, you can get a job with just a degree. Employers for this type of work that accept any type of certificate are typically owners of English language institutes. There may be rare cases where you could get a job at an institute connected to a university or at some kind of elementary or high school with a certificate like that, but that would be rare. These certificates are typically used for adult education.

The owners of these institutes typically care about whether you can bring in students. And if you teach well and are entertaining and reasonably nice, you have the potential to draw in students. Schools that are a little more prestigious may want CELTA certificates or MATESOL requirements. I'm thinking something like The British Institute (Do they still have ESL courses?) or university-owned language institutes.

If the online certificate teaches you how to teach, I'd say it's a good thing. That may justify getting the certificate. As far as job requirements go, you can go to eslcafe.com and ask on country-specific boards for that country's requirements. I got a visa in South Korea and a job based on having a bachelors degree. I was able to get a visa in Indonesia, too. I suspect it was because I had a degree and some experience. Being a native speaker qualifies you as an expert so you don't have to have 10 years of work experience, or whatever it is, in a specific field in Indonesia to get a visa.
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