TEFL course recommendations please

[DelGirl]

That's it really. Put on notice of redundancy yesterday and have been looking into courses for a while as i'd like to teach English, to children mainly. So, has anyone taken a course, or can anyone recommend another qualification?

I have been bombarded with emails from the I-I website and they appear to be ok but what do I know.

Teaching will be as a means to put food on the table, I don't intend to make a huge career out of it, if that makes any difference. And, I hope to do teach in Italy on a casual ish basis

tia

[DelGirl]

any thoughts/ideas??

[WriggleJiggle]

I looked into this but couldn't find anything helpful. TEFL is geared up for teaching adults, not children.
There are two main course providers that are internationally recognised. Plenty of other places offer TEFL courses, but these are not always recognised by employers.
It is possible to do a TEFL in 40 hours online, but I suspect it's probably not worth the paper it is written on.
TESOL was the other thing I looked into, but those courses are about £1000, and are full time 5 days a week for a month.

[Fennel]

I did it a few years ago, at that time there was a hierarchy, the full time for a month, £1000 courses were seen as best, especially at International House in London. I did it there. But the more local part time cheaper courses could easily be as good, and it's just a certificate to get you started. Experience counts for a lot in the TEFL world so as well as a certificate then evidence of teaching is useful for getting jobs.

The courses tend to be about teaching adults, teenagers and children, not just adults. They're quite general.

[DelGirl]

thanks for the tips. I'll look into the full time courses but with dd, it may prove difficult. The courses i've see are an intensive weekend course then the rest is online.

[Acinonyx]

I did mine part time at International House in London. Like you - it is something I have used when for some reason I am not in other work and need the money. Sometimes preference is give to teachers with overseas experience though (which I had fortunately).

I would call the schools you might teach at and ask what they are looking for.

[ADifferentMe]

I did TESOL 10 years ago at a local tech, one day a week for six months plus teaching. Seem to remember it was about £1000 but there were discounts for the unemployed.

I went on to do a bit of work at language schools (with very mixed results) then homestay with Intuition (agency in London, but they deal with whole UK). Had a lot of teenagers staying (one at a time) for up to a month. Good money but very hard work.

[flabbyapronbelly]

You may also want to look at local colleges. Many have part time preparing to teach in the lifelong learning sector (also known as PTTLS)courses. If you did this with ESOL (English for Speakers of Other languages) you would be able to teach in adult education, and there is a fair amount of sessional work available in this so both training and eventual work could fit in well with children.