TEFL

[nostaples]

Hi, My 18 y.o daughter has found herself unexpectedly with a lot of time on her hands. She won't now sit her A Levels and is unlikely to be doing a great deal until she goes to university in September. Thinking of signing her up for an online TEFL course as something good to put on her CV and a way of making a bit of cash while at university/ in the holidays. Please can anyone recommend a course. I notice the Cambridge CELTA courses seem to be the most highly rated but these are also the most expensive at over £1000 It seems you can do other courses for less than £200. Are they comparable? It's likely she'll go on to do a PGCE after graduation so this is not going to be a lifelong career for her. Thanks in advance.

Celta is the qualification all reputable schools want. The other ones aren't worth much. Though in the UK the whole industry is collapsing and she won't be travelling any time soon.

Celta or Trinity tesol.

Just to be aware that you need a degree to be able to teach in a language school, i.e. any degree at all + your tefl cert.

It’s still a good thing to do although online courses are not as well regarded as face to face. The £200 course will not be worth much.

Even the online Celta has a certain number of teaching practice hours so doubtful they would be running it right now.

Hmm, that's also the most expensive and I'm not sure they do entirely online courses.

She can't do face to face at the moment of course so it's just whether it's worth doing an online course or not.

The reason that Trinity and CELTA are preferred is because you cannot do them online. There is a practical teaching component which is essential.

Online courses are pretty much useless when it comes to job hunting.

Agree that Cambridge CELTA or Trinity TESOL are the two to aim for. Could your DD sign up for MyTutor and provide some online tutoring for GCSE instead?

The online only courses are worthless unless they include actually teaching on line while being observed by an instructor - there is no value in a teaching course without any assessed teaching.

There are recognised qualifications actually in teaching online, but as far as I know all the courses offered by respected sources are postgrad. TEFL is a postgraduate profession now for the most part.

nostaples what are her A levels in? Does she play an instrument to a high level? You say she wants to teach - is she endlessly patient and also naturally good at breaking complex tasks / projects into small parts?

I agree that she may find a market for other types of online tutoring, especially in the subjects she did at A level.

Hi, thanks all. I will have a think and a chat with her. I think she'd make a great tutor/ teacher but English is her subject really and so much of that is text/ specification specific (I'm an English teacher) that I don't think it would be right to offer her services yet while she's not even a graduate yet. The alternative is getting her a job and I've heard our local supermarket is recruiting ....