Anyone done a CELTA course?

[ruby2019missyou]

Hi
I am looking for recommendations as to where (online) I can do a CELTA course. Please recommend/dis recommend places to me. Cost is a factor. I am considering a change in career and I want to teach TEFL in the UK either at a language school or privately or online. I believe it's better to do a CELTA course than anything else.
Thanks

I did mine at St Giles College, Brighton they may have an online version by now. Churchill House School of English, Ramsgate is also excellent imo.

@Bearnecessity Thanks :-)

You need a certain number of contact hours (teaching practice) so it is not possible to complete the course fully online.

@mayfayner I want to make a start though while we are in lockdown. I suppose if I can’t get recommendations then a Google search is as good as any.

I did the level 5 300 hour course online last summer with i-to-i TEFL. I got a good price and I rate the course, but I wasn't concerned about teaching practice as I've been a qualified teacher for almost 20 years. I work with a lot of people who don't have English as a first language so I run a free after school class for some of them, and it's also been useful in my work with children who join the school with no or very limited English.

@annabell22 I have looked on their site and can't see a CELTA course. Or was the one you did not a CELTA course?

It was level 5 TEFL. I didn't feel I needed a CELTA. Why do you think you do?

Dont think CELTA online is possible. You need real live students for teaching practice which is huge element of the CELTA methodology.

You could do an inroductory TEFL online to get a feel for it though, before embarking on CELTA. Actually I do recommend this approach, as CELTA is very fast , very intense and any information you can learn beforehand will stand you in good stead.

Have a look at TEfl.org
www.tefl.org/courses/

I'm in Scotland and they are SQA accredited ( Scottish Government) , although they operate UK wide and do online courses.

@annabell22 CELTA is more highly regarded than any TEFL qualification - that is what I have read anyway, and when I look on websites of language schools at posts advertised they list the CELTA qualification as a must have.

@MaryHill I wondered if I was able to do at least some part online.

I did a CELTA. It took 4 weeks and it was excellent. The provider was International House. I did mine abroad but they are global.

I also did mine with international house, in London. It was excellent, four weeks intensive with teaching experience every day.

Hi op. We teach Celta at my place of work - university- and I did mine 20 years ago. Students who started our course are now struggling to finish it because they can't do the the teaching practice. I would wait until you are able to do the whole thing. Do it full time if you can - International House is good or a university. Depends where you are based.

@BrandoraPaithwaite and @Ofitck Thanks! I've had a look and it says the CELTA courses are now 100% online. Quite pricey though.

You could do the reading before you start to prepare, especially some grammar if you need to brush up on that.

Yes, CELTA courses are quite pricey.

I do recommend you do a short online TEFL course first while waiting for any CELTA course to run. It will be time well spent.

I'm not syre where you're getting the online information from.

The Cambridge Assessment website says this:

oh, ok. I've just found this :

www.oxfordtefl.com/oxford-tefl-courses/cambridge-celta/cambridge-celta-100-online

@maryhill Thanks. There are also other sites offering the online course.

@Xmasbaby11 Pardon?

No problem

Some other things to think seriously about:

Competition for CELTA courses is quite high. There will usually be an interview before you join - another reason to do a short TEFL course beforehand, as it shows you are comitted and have some relevant experience ( of course you may have other relevant experience which is useful too)

Can you commit to the shedule? Its gruelling!
If you have kids do you have childcare? You cant homeschool them and do the CELTA.
Are you working from home at the moment? Ditto, you can't do CELTA at the same time. You need to clear the decks and focus on CELTA alone. For 4 whole weeks ( including weekends).

It's a good course and a great career but difficult to get full time work, and difficult to get into colleges.

Good Luck!

It isn't possible to do it online 100% as you need to be assessed for teaching practice but there is a blended option where you only attend 4 hours per week and the theory is online. A few in my group had started off in the face to face option (ie no online component) but had to move to blended for various reasons, but all said the face to face was better as you were able to interact more and ask questions. The mostly online medium suited me but there is group work to be done and organising a time that suited everyone was difficult at times, or else some members didn't contribute but then got the same mark as everyone else which grated.

International House and wait until you can attend 4 full weeks. You can prepare by buying Raymond Murphy Grammar In Use Intermediate and working through it.

@MaryHill and @paininthepoinsettia Thank you both