CELTA or TEFL?

[rainingeveryday]

I'm in my late 50s and want to/need to change career. As part of my current job, I run training courses and I love it. I have a basic (level 3) teaching qualification and good feedback from the courses I've run.

So I am thinking that a good move would be to leave my current job and teach adults more broadly. I would be interested in teaching functional English but there don't seem to be many jobs in this area from what I can see. I also can't really afford to spend a year getting a full teaching qualification.

So I am looking into teaching English as a second language. I live in an area where there are several language schools.

I am going round in circles trying to decide which course to take. Most jobs seem to want CELTA "or equivalent". Would a (much cheaper) TEFL qualification be good enough or should I go for the gold standard?

I want to focus on teaching adults, but would be happy to teach teenagers too. I would like to teach face-to-face, perhaps topped up with online work.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Be careful with this. TEFL is a bit of a catch all term. CELTA is certified by Cambridge, and the other widely accepted course is certified by Trinity, called now I think Trinity Cert TESOL. CELTA and Trinity Cert TESOL certs are the same and generally accepted as equal by employers, though some have preference. BUT there are many 'TEFL' courses out there that are self certified by the provider and then pretty much worthless, apart from the joy of learning of course.

So, CELTA and Trinity Cert TESOL are usually a month full time and pretty expensive. If the course course are looking at is cheaper or shorter that is a red flag.
If you can have a chat with the language schools in your area, some schools have their own internal training and will take anyone with a degree. Which is another thing to consider most reputable face to face schools want initial degree, and teaching cert.

Now things are online there are a lot of schools who will take any native speaker, so if you want to work online you might not even need a cert.

Best wishes!

Totally agree with Raccoons - anything other than CELTA or Trinity is essentially worthless. If you have to choose between the two CELTA has wider acceptance. I did the classic month-long intensive CELTA many moons ago, but there are part-time courses available now, right?

Yep CELTA all the way. When I’m looking to recruit, it’s an essential.

It IS expensive but the cost doesn’t seem to have increased that much since I did it in 1996 when it was around £1000.

CELTA all the way, but do be warned this is a very saturated market and many people are working for below minimum wage (online). It's very difficult to earn a proper living from and at your age you are unlikely to get anything decent abroad, especially as you don't have a teaching qualification. A lot of ads I've seen lately have said over 35s need not apply!

As a side note, in my area regional colleges are crying out for functional skills lecturers on a temporary basis. The criteria isn't high, but salaries are low. It might be an idea to check this out and get a taste for it though.

Agree with PP about saturation and salary. I’ve worked in FE ESOL for 25 years and FTE jobs are like gold dust. Functional Skills would be a bit easier but generally the pay is poor for a lot of prep.

Summer schools are a good way to see if you like teaching EFL. Language schools near you will probably be advertising soon for teachers to do a few weeks in the summer with international students, usually teens but there are adult summer schools too.

Thanks everyone - I was assuming the most likely work would be in language schools rather than an FE college. I couldn't see any jobs in FE when I looked.

Looks like CELTA is the way forward! I don't want to work abroad, so I am hoping there will be enough work here to do at least part time.

In my FE college the same lecturers have been in the job for decades, which is why jobs don't come up.

Did you make a decision @rainingeveryday? I am a ‘mature’ teacher - and am looking at how to stay employable and earn my keep, so to speak.

I am wondering about doing a basic TEFL course first as I’m not sure about the expense of CELTA.

@Millionaura I think I am going to do the CELTA. It seems the best language schools want this, and I feel that if I am going to get a qualification, I might as well get the best one. I agree it is expensive though.

Good luck with it all, I hope you enjoy it x