Weekend?  Advanced?  20 hours or 100 hours?  Add a specialism? Feeling confused? I don't blame you. It can be daunting from the outside looking in and the ‘which course for me?’ email tops our list of frequently asked questions.

Why is there so much choice?
If you’re baffled as to why there’s so much choice, then quite simply, the TEFL market made it that way. TEFL is largely unregulated and is mostly made up of small private language schools serving their local community.  So, the course generally recommended for a small, neighbourhood school in rural Mexico is not what we’d generally suggest for central Paris. Hence, the variety of courses reflects the world TEFL job market in all its rich and varied form.

Great, so where do I start?
It’s best to work backwards. Where do you want to go? If you’ve got a few locations in mind, then head over to our teach English abroad travel pages, browse locations and see the courses we recommend for each in the right hand column.

In some regions finding good, well paid jobs is really competitive, so we suggest a higher level qualification if you are heading for Southern Europe, English speaking countries and the Middle East. Our 150 hour level 2 course or 180 hour level 2 which includes a specialisation in young learners, business or 1-1 are accredited to a high level and our trainees have a proven track record of finding work with these ACTDEC accredited courses. To teach English in France, Germany and Sweden in particular, our  level  2 with business is our top seller and highly recommended.

Be aware that in English speaking countries especially, many private language schools will prefer a CELTA or Trinity TESOL qualification which are taught in-class, normally intensively over 4 or 5 weeks and contain 6 hours of observed teaching practice. Although our online TESOL trainees are teaching English in the UK, for example,  they have often had to be creative about finding work, by seeking  their own source of students and freelancing, for example.

For many countries in the Far East, a degree will be the most important qualification you possess and so our  100 hour level 1 +young learners is our recommendation to reflect the local market. A weekend might even be sufficient for certain schools, for volunteering or for most countries in Latin America.

Which course should I take if I’m already a teacher?
Teaching experience will certainly help any application but interestingly, a TEFL/TESOL is still a prerequisite for many private language school positions. This is because TEFL requires a slightly different mind-set and approach from mainstream school teaching and there is more commercial nature surrounding teaching in the private sector. However, if you have lots of teaching experience, then a short TEFL course such as our 70 hour online course or weekend course could be all you need to formalise your experience and give you that vital TEFL certificate.

And if I’m not a native English teacher?
There is no denying strong bias towards native English teachers in the TEFL job market. To stand out, you may have to be better qualified than most English,  American and Australian teachers and ‘bring something else to the table.’ This might be your ability to speak (and maybe teach) other languages, your empathy with learners – or even your strong grasp of English grammar as us natives have often only formally learned our own grammar on TEFL courses. When we asked our non-native TEFL teachers  about how they were making TEFL work for them, we were surprised at how many continued to learn and take courses. If you are non-native English teacher, the advice seems to be ‘get as qualified as you can.’

I can only afford a short course
Sometimes our course choice is constrained by budget. That’s fine but highlight your other skills to give you as many TEFL options as possible especially if you have worked in business, with young people or have a specialist background.

If you are already in the country where you want to teach, apply for jobs by dropping in. You will have a huge advantage over those applying from abroad – and access many jobs that aren’t advertised on the Internet – see our advice on this here and check out our advice on creating a top TEFL CV

Conclusion
If you would like more individual advice about your particular situation, contact us  and we would be more than happy to help.

If you’re still not sure about which course is for you, the best advice we can give you is to invest in the most advanced TEFL qualification you can afford; it will stand you in good stead and, let’s face it, no-one ever regretted being too qualified!

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