has anyone ever taken one of those classes to get certified in teaching English in a foreign country ?

Question

if so.. what company did you do it from ? my friend is looking into it and found one sponsered by oxford for $800 but he's not to sure about it being a scam or whatever. any suggestions ?

THank You

Answer 1

If you want to go to a dumpy place then you might not need the certification. But if you want to work in a "hotspot" like Barcelona or Tokyo, you'll need a) WORKING PAPERS b) a Bachelor's degree in any subject and c) A TESOL certificate.

I wanted to work in Barcelona (and I have dual citizenship), so after I finished my BA in English, I moved to Barcelona and did the CELTA at International House. It was a really good program and it included supervised teaching practice. After that I hit the market in Barcelona, but I was only able to find part-time work (enough part-time jobs to make full-time, but it was still divided amongst different schools). I decided to move to Italy, where I immediately found full-time work.

The CELTA program is REALLY GOOD. It is overseen by Cambridge University, and they regularly send out supervisors to make sure that the local school is doing a good job. CELTA is primarly recognized in Europe, although if you mention that it IS a TESOL certificate you will be able to use it in Asia and North America as well. After 1.5 years teaching in Italy, I came back to Canada and taught full-time at a community college before deciding to return to university.

Answer 2

Your best plan is to do a degree in the subject or subjects that interest you - e.g. English and Spanish - then follow that with either a one-year postgraduate teaching certificate, or a TEFL qualification. Whatever your teacher meant by a 'teaching degree'- a 3 year degree in education ? that's usually for people planning to teach in primary schools and will not be valued as highly as a degree in English. If you are already in high school, you should be taking BOTH German and Spanish by now, if you are planning to do both A levels for university entrance.

Answer 3

I think you're asking about a TESOL certification. I taught overseas for about 23 years. Most places don't value just the certification. Now, if you got a Masters in TESOL, that'd be a different story.
Do you have any kind of university degree, a BA /MA in English? One of those would be of far more help in your getting a job abroad than a TESOL certificate (actually, those "certificates" are kind of a joke in the field.)