ESL teaching jobs and a few things to consider for your TEFL course.

Its true ESL teaching jobs in Thailand are relatively easy to find, Finding a quality TEFL course provider however is a different matter. There are many providers of English teaching courses here in Thailand, the schools will only be too happy to promise you all kinds of guarantees including a "guaranteed job"

After having said that, any kind of training is better than none at all.

But it is a shame to invest money and time only to discover the certificate you have is pretty much worthless. The certificates issued by Text-and-Talk are individually numbered and are the only ones recognised by the Thai ministry of education.

(Thinking of Starting a new career)

ESL Teaching Jobs and English teaching courses.

Some courses will present you with a certificate for just attending! These are quite often the shortest and cheapest courses. The piece of paper they provide you with should be obvious its a "certificate of attendance", and not a TEFL certificate. This certificate cannot be used to prove your knowledge or teaching ability. Put yourself in the English directors shoes, who needs to hire someone. What you need is a course that provides 6 to 8 hours of observed and evaluated teaching practice with real students. That's what schools are looking for

teach-in-asia

100 to 120 hours of in class training and a further 6 to 8 hours observed teaching practice is the usual amount of training for a TEFL certificate. Which will enable you to apply for any ESL teaching jobs. The length of time is usually 4 weeks and indeed you can do it over 4 weeks with Text-and-Talk. However, bear in mind a 4 week course is quite intense, personally I'm so glad I did the 6 week course. When a school is looking for a teacher and asks for a TEFL certificate the above is what they will be expecting. And when its backed up by the Thai ministry of education, who do you think they're going to hire.

Online and weekend courses are to be honest a waste of time.

Class size is important, I once saw a course being carried out on the outskirts of Pattaya and there must have been 50 trainees on the one course. I now know through experience that the trainer cannot effectively teach so many students. A good course will have no more than 15 or 16 trainees. And should provide a separate course with a different trainer should there be more.

A TEFL course for candidates with no teaching experience or qualifications is called a "TEFL certificate". Other qualifications such as a diploma is for people with a teaching qualification or experience. Some certificates are given grand titles, If the certificate says anything other than "TEFL certificate" avoid it, cos it won't help you in finding an ESL teaching job.

Not enough trainers or staff, this can be a real problem and there should really be at least 2 trainers so you can get different points of view. And if you have a particular problem with say lesson plans, there should always be someone available to help. If your trainer seems to be doing everything single handed, this is not a good sign.

"Guaranteed" ESL teaching jobs,, this one is my favorite. First of all anybody with a decent TEFL certificate can soon be teaching English in Thailand, If you also have a degree no problem. Any native speaker could even find a job without a TEFL certificate, even though it would be at a school no one else will work at. I could guarantee you a job, You pay me 40 or 50,000Baht for 4 weeks training then I'll give you a certificate, and seriously I could guarantee you a job! It may not be what you want and the pay won't be great etc, but its a job.

When I first decided to move here I followed the instructions and advice given by Text-and-Talk and in less than two weeks I had been offered 3 ESL teaching jobs. The job I took was hotel training, even though it was only a 4 month contract. I just couldn't resist living and working in 4 and 5 star hotels. One of them was the Siam bay view pictured to the left. What a job! but that's another story!