Maybe because it is the most obvious next
step for an experienced and ambitious teacher who still wants to do something
related to teaching rather than stepping into management, over the years I must
have met 20 times as many teachers who wanted to be teacher trainers as people
who ever managed to find a full time job doing it. That demand and the lack of
a standard qualification for teacher trainers means that it can be very
difficult to break into teacher training, and many of the teacher trainers I
know relied somewhat on luck to do so. As such, none of the suggestions below
are guaranteed to work- but all of them are guaranteed to improve your chances
over sitting and waiting, or over taking one of the very dubious online qualifications
for teacher trainers:
Many of the teacher trainers I know got
into the field this way, and a good proportion of them did so by getting a job teaching
at the same school where they got their own initial training. As trainee
numbers change a lot month by month and teacher trainers often have other
commitments like giving workshops at national conferences, if you teaching in
such a school long enough you are bound to get some relevant experience sooner
or later, if only by having your classes observed by trainees. As well as
volunteering for this, you can also make the fact that you are ready and
willing to step up to giving a few input sessions etc. clear by: giving the
trainees informal advice when they are planning their lessons in the teacher's
room, pretending to be a student for trainees to practice their lessons or
needs analysis on, or volunteering to talk to the trainees about getting a job
and working in the places you know about. Most of the tips in "Be ready" below
are also relevant to this.
The business arguments for setting up a
course like the CELTA are pretty compelling for schools. The trainees pay up
front for a 4 week intensive course, and the demand is often greatest during
periods that are slack for normal teaching like August. If you can give this
little sales pitch to your school, or give the agent for a teaching
qualification or teaching qualification franchise your boss's number and let
them do the hard sell, you might find yourself with a teacher training job. This
method (more or less) worked for me- twice! In order to be the one who is top
of the candidate list for teacher training jobs when that opportunity comes,
set up (or suggest your boss sets up) internal workshops in your school as soon
as you can, contribute a lot during other teachers' workshops, give workshops
yourself, or suggest good workshop topics. See "Be ready" below for more tips
on this.
Strangely, one of the best ways of getting the
right experience to be a teacher trainer instead of an EFL manager is to start
by taking a job as an EFL manager. A DoS job is often easier to find than a
teacher trainer one, due to the fact every school needs one, and many of the
things you will do in your role could be relevant to teacher training. To make
sure that you get enough out of your management job to be able to get out of management,
you will need a role where you can concentrate on the relevant things. The
first point to keep in mind is to look for a position where there is someone
above you who takes on most of the more commercial tasks such as marketing,
e.g. a managing director, school manager or school principal. This should free
you up to do the things you need on your CV: observations, advice for teachers,
choosing and organising teaching materials, setting up and giving workshops,
level checking (vital for making sure that trainee teachers don't have to deal
with mixed level classes), and evaluation of and feedback to teachers.
Most people who are searching for a teacher
training job are looking for a step up in their career, and are therefore at
the same time looking to move to well known schools full of DELTA and MA
qualified teachers where they are treated like a professional. If teacher
training is your main aim, this could actually be a mistake. In fact, if you
want to be at the front of the queue for any teacher training opportunities or relevant
experience that comes up, you need to make sure that in your school you are by
far the best qualified person for the job- which can mean choosing a school
where the other teachers are less so. For example, many Assistant Language
Teachers (ALTs) in Japan
get to do some teacher training just due to being the only native speaker in their
school, and I know of a fair few people who have been able to use this
experience to get into teacher training full time. Due to the low pay and
sometimes difficult working or living conditions, the same thing can be true
with volunteer jobs like VSO.
Here is where luck really comes in, but you
can also give your luck a little help. Almost every teacher training course I
know of needs to temporarily fill a teacher trainer post at least once every
two years. This is especially true for schools in London and Europe
in August, but is also true for other schools and other times due to maternity
leave etc. Even if you are not in that school ready and waiting to step up to
teacher training as suggested above, it is sometimes possible to get into those
positions due to the teachers who already work there leaving in August too or
not being sufficiently qualified for the job. The secret to taking advantage of
this little crack of opportunity is to throw your net as wide as possible. For example,
send your CV to every school with a teacher training course in Europe, letting them know that you are also interested in
temporary positions, or even jobs that combine a few hours of teacher training
with a mainly teaching role. I know people who have used this method to get
themselves into temporary positions that in the end they never had to leave, or
to get their first bit of teacher training experience and the connections to
get other full time jobs after.
Finally, if you manage to find one of the opportunities above, you need to be the most obvious candidate to take it. As well as a fabulous array of teaching qualifications (e.g. the exact same qualification as you are going to be training people for, then a Diploma, then an MA with a teacher training component), try to get as much experience of observations, giving and attending workshops, and writing for beginner teachers as you can.
