By looking at the advantages and
disadvantages of seeing up a new TEFL certificate course, I hope to be able to
give some help to people who are thinking about doing so, give some pointers to
people who have already done so but might not have noticed some of the tensions
and problems that have been produced, and to give a sense of perspective to people
who have just seen the price of a 4 week TEFL course and are picturing the
teacher trainers and school owners living the life of Reilly.
Financial
Advantages
The school gets a nice big influx of cash
before the course has started, and often course deposits many months before
that- unlike language students, who will usually pay small amounts month by month
on the very day of the class. Many schools find this means they can make
capital improvements that they have never managed to before, like equipping the
whole school with OHPs or setting up a Self Access Centre with computers for
the students. The amount coming in per classroom hour is also usually higher
than having a classroom of students studying English. It is also possible to
get a bit more income from charging a small admin fee to the students who are
going to be taught by the trainees, and from any students who sign on for
normal classes in the school after or instead of the freebie courses. You can
also make money from selling the trainees stamps, phone cards, weekend excursions
etc, but please note that many of them are young people who have already paid
more for the course than they have ever paid for anything in their lives, and
so are likely to be very sensitive to feelings of being milked for more money.
Disadvantages
Trainee numbers can vary widely, and last
minute cancellations of bookings or even whole courses can happen, sometimes
leaving you with a teacher trainer being paid more than a teacher to teach
normal classes or even do nothing, and lots of empty classroom space. I don't
know if it is just greed, but most school owners also find the amount of money
they have to pay the certifying body so onerous that they think about setting
up completely on their own- something they rarely suspected before they set up
the course. This is particularly true with organisations that certify your course
and find the trainees for you through centralised advertising and a centralised
website.
Other possible costs include: deposits and
rents for accommodation (possibly even when not being used); extra wages for (more
qualified and experienced) teacher trainers; extra classroom space; extra
teachers' room space; extra books and CDs; extra equipment and furniture; extra
admin staff or admin time; advertising for trainees and for students for the
trainees to practice on; extra photocopying; and higher utilities bills.
In summary, the fact that many teacher
training centres think about changing or stopping their courses but very few do
probably means that the advantages almost always outweigh the disadvantages,
but by much less than the initial figures would suggest.
Space
Advantages
If you have extra classroom space you are
not using, you can fill it up with the input sessions, trainees' practice
classes, space from trainees to prepare in, and feedback sessions after
observed lessons. Unlike normal classes, as the trainees are there all day it
is often possible to schedule things for when more rooms are available- if you
can organise yourself well. You could also try only scheduling courses for exactly
the times of year when the school is least busy.
Disadvantages
Not only do you need to find space for all
the things mentioned above, in most schools an already crowded teachers' room
is likely to get even more crowded with people coming in and out to get things,
extra copies of books on already full shelves etc. Lack of space for trainees
to prepare their lessons can be a particular problem, as teachers in the school
are not going to want to share the teachers' room all the time and trainees can
be very sensitive to being stuck somewhere where there are distractions.
Time
Advantages
With the extra money coming in, you could
spend some of it on extra staff to take the burden off people already there.
For example, during quiet periods teacher trainers could do many of the roles
of a Director of Studies, such as giving workshops and observing teachers. If
you have full time teachers, you can also fill up spaces in their teaching
schedule with time spent helping on the teacher training course.
Disadvantages
As the money comes in irregular lumps but
staff costs go on for ever, many schools use the money on hardware rather than
extra heads- in which case the extra work is going to fall on people who are already
there, especially the admin staff. Extra work could come from: more complex
scheduling of rooms; trainees who are new to the country and therefore need
help with the language etc; extra payslips etc from the extra staff; ordering
textbooks for the trainees and students they are practising on; arranging
accommodation for the trainees; picking people up at the airport; social
occasions such as welcome parties; visas for trainees; finding and registering
the students that the trainees will practise teaching on; paperwork and
inspections from the certifying body; and advertising the course.
Staff
Advantages
Being able to offer teachers a chance to
get involved in teacher training is a great way of helping you recruit keen,
experienced and well-qualified staff. People who are interested in or have
experience of teacher training should also be great teachers, and could also be
suitable for helping with teacher development inside the school and perhaps
taking a Director of Studies position if it becomes available. Mentioning
"staff needed" in your advertisement for the TEFL course can be a good way of
showing potential recruits that your school has teacher training whilst not
needing to offer them a specific teacher trainer job, as well as saving money
on advertising.
Another major way that having a teacher
training course can help you recruit good staff is simply recruiting the best
trainees of your own course, either straightaway or after they have got some
experience elsewhere. After all, when else will you have a chance to observe 8
hours of teaching practice before you recruit someone?
Disadvantages
If you do manage to recruit a very
qualified and experienced teacher trainer for your course, you might find that
they are unwilling to get involved in things that are "beneath them", e.g.
teaching normal classes if one month's teacher training course is cancelled. As
you can hardly afford to have a member of staff doing nothing, you will need to
draw up a contract that allows for plenty of flexibility in their job without
putting them off taking the job. As you will be competing for such staff with
some very highly paid and prestigious jobs, you might also find such staff more
demanding than your normal teachers.
Morale
Advantages
If you can get all of your teachers
involved in some way with the teacher training, it can give your school a real
feeling of a professional place to work where teachers can get some useful
experience to put on their CVs- and even teachers who are not directly involved
can find the experience of seeing how much of an "expert" they have become
since they did their training to be a real ego boost. If some of your teachers
manage to move into full time teacher trainer positions, it can also give the
feeling of clear career progression that is often missing from the TEFL
profession. Seeing new faces, the buzz from having full classrooms and more people
around, taking part in social events like welcome parties and the good vibes of
the students that are getting free English lessons and seeing their trainee
teachers improve week by week can also improve the atmosphere of the school.
Disadvantages
Most of the disadvantages occur if teacher
training seems to be in some way in opposition to the teaching in the school,
rather than part of it. This can occur if the two parts of the school are
competing for resources, classroom space and teachers' room space. It can also
happen if all the teacher training staff have come from outside, especially if
that staff then monopolise the internal teacher development workshops etc. or
the top management jobs. This can also happen if one side feels they are doing
more work for less pay, e.g. if the teacher trainers seem to be doing nothing
between courses or if the teachers get paid overtime and the teacher trainers
don't.
Other possible morale problems include:
stressed or demanding trainees giving a bad atmosphere to the place, stressed teacher
trainers who didn't realise how much work dealing with stressed trainees was,
and complaints about noise. You will also need to be very careful to keep your
teachers happy so they don't spread any bad vibes to the trainees about your
school or the TEFL business in general.
Summary
Similar to what I said about finances, most
schools find that setting up a teacher training course was a good thing, but
not half as much as they thought it would be- which perhaps explains some of the
less than calm reactions from teacher trainers and course providers to
accusations that they are just in it for the big bucks and an easy life!
