Questions regarding TEFL Online

[Randis]

Hello,

I just had a couple questions regarding TEFL vs CELTA vs TESOL and was hoping I could find some help on here. I am moving to Jakarta in a couple months and am wanting to teach english once I move there. I would like to get the TEFL online certificate, but am wondering if employers will accept this. I am a native english speaker with a business degree from an accredited university in Canada. I don't have the time to do the in-class course for CELTA or TEFL, but am able to do TEFL online and do some volunteer teaching in the city that I live. Does anybody know if this will be adequate to secure a job once I arrive in Jakarta?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Tdol]

It may well be enough to find some work, and a lot depends on which course you're doing with which provider- TEFL and TESOL are not recognised qualifications in the way CELTA is, so check the provider carefully. Some are doing a decent job, others are complete cowboys, though the lack of teaching practice means that they will never be seen as fully equal IMO.

There are some places that don't recognise online training at all, and many are clearly looking for standard qualifications when advertising, so while it should open some doors, many will stay shut- a lot depends on their needs at the time and being in the right place and time enormously- if a school who usually wouldn't accept online certification have just been thrown over by a teacher and have classes starting tomorrow...

 

[ICAL_Pete]

In our experience, our online certificates are accepted for entry level jobs pretty well. The CELTA is a high level TEFL Certificate and is often seen as something to be taken after a couple of years experience.

 

[Alex Case]

ICAL Pete is totally wrong. CELTA is a specific entry-level qualification that the vast majority of people with no teaching experience pass and get a lot from. Teaching qualifications with no observed teaching practice are almost worthless for teachers with no experience. People with a couple of years' post CELTA experience can take the Cambridge Delta and so get much better jobs, including management, teacher training and some university jobs. There is no benefit to delaying the CELTA

 

[ICAL_Pete]

We've had this conversation before, Alex, so I don't want to go over old ground again, but just to reiterate that many teacher-trainees feel that taking a CELTA after having taught for a couple of years leads to a better course overall. You disagree so it's going to be a matter of opinion in the end.

 

[Alex Case]

And a conversation we will have again and again, until you give up that ridiculous story. People can make up their own minds, but I think the most important point here is that you have a financial incentive to convince people that it is better to take your qualification rather than CELTA, whereas I have never had any financial impetus to make my case that there is no advantage to taking a qualification with no observed teaching practice and hence delaying the CELTA or one of the few truly equivalent 120 hour courses. I don't get paid to post on forums, so chasing you round the Net repeating the same obvious point again and again really is getting annoying.

The even more irritating point is that your argument is yet another one lowering the already extremely low standards of our profession. How many other true professions have a standard entry level qualification of 120 hours that most people never update or extend? And should I remind people that we are talking about teachers here, not hairdressers? And you are trying to reduce that further. There is no excuse for walking into a classroom and charging a student without ever having had observed teaching practice, and there is even less excuse for encouraging that.

 

[ICAL_Pete]

Like I said. A matter of opinion where the OP will make up their own mind. There are many people on both sides of this argument.

 

[Tdol]

We're generating more heat than light here. I will leave the thread open in case the OP wishes to post, but can we leave the debate here. Thanks

 

[5jj]

We've had this conversation before, Alex, so I don't want to go over old ground again, but just to reiterate that many teacher-trainees feel that taking a CELTA after having taught for a couple of years leads to a better course overall. You disagree so it's going to be a matter of opinion in the end.

I have come to this thread far too late to be of any use now. I just thought that if the debate crops up again, it might be useful to know, ICAL_Pete that Cambridge state clearly on their website at Cambridge ESOL: Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) : CELTA is an initial qualification for people with little or no previous teaching experience...

Your claim that "The CELTA is a high level TEFL Certificate" is not backed by the people who run CELTA.

Incidentally, when I was last involved with Cambridge and Trinity, both stated in their syllabi that recognition by trainees that the certificate level was only an initial qualification was a course requirement.