Career in CELTA/TEFL: is it possible?

Skippy65

Hey,
I have applied to do the PGDE this Sept. but I would much prefer a career in TEFL/CELTA as opposed to general teaching. Is it possible to have a long term, well paid career in CELTA/TEFL or is it more suited to those who wish to get away for a year etc? By long term and well paid I mean in comparison with general teaching.


If it is possible does anybody know the best way to go about it? Preferably teaching adults English and what sort of money can one expect to earn? Also, with many companies moving to Eastern countries will the demand for this type of work increase?

Thanks in advance.

madziuda

Is it possible to have a long-term career in TEFL?

Yes

Is it possible to have a long-term career in TEFL in Ireland?

Possible? Yes. Easy? God, no.
The thing about Ireland is that it's *shock, horror* an English speaking country. As such, a majority of people who live here actually do speak English (or something that, at the very least, resembles it a great deal).Those who don't, usually take EFL courses during summer holidays. June, July and August are, therefore, a high season for language schools with plenty of job opportunities for EFL teachers. Outside of this time frame, however, most language schools are struggling to survive. There would of course be a demand for some language classes during the academic year - mostly from Erasmus students and the like - but this could be dealt with by 1-2 teachers per school. So, unless you have vast experience or are just really damn good, chances are you may have some trouble finding hours.....

Before the crisis immigrants would come in droves to Ireland - and while people would complain about them stealing Irish jobs/women/whatever they actually created plenty of work places for EFL teachers as VECs and organisations such as, for example, West Limerick Resources would organise language classses for them.... Plus, of course, there was the position of a language support teacher in public schools for those with TEFL certificates.

Now, foreigners are actually leaving Ireland, and many of those who have decided to stay don't need English lessons.

As for whether you can have a well-paid career in TEFL -
usually the wages are between 15 and 25 Euro per hour depending on school, your experience etc which while much lower than what you'd get in a public school is actually pretty good money. What you have to take into consideration, however, is that you'd usually have no more than 20 hours a week.

Now, if you consider emigrating - well then, it changes a lot.

In most non-English-speaking European countries the high season for EFL classes is during the academic year. This means 9 instead of 3 months of stable work. Wages differ from country to country, but generally it's one of better paid professions. To give you an example from Poland where I work at the moment - a native speaker with CELTA earns about 60 zl per hour - this is more or less an equivalent of 15 euro and, provided he/she is good at the job, will be guaranteed 30-40 hours a week. This gives you between 450 and 600 euro a week in a country where the cost of living is significantly lower than in Ireland.

So, to sum up, yes, a long-term, well-paid career in TEFL is possible but more likely in countries other than Ireland.

Skippy65

Thanks, for all the info. Sorry I should have made it clearer that I would strongly consider emmigrating. My question about companies moving East was intended to discover whether well paid opportunities would be created in areas such as Poland as opposed to a decrease in jobs in here. Is a 120 hour ACELS course the minimum requirement for a job in Europe or do some places accept lesser qualifications?

madziuda

If you're serious about emigrating and want to pursue a TEFL career in Europe, forget ACELS - no one will have the slightest idea what that is - and do CELTA or Trinity. They're more expensive (about 1500 euro) but at least you know you're getting a world-wide recognized qualifications

Oh, and anything shorter than 120 hours is useless.