Teaching English abroad for the summer?

DeadMoney

Hi, I am a final year student and will be looking for some sort of employment as soon as I finish in June as I need to start earning. My short term goal is to work for a few months and save enough money within this time to afford going to the US on a year graduate visa program. The estimated costs of this entire program (incl flights & start up money) is around €3,000. So basically I am looking to save €3,000 by around early next October when the visa would start.

Anyway I have recently been thinking about what job opportunities may be available to me and my original plan was to just stay in Dublin and try find any sort of job in retail/hospitality as this is where most of my experience lies. I have also thought about applying for some summer internships through my college as I will be a fresh graduate and these jobs would most likely offer more money than minimum wage I would get in retail. Anyway I am not getting my hopes up about getting any internships and at this stage would feel lucky to get any sort of full time work in general.

Anyway long story short, I am also thinking about the prospect of teaching English abroad somewhere in Europe. I have no qualification but I have recently learned that I can do a CELT course through my college in the new year. I also have a few months to gain a TEFL qualification if needed. Anyway I am just wondering if anybody can help me as I have no idea where to start in looking for jobs teaching English. I guess my main concern is whether looking for a job teaching English would be more appropriate than just looking for any random job at home since my goal is to only do it for a few months and to save the money I need to go to the states. So would it be worth my while? Obviously I would love to do something abroad but since my goal is to save as fast as I can, would staying at home and looking for work be more advisable?

I appreciate and advice you may have.

Thanks!!

eager tortoise

DeadMoney wrote: »

Hi, I am a final year student and will be looking for some sort of employment as soon as I finish in June as I need to start earning. My short term goal is to work for a few months and save enough money within this time to afford going to the US on a year graduate visa program. The estimated costs of this entire program (incl flights & start up money) is around €3,000. So basically I am looking to save €3,000 by around early next October when the visa would start.

Anyway I have recently been thinking about what job opportunities may be available to me and my original plan was to just stay in Dublin and try find any sort of job in retail/hospitality as this is where most of my experience lies. I have also thought about applying for some summer internships through my college as I will be a fresh graduate and these jobs would most likely offer more money than minimum wage I would get in retail. Anyway I am not getting my hopes up about getting any internships and at this stage would feel lucky to get any sort of full time work in general.

Anyway long story short, I am also thinking about the prospect of teaching English abroad somewhere in Europe. I have no qualification but I have recently learned that I can do a CELT course through my college in the new year. I also have a few months to gain a TEFL qualification if needed. Anyway I am just wondering if anybody can help me as I have no idea where to start in looking for jobs teaching English. I guess my main concern is whether looking for a job teaching English would be more appropriate than just looking for any random job at home since my goal is to only do it for a few months and to save the money I need to go to the states. So would it be worth my while? Obviously I would love to do something abroad but since my goal is to save as fast as I can, would staying at home and looking for work be more advisable?

I appreciate and advice you may have.

Thanks!!

Hi Dead Money,
I think TEFL is a good route, in that it will take you relatively little time to earn your qualification (make sure your course is at least 120 hrs long though and properly accredited; the weekend courses and other short courses will not enable you to teach in Ireland/Europe - anyway, I'm sure if your course is being done at a university it's up to scratch, but doesn't hurt to be aware ). Once you have it under your belt you will always have it and who knows when it will prove useful.

I would advise teaching in Ireland during the summer months, if you can find something, as opposed to travelling abroad to teach. If you're looking to save money the language schools here pay better than those in Europe, at least in my experience. It sounds like you would be well advised to consider applying to work on one of the summer courses run by many different language schools here. The summer is often the busiest period for these schools as they run camps for students (usually teenage) from other European countries.
Classes usually take up only part of the day - perhaps the morning - but if you found employment on such a course you might get extra hours bringing the students on outings etc. Schools can recruit staff for these courses early in the year so I would look up a few language schools and approach them. They may want to see the piece of paper first but it might not hurt to try!

Of course like everything, there will be increased competition for these jobs this year. But if you feel it's a good option for you it might be a route worth considering

DeadMoney

Hey thanks for the very helpful reply. Unfortunately I have just found out that the CELT course through my college costs €1500 in total. I have nowhere near this kind of money so I think that since my goal is to save up and go abroad, I should leave teaching English for now. I'm sure the qualification is well worth it in the long run of course but definitely not suitible for me at this time. Thanks again for advice.

hsharz

without a tefl/celt qualification you have little chance of working in ireland. UK maybe because it gets really busy there in the summer months. so if they are desperate enough they would take you.

I worked for this company 2 summers: http://www.internationalprojects.com/en/jobs/index.html

Different jobs available, teaching English without a qualification is possible as far as I know but only in non-native speaker countries (Germany/Croatia/Spain/etc). Payment isn't amazing but you usually have free board and accomodation.

roe_cat

TEFL is really not something you get into for the money. Most people use it to help fund their travel - not to save. sure there are some well-paid jobs around - but not for short-term work.
If you only want to teach during the summer then it will be pretty hard to get work abroad - maybe you'll be lucky and find a summer course but most regular students will be on a break from classes, and there will be lots of extra people looking for work.
In Ireland you will need CELT or CELTA. If you only plan to teach for one summer it's really not going to be worth it financially.
On the otherhand - if you're actually interested in teaching, it's a great way of travelling -and you will learn a lot and improve your chances by doing the CELT first