Author Topic: How does my expeience/qualifications fare for landing a good job?  (Read 123 times)

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Offline broonie30

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Hi, any input and comments are greatly appreciated here.

I'm 30 years old, a UK citizen and I have a basic 120 TEFL certification. I also have 4 years teaching experience in South Korea, teaching students from 5 - 14 years old. So do you think this is enough to get some positions or should I be looking at getting more certification such as CELTA?

Thanks in advance

Online ajnabiyya

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Re: How does my expeience/qualifications fare for landing a good job?
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2012, 06:02:04 PM »
Most of the job ads I've seen say they require a TEFL or CELTA, so it sounds like a CELTA isn't an absolute requirement even though it's preferred. They'd probably ask you some questions about your TEFL program to get a sense of whether they'd accept it (what did it cover / how long did it last / was practice teaching involved and with what student population). They probably won't value 4 years with South Korean students as much as they would 4 years with Spanish students because they are very different contexts, but they certainly ought to understand that those 4 years are worth something since to a certain degree teaching is teaching and kids are kids. There is a big market for teaching young learners (i.e. kids), here in Madrid at least, and you ought to be particularly marketable for that because of your experience. Ultimately, in my opinion, the two most important qualities in the EFL market are being a native speaker and having working papers (in that order, with being a trained teacher as the third most important quality) and you have both of those qualities, so I should think you'll be fine. As you've probably heard, the biggest hiring season is September and the second-biggest hiring season is January - come at one of those times and I'm sure you'll get plenty of work. Come at a different time and you'll probably still get work, it'll just take longer. Good luck!