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Mrs A is considering a TEFL course. She is an experienced primary teacher with many, many years of teaching experience that includes working with EAL pupils, mostly from the Philippines and Eastern Europe.
We're looking for some recommendations of 'good' courses that will allow a decent qualification upon successful completion. Any ideas folks?
What's the end goal? It's a long time since I taught (TEFL or state school) but I recall that there were limited career opportunities in TEFL teaching in the UK, and teaching outside the UK, like I did for a few years, was never really a long term proposition.
As an aside, I had a PGCE and EAL experience before I taught in schools outside the UK. Not having a specific TEFL qualification didn't seem to make much difference. This was 15+ years ago, though.
JP
She's looking to add another string to her bow as she looks towards retirement and is thinking about part-time work tutoring once she retires.
Talk to your local college, or some private language schools also train teachers. CELTA (Cambridge) or CertTESOL (Trinity) are what you want to be looking for accreditation-wise.
Competition for teaching work is stiff and a Diploma after getting some experience is advisable, but if it's tutoring work then depending on where you are there will be a lot of demand from e.g. uni students.
Volunteering would be another way to gain useful experience, especially if you're near a dispersal centre for refugees/asylum seekers.
I did a stint teaching English in South Korea a decade ago and the Cambridge CELTA was highly respected. Having a PGCE in any subject was also seen as a bonus.