Is our Winchester TEFL course for you?
If you are:
- Looking for a professional change
- Interested in working abroad
- A gap year student or recent graduate
- Keen to return to a flexible work-place after taking a career break
- Already teaching another subject
- Recently retired
Then our Winchester TEFL course will provide you with the qualification you need to succeed.
Many of our students will be in their twenties, and recent graduates. Some will be older and looking for a career change, perhaps jaded by their current job or made redundant. We also have applicants who have retired and would like to supplement their income with interesting, part-time work, or take the chance to live and work in a sunny climate.
Our basic requirements to do the course are that you have an excellent level of written and spoken English. You will need to speak clearly and correctly, but you do not necessarily need grammatical awareness - we will teach you this.
Our fully accredited Winchester TEFL course qualifies you to teach in the UK and worldwide
A career in TEFL is very flexible and the industry is growing, giving you a great choice of professional opportunities. If you decide to stay and teach in England, you will probably work for a language school, local further education college or run private classes. Online teaching is increasingly an option, of course - you can sign up for the various platforms that invite teachers to register and/or build up your own client list. Your students will range in age and objectives, from groups of teenagers to business people in the UK for a short time doing a full-immersion course for work reasons. You might be working with coursebooks, the Financial Times, cartoon clips or a bat and ball. The work on offer runs all year, but is particularly busy in the Summer and you will be able to choose whether you work full or part-time. Many schools offer summer residential camps and ask teachers to live in.
If you decide to go abroad, the huge demand for English means that the world is your oyster. Having a Cert TESOL will qualify you for work in serious language schools with proper working conditions. There is demand for English teachers throughout Europe, including Eastern Europe and former communist countries like Russia. The Far East also now has a great demand for teachers and many teachers do a stint in countries like South Korea or China. These jobs almost always come with accommodation, a fair salary (in relation to local costs) and academic support.
The best way to find a job is almost certainly by looking online. There are dedicated TEFL websites which advertise jobs in the UK and abroad, such as http://www.tefl.com - why not take a look and see what is available? We are also happy to give you advice and support in your job hunting post course-completion.
Wherever you go and whichever area of TEFL you choose, you will certainly find that teaching English creates a uniquely strong relationship with students and you will make life-long friends and learn about their culture.