TEFL Certificates
A TEFL Certificate is a course that teaches you how to teach English, being a native English speaker does not mean that you can teach English. However, there are schools that will hire you without this certificate. When you first start out teaching English, you must make a decision whether you want to get a TEFL certificate or not. A TEFL certificate may not be a requirement for all jobs, but it should certainly prepare you for the classroom.
There certainly are some bad TEFL certificates out there and often the ones that do the most advertising are not the best. These are the minimum requirements for a good TEFL certificate:
- At least 100 hours in length
- A supervised teaching practicum of at least 6 hours
- Experienced and qualified teacher trainers
As you can see, those weekend or 1 week programs do not cut it. A month should be the minimum time frame for a course. TEFL courses conducted online or by distant education should also be avoided unless they provide some way for you to do an evaluated teaching practicum. The low cost advertisements for a 3 day seminar that guarantees you a job should be avoided. You do get what you pay for.
What is the most recognized TEFL certificate?
There is one certificate that stands out above the rest: the Cambridge CELTA. That is not to say that it is the best, but it is the most recognized brand name worldwide. The CELTA is successful because it is standardized and is externally moderated. This means that anywhere you take the course, it should be the same and an outside assessor will come and visit every ongoing course to ensure that the course is up to standard.
