After getting my i-i TEFL Diploma and teaching in France I have returned to UK and applied to lots of language schools in Sussex. They are all keen to meet me and the interviews always go well but the end result is nearly always the same and can be summarised by the following received this morning (see bold type):
Dear Malcolm
Thank you for sending me your CV.
As a British Council accredited school, we have to follow their guidelines regarding TEFL certificates, which state that for a certificate to be accepted by the British Council, it must meet three criteria. The course needs to be externally validated by a reputable examination body (usually a university or recognised examination board). It must contain at least six hours of supervised teaching practice (i.e. teaching practice where a qualified assessor observes the trainee teacher teaching real students and gives feedback on his or her performance). And it must contain at least 100 hours of ELT/TESOL input.
Unfortunately as far as I can tell from the information on the back of your certificate and from the i-to-i website, your TEFL certificate does not meet these criteria as there was no observed teaching practice and the course is not externally validated. If I have got this wrong, please do let me know – as if it weren’t for these omissions we would be very interested in interviewing you for a summer teaching position.
Kind regards
Alexa Wilkinson
Assistant Director of Studies
Did I waste 3 months and a lot of money?
Loading recent content...
What do you think?
Add Your Comment!
Log in to leave a comment or Create an account
Thanks Alix
I would advise doing job specific research before undertaking another course. I believe the Britsh Council wants you to have a course evaluated by a recognised exam board such as Cambridge. The British Council are very particular so you should check it out first.
In fairness to i-i I think I should make it clear that I was working abroad when I took the course. At the time I had not expected to work in UK and when I did return here I just assumed the Diploma would be valid.
The 140 hour course was excellent as was the extra 20hr weekend course in the UK itself. Now that i-i offer a CELTA equivalent the problem is solved!
Thankyou to those who have left comments.
Wow! Thats some critics, i think this is a pointer for me as am really thinking of doing an online 120hrs. Thanks, op u get a right answer soon, so u dnt feel u hv wasted time, money nd effort.
Thanks Laura, I've emailed you direct.
Hi there,
Thanks for your post. I'm sorry to hear that you're disappointed in not being able to find work in the UK with your TEFL certificate. i-to-i's short TEFL qualifications are accredited courses to teach English abroad and not to teach English in the UK. We do, however run the EDI CertTEFL, which is a new course we run qualifies you to teach English in the UK. The course is a Level 5 CELTA-equivalent qualification, which is accepted by the British Council as a sufficient standard to teach English in the UK. The EDI CertTEFL course includes observed teaching practice and is externally validated, like the response from the email above says. You can get more information about the course here - http://www.onlinetefl.com/tefl-courses/edi-certtefl.html
Can I ask which course you took with us? As unfortunately unless it was the EDI CertTEFL the course would not qualify you to teach in the UK. If at any point you felt like you were led to believe that the short TEFL courses would qualify you to teach in the UK, it would be good to get your feedback. You can drop me an email at laura.mcdonald@i-to-i.com if you’d like to discuss anything.
Thank you
Laura
I want to go abroad and teach for a while and then come back to the UK to teach. Experience is what is needed. I knew this before I started the course!
Kind of, if you want to teach in an English speaking country. This isn't what the i-to-i certificate is for. You can upgrade to their new classroom course, however, and this will be sufficient to teach in a language school in the UK. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you really should have done your research.
» Comments RSS