TEFL Certification

Here's a TEFL certification question we get asked fairly regularly:

"Will an online TEFL course enable me
to compete successfully against more seasoned teachers?"

The long and short of it is probably not. But it will give you an advantage when it comes to competing with other entry level applicants. And here is something more to consider...
It doesn't matter so much what is said in various ESL forums about whether it's worth it to get TEFL certification or not.

What matters is what the reality on the street is and here is some advice in examining the question from the market perspective.

Many employers see an applicant with TEFL certificates as being more serious about teaching overseas. Just spend a few minutes surfing the web on teaching in Japan and you'll see plenty of jobs that require or prefer certification in their applicants.

Quite a few are now mandating it as the job market has tightened in recent years and TEFL certification is becoming more and more expected or to put it another way, hiring managers will move candidates's resumes with some level of certification to the top of the stack.

TEFL Certification & 1 on 1 TEFL Tutoring

The fact of the matter is there is a lot of turnover in this industry because there are a lot of untrained teachers in the field that "muck stuff up". Employers know this and they seek to cut their losses in this area. It's a business thing. That's why they try to cut their losses on potential candidates that aren't serious enough about teaching in Japan to get TEFL certification. 

So there it is. The job market not only supports the idea of there being value in getting certified it is also what entry level applicants need to be concerned with. There isn't much value with being concerned about some rant from a YouTuber about whether or not a TEFL certification will clinch the job or not - unless that person is actually an employer or a recruiter.

Keep in mind that not all employers value TEFL certification in the same way. Some see it as a definite asset while others don't. And some schools don't fully understand the vast differences that exist between Groupon $29 TEFL courses and some certification courses like MyTEFL that offers personalized feedback to enrollees to improve their teaching and a more comprehensive approach to teaching methodology etc.

Now, as an entry level ESL teacher looking into getting their first job teaching in Japan, you shouldn't be concerned with those who don't value certification, instead you should be concerned with marketing yourself effectively by getting certified and then target those employers who value and employ certified applicants.

 
And when you consider that many of these on-line education providers also provide job placement as an extra perk for course buyers it makes the decision even clearer.

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