Careers advice for TEFL
Particularly but by no means exclusively for those beginning a career in TEFL (TESOL), perhaps on our CELTA course, we include ELT careers advice as an integral part of our courses.
The International House World Organisation is the most internationally-recognised group of language schools in the world, with over 130 schools in 35 countries, so the opportunities for work worldwide are unparalleled by any other teaching organisation - and having taken a course at an IH centre will undoubtedly open many doors. The original TEFL course, of which hundreds of imitations now exist, was created by International House.
Our years of experience and collective expertise is far in advance of any other teaching and training organisation in the world.
International House Barcelona teacher training department offers its teacher trainees careers advice in the following ways:
Pre-course
Our careers advice service begins as soon you enrol for a course:
- For those taking our CELTA course, we have a dedicated website, celta-course.com, with information, advice and resources
- If you are taking a CELTA course with us, you can also immediately join our online support group (currently over 1,000 members, all course trainees or ex-trainees)
- FAQs on all areas of the course and ELT (English language teaching
During the course
In addition to the above, which continue to be available, job counselling during your course includes:
- Help with effective CVs (resumes)
- Job-search tips
- What you can expect from a language school
- What language schools expect of you
- Local job adverts
- Internet sites for jobs vacancies
- Lists of language schools
- Interview preparation and techniques
- Advice on teaching young learners
- Advice on teaching business students
- Advice on visas, work permits and residence permits
- Advice on contracts
- Internet access for job search and online applications
- Information about the IH Careers Path and CPD (Continuous Professional Development)
Post-course
The help we can provide with a career in TEFL does not end when your course finishes. After your course ends, we provide:
- For those who have taken a CELTA course, jobs vacancies continue to be emailed to you via our post-course support group
- The support group also provides help and advice on a wide range of subjects relating to teaching English around the world
- Personalised references
- Global job placement assistance via IH Recruitment Access to teaching jobs with the IH World Organisation via International House Recruitment Services
- Regular information about job vacancies via IH Recruitment Local interviews for worldwide jobs
- Lesson planning assistance
- Demo lesson assistance
- Professional development – face-to-face and online courses for teachers
Other benefits
The Welcome Pack on the CELTA course includes the following:
- File for your coursework & a pen
- Map of the city and the Metro
- List of Barcelona information websites
- List of apartment-rental websites
- Information about mobile/cell phones
- Where to hire a laptop
- Cheap car-rental details
At the end of the first week of your CELTA course, we have welcome drinks on the terrace with the students you are doing your teaching practice with, and farewell drinks there too at the end of the course.
Teacher trainees are also welcome to attend any IH workshops or seminars which may be running during their course.
Either before or after their course, many of our trainees stay on to take a Spanish course with us. For those who take a TEFL course with us, there are special discounts on these.
See also
In two phases, August-September 2004 and July 2005, we carried out a large-scale survey of former CELTA course trainees at IH Barcelona, tracking what their post-course experiences in English language teaching have been.
