I'm really struggling to make and have something solid in this country; I've been really depressed lately despite the weather finally becoming nice ... My first time on this board and this site! I thought I should just join and see what responses I would get! Thank you!
I'm an American here in Switzerland(long story), but short and main story is I cannot find a job. I have thought about becoming an English teacher and I guess the first step is to obtain some sort of certification . I have a sort of interview tomorrow with Flying Teaching about taking a class and hopefully getting a CELTA certificate eventually. Anybody have experience with this?Or know someone who has experience? And know if it is worth it.....
Hi!
I've been thinking about doing the CELTA certification too. But so far all I can tell you is that it's way cheaper to do it in any other european country than here (4000 francs here vs 1600 euros everywhere). So if you can take a month off, I would do that and come back with the degree.
Let me know how it works for you!
Y.
I did the course two years ago in Strasbourg for about 1400 Euros. It was a great location and accomodation options were good. My wife just did the course in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, same price and had a months stay in great apt for 400 Euros. I can supply info on both these options.....however! you need to be in a strong frame of mind to do this course. It is very demanding, ideally you should have done some form of teaching or training OR you must really know the grammar of the English language.
On my course a very nice American lady just felt under too much pressure.
I would say, Yes, it is well worth doing and can set you up for a great second career but you must be ready for it. Happy to discuss offline...Good luck!
I know from others that the CELTA is very demanding, and I know that there is a lot of competition of English teachers around and that many times these schools aren't the greatest employers. I know nothing about Flying teachers, just to make it clear. I am only commenting on the general environment.
If you are doing it because you would really enjoy teaching English, it would be worth it simply because you can do something you enjoy.
If you would prefer to do something else, it might be better to start a course of study or something leading you down a road you would really enjoy and thus enjoy the work of the certification and what it brings you.
Beware of doing a CELTA course and expecting to find a job afterwards. I did the CELTA in Switzerland I found the course was excellent but difficult and very time consuming, I put a lot of effort into it and there seem to be no jobs out there so I am feeling like it was a waste of time and money. Also most of the other people on the course were unable to find EFL jobs in Switzerland after doing the course. One lady who was good managed to get a job in the school where we did the course.
I was offered a job at a summer school in the UK fairly quickly would rather get started here in Switzerland.
It would have been cheaper and quicker to have done this in the UK.
I suppose now you must now concentrate on getting as much teaching experience as possible anywhere you can.
The CELTA is the first step and I looked into this earlier this year in Manchester- congratulations! Looks hard work.
Maybe with a good reference from a known school, you can achieve your Swiss dream later?
If anyone is thinking of doing CELTA full time, the cheapest place in the world would have to be Budapest. I had done the calculations some time ago but from what I remember, the course fee, accommodation for 4 weeks, Easyjet flights and living expenses all put together still came to much less than what one would pay in Switzerland.
After Budapest, the next cheaper ones were Prague, Wroclaw and Warsaw.
[QUOTE=marlenehotz;2961375]Beware of doing a CELTA course and expecting to find a job in Switzerland afterwards. I did the CELTA in Baden, I found the course was excellent but very demanding as I have not done anything "academic" for a few years, it is also very time consuming, I put a lot of effort into it but there seem to be no jobs here so I am feeling like it was a waste of time and money. Out of the 6 others on the course only 2 were unable to find EFL jobs in Switzerland after doing the course. One lady who was I was told was really good managed to get a job in the school where we did the course, the other lady was doing something independently.
However, I was offered a job at a summer school in the UK but was unable to accept it due to personal circumstances. All a bit frustrating!