Top Reasons to Get TEFL Certified This Summer
If you’re wondering what kind of stuff you can do to pass the time this summer, you might consider getting TEFL certified. Yes, we know that sounds like a bit of a targeted opening. Still, the truth is that gaining a qualification and going abroad to teach English as a foreign language is an excellent way to spend your summer, not just helping you in the rest of your life but also giving you a chance to discover if teaching is for you.
We work with hundreds of graduates who have gone on to be successful teachers, and they started their careers by picking up a qualification one summer and then using it to go abroad and start teaching. Let’s talk about some of the main reasons you might consider getting qualified during the summer and how it can help you improve your life.
Finding Direction
Unless you have specific plans, the summer holidays are often a big, empty block of time. There are many situations where you have the summer free but don’t have concrete plans. Students come home from college and university with nothing constructive to do, and this means they often wind up working in a pointless job or have finished their education and don’t know what direction to go.
For those reasons, choosing to get a qualification and then use it to go and teach abroad can be an excellent way to find some direction. By studying and gaining new skills, you are escaping the trap of wasting your summer, and it’s a beautiful opportunity to evaluate your priorities and decide what you want to do with the rest of your life. It can be hard sometimes to make a plan, and you often need a little push to figure it all out.
You Have the Time
Studying for one of our qualifications will take at least a few weeks. Even the shortest qualification we offer, the 120-hour course, requires four weeks of intensive study to finish. If you were considering getting a qualification, the work necessary might have given you a reason to hesitate during your other commitments, be it work or study.
Now that you have the time to dedicate towards constant study, this might be your golden opportunity to get a qualification and start building your future. Many people consider having uninterrupted study time a vital part of learning. It’s also better than wasting time lazing around or working a summer job that won’t impact your life.
You Can Work Abroad
This is obviously the biggest reason people choose to get qualified over the summer, as being able to go abroad and work is desirable. Everybody likes going on holiday in the summer, but it’s hard to afford in the current climate. It’s much more economically viable to go on holiday and work while you are abroad because then it becomes less like spending money and more like earning it.
The great thing about working abroad is that you can do that in multiple ways, and it’s a very supportive way of spending the summer. If you simply afford to work abroad and find yourself in a position that pays money, then you can get the costs associated with getting there back in the first place. If you go and work as an unpaid volunteer, there are many charities and schemes that will support you financially during your trip, helping you access opportunities you may not have been able to have otherwise.
Travel Broadens the Mind
If you ask an elderly person what you should be doing with your time, they might tell you it’s important to see new things and broaden your horizons. Travel is one of the best ways to do this because you see things you have never seen before and have new experiences away from what you know and what is comfortable. This is fantastic for developing yourself as a person.
When you travel to teach, you work with students and help to change their lives. This transformative experience will alter the way you look at the world. You will see things in a new light, and as a result of your work, you will have grown and developed.
Investing in Yourself
As you grow and develop in life, you come to learn that there are times when it is smart to invest in yourself as a person. You commit to a good diet or take a course to get a qualification that helps you thrive and grow. Getting TEFL certified is one example of a time when you’ll learn and grow a lot, so it is a good investment to make into yourself to find out what kind of life you want to lead. It’s a big deal and important to get right.
Spending your summer learning how to become a teacher will help you invest in yourself and open up new career prospects. You will learn how to help people grow and develop and broaden your skillset. These are all positives, and they all contribute towards your growth as a person.
The Opportunities
Growing and developing via a TEFL qualification isn’t a one-sided exercise. There are lots of providers and opportunities which are available during the summer as a limited deal. Schools often run special summer courses for learning English and employ new teachers to help students thrive. There are special camps and programs which take volunteers to deliver education, and workplaces often use the summer to run Business English courses because there are more teachers available to work with.
You’ll be surprised at how many opportunities are available only during the summer, which makes it all the more important that you take full advantage of them by getting qualified and applying for the positions on offer. Lots of our graduates take a basic course and then go straight into working abroad at a summer school or camp – these opportunities favour those who are prepared and put the work in.
You’ll Have a Lot of Opportunities
The great thing about building a TEFL career is that when you’ve got your qualification, it lasts forever. You’re not just getting certified to teach for the summer – you could build a career out of it if you wanted. Lots of our graduates find that they start work as a teacher for a summer, and then they love it so much that they look into doing it full-time and never stop.
Once the summer is over, you could do things like explore new career paths, come back and pick up more qualifications – we’re flexible in how you learn – and even venture online to work from home. There’s always a new path to take when you become TEFL-certified. You might find that you want to stay in the country you’re teaching in for longer, in which case, we’ll help you fill out the paperwork and advise you on the next steps. We aim to help our graduates pursue the life that they want, which means that we’re always on hand once you get qualified to offer support, use our network of connections, and assist you in learning and growing.
What Qualifications are Best?
So, if you are going to get TEFL qualified this summer, what are the best career options? Which qualifications should you look into, and how can you learn? It’s not an easy decision to make, considering there are so many courses and qualifications you need to thrive, which is why we’re here to support you by giving you some helpful advice. We thought we’d take a look at our recommendations for the best summer qualifications and then talk about why they work for you.
120-hour TEFL Course
So, the 120-hour course is probably what we would recommend most for people who want to start teaching this summer because it is the fastest full qualification we offer. You can complete the course in as little as four weeks, which is perfect for those who want to spend as much time as possible working and teaching in the summer.
The 120-hour course offers everything you need to know about teaching English as a foreign language. You will learn how to control a classroom, teach grammar, and unlock the potential of every student. The great thing about being a TEFL teacher is that there are so many different career paths you can take, and the 120-hour course gets you access to nearly all of them. You’ll be able to find a job in no time at all.
180-Hour TEFL Course
The 180-hour course exists as the older brother of the 120-hour course. This TEFL Diploma is more advanced but takes longer to complete and is probably the maximum we’d recommend for getting certified in a single summer. You get access to the full range of skills and tools you’ll need as a TEFL teacher. That’s good for improving your prospects, and it isn’t too much longer than the 120-hour course.
A course like this will take longer to complete and be harder to do, so it is important to keep that in mind if you’re going to undertake it. It might eat into some of the time you would have had working and travelling, but if you’re flexible regarding your time, it doesn’t matter as much. This is the upper limit for TEFL summer qualifications for most students – the amount of work and time needed to complete our more advanced courses would probably remove you from any chance of teaching in the same summer break, so it doesn’t really fit the purpose of training, working and travelling.
IELTS Exam Preparation Course
The IELTS exam is something that is taken worldwide and can be a way for non-native English speakers to get opportunities to work and study abroad. Exams are often taken during the summer, and there are usually classes for those who want to brush up on their skills before they take a test. This can be for you.
It might be quite easy for you to get a job working as an IELTS exam preparation instructor for the summer. You could spend a few months helping students prepare and get a taste of life as a TEFL teacher. The course we offer isn’t as long as the main qualification – it is only 30 hours of study – so it is possible to do it as an add-on for the 120-hour course. This is a good idea for anyone who wants to start off small and work their way up the ladder.
Getting TEFL Certified
As we can see, there are a lot of opportunities to get certified this summer and plenty of compelling reasons to do it. Becoming a TEFL teacher is a great way to kickstart a new career, and people do it to achieve great success all the time. Throughout our time as a provider, we have worked with graduates who have gotten certified over the summer, worked in another country for a few weeks teaching and fallen in love with the profession. It’s a very normal way to begin your new career.
With that being said, our recommendation is that you only go as far as the 180-hour course if you’re looking to get certified in a single summer break. The more advanced courses will take too long, and the qualifications you earn are designed for long-term careers as opposed to short teaching periods. If you want to come back and study for a more advanced qualification later, Then we would be happy to take you as a student once more. The qualifications that you earn for the summer will definitely help with your studies in the future, and if you are serious about building a career, we recommend you do it this way.
Learning to become a TEFL teacher this summer is something which will broaden your horizons and give you a unique experience. Working with people to improve their English ability and positively impact their lives is a highly rewarding opportunity and we would suggest it for anybody who wants to do something different this summer.