TEFL - Where To Go From Your Qualification

We recommend that you decide where in the world you would like to go and do some desk research - the country equivalent of the Yellow Pages is usually a good starting point to find how many language schools there are in your chosen destination. If at all possible, it is infinitely easier to look from within the country, by organising a couple of weeks of accommodation, and possibly setting up a few meetings (phone the school rather than email). Better still, book onto a morning-only language course and stay with a host family. This will mean you are not wasting time whilst you're away, and the family and school may prove a useful source of contacts. (Many of our overseas course providers offer reduced price language courses too).

If you're just qualifying from a course, it's extremely useful to have 'other skills' you can explain on a CV or during an interview. Think of any other time in your life that you have been in the role of coaching, supporting, mentoring and otherwise teaching people, and emphasize these. If your circumstances allow, try and do some teaching whilst you're preparing for your departure. This might be helping out for free in a local community project, or supporting a language school on a voluntary basis. If you know where you'd like to go, maybe try to organise a 'lesson swap' at your local college or university - where you can teach English for an hour, then learn a language for the second hour. It might not be exactly the sort of teaching you did on the course, but it will look great on your CV, and will keep your skills up and running.

Good luck...and enjoy!