HOW YOU CAN BOOST YOUR CAREER WITH A TEFL CERTIFICATION

First, raise your hand if you are wondering “What exactly is a TEFL certification?” Good question! Now put your hand down, and listen up, because when you teach English, a lot of different acronyms are going to be thrown at you. To start with, TEFL stands for “Teaching English as a Foreign Language”, which basically means you are teaching English in another country to people who don't speak English. You may also see the acronym TESOL, which stands for “Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages”. This is mostly used for English teaching in America, the UK, or anywhere English is the native language of most people, but for one reason or another, some people don't know English.

So now that we know a “TEFL certification” is a certification to “Teach English as a Foreign Language”, why should you do it? Well, overall a TEFL certification can be a huge boost to your career no matter the field you want to be in long-term. This may sound too good to be true but let me give you a few examples. To start with, every job requires good communication skills, and because you are reading this on EF's website you're most likely going to end up with a job where English is used as the medium of communication between you and your colleagues. So, you better be excellent at using English! Can you just imagine writing an email or giving a presentation and, god forbid, making a grammar mistake? Well, getting a TEFL certification will help you become more aware of English grammar, spelling, word choice, sentence structure, etc. I personally spend most of my time helping students use the most meaningful words and grammar they can possibly use, and my TEFL certification is why I'm good at that. This skill can easily to taken to any other job, and I can credibly write on my resume “strong communication skills”.

Outside of the above point about communication skills, you should also think about how a TEFL can help you with your planning skills. This is because teaching requires careful planning after all, in addition to problem-solving skills, management skills, teamwork skills, and on and on. Let's focus on planning skills for now though. The reason you'll get planning skills from a TEFL certification is that you'll have to prepare and justify lesson plans during the certification process. This is a core part of teaching and a core part of any TEFL certification. The idea is to prepare you for classroom teaching, and after your yearlong contract with EF is finished, you'll be a planning wiz. You will be able to anticipate problems, plan around different students' learning and communication styles, and you will be able to put your plans dawn on paper in a clear way. During interviews and in your career after EF, you will be able to credibly look back on your experience planning classes and lessons and activities. These experiences can help you with any project in large or small companies, and help you get ahead in your career.

In the previous paragraph, I mentioned that teaching requires “problem-solving skills, management skills, teamwork skills, and on and on.” All of this is true, and all of it starts with a TEFL certification from EF. The certification EF offers is called the “Foundation TEFL” because the program is designed to give you a strong foundation in English teaching. No program will perfectly prepare you for working in a classroom, but this program will provide a strong base you can stand on. The Foundation TEFL from EF will never expire, and you can keep it on your resume for as long as you want. I know I'm not taking the Foundation TEFL off my resume anytime soon!