By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Thinking of getting more teaching certifications. Worth it?
I'm looking at additional courses for teaching kids and business English since my school has suddenly been hit by a wave of children and some of the older students are always interested in progressing in their careers. Can more certifications give me leverage when hustling for a higher salary later on?
11 years 11 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
I recommend real teaching certificates like CELTA (YL extension) and DELTA . TEFL and its crap extensions suck by all ways, I consider TEFL as a waste of money paper and an easy cheap way to get work visa. In China adding more certificates will not get you a higher salary unless it's a master degree. You are in a country where TKT band 1 is thought to be similar to CELTA pass A lol
angelina8:
You're right about TEFL, totally worthless. If someone doesn't have enough time/money/qualifications for a proper certificate, TKT is the only solution. At least it's not a scam.
Depends on what you're thinking, Beaufort! If you're thinking of an MBA - yeah, probably worth it!
I'm presuming you already have good enough teaching quals (at least a CELTA).. so yeah, Silverstein's suggestion of the YL add-on would probably be smart for the kids.
However, as you know, schools tend to be cheap! The only way extra quals will do anything for you is if you enter a school/uni that has a joint venture program going with an OS university. eg., the last place I was at, there was the foreign language school, and the International college (which had JV with an Australian university). the FL teachers were on about 5000... we in the international college were on ~15K. With the competition out there, you're going to need at least that MA (MEd, etc) and CELTA to get into those sort of jobs.
Then, there's the international schools... I haven't tried to apply for them, cos I don't teach kids, but again, they'll want better quals than any of the local schools! (again, remember the competition!)
As for leverage at your current school.... not a chance! 
I work at a JV and they definitely pay the English teachers more than 5k, though I don't know exactly how much. They each have a CELTA, one has an MA, and they are not required to pass everyone!
I say go for it. I'm thinking of am MS myself and will probably start this September.
some universities you teach at in china will let you study for masters free while employed there but im not sure the chinese masters degree regardless of subject would be worth much , maybe hillary thinks so if you go to america, not sure,
when i checked on masters in linguistics online , new hampshire and australia both have the 15000 dollar cost. not a good marginal utility of time for the projected future compensation for my age , but if your younger , maybe a good idea.
Traveler:
New Hampshire is in America, not Australia. As an American, I thought you would know that.
I have a Chinese friend doing Masters in TESOL in Australia at the moment. For a non-Australian student, it is A$22,000. I agree with you - overpriced, compared to the small returns it brings in China.
ambivalentmace:
there is an online program , university of south new hampshire and a program in australia , they both cost the same., advertise on daveseslcafe frequently
if your want to be certified as a teacher in the states, i recommend the program abcte.org, very good program with online study and certification for about 10 different states, cost was 2000 when i did the program , maybe more now. i may never go back and use the certification but its a backup in case america learns how to economically grow again and i need a job that does not age discriminate. good luck on your plans.
