Much better day today

[eveglass]

This morning, the woman from the CELTA program called me back to answer a few more of my questions. Apparently they offer a session on job finding, and some of their students are hired immediately upon graduation from the program. On the other hand, they do no long-term tracking of how many of their students find employment in TESL, nor do they offer any comprehensive job-hunt help.

So, today I began making calls to ESL schools (ie: places I'd want to hire me to teach for them). At some places, I only got a machine or secretary. At others, I received a bit more substantial information, namely:


- Berlitz, where I only spoke to the secretary, has no specific requirements for certification and asked me to send a CV.
- Telelangues prefers people to have either a degree in teaching English or some prior experience. Further, they're not looking for people at the moment, even if I were experienced. The CELTA is "beneficial," but I don't know how much. Apparently they ask very specific grammar questions at the interview, and ask that you bring in prepared lesson plans.
- Services Linguistiques Corporatifs require their new hires to have 250 hours of TESL experience. So that one's crossed off my list, regardless of CELTA.
- Some good news: the woman I spoke to at ELAM does hire people straight out of the CELTA program with no other experience. She says the CELTA is probably the best training program out there. She also said she probably would not hire someone with neither a certification nor experience. ELAM offers services to businesspeople in corporations.
- And, the kicker: the woman at ATPAL Westminister apparently thought I was someone else when I first called, also named Julie, who was also looking for a job. We got to the point of scheduling an interview before we realized that I was the "wrong" person. So we both shrugged, said "what the heck," and I'm going in for an interview tomorrow regardless. Yay for serendipity! They're apparently looking for someone to fill a position starting next week. Given that I've mostly been calling these places only to find out the relative value of the CELTA, I won't be disappointed if I get nothing more out of this interview than information. Still... yay!


So far, I'm seriously considering the CELTA. It'll be rare once I find other jobs that I've got a full month to devote to the certification, and I think it'll give me the confidence to be able to plan the courses. While I know I can teach in general, at this point I wouldn't necessarily be able to explain the intricacies of English grammar to people who have never learnt it before. We'll see how things go at the interview tomorrow.

Also today, I met with one of my mentors (a former professor at Concordia). He gave me the name of one of their short-term professors, also a liberal arts graduate, who is apparently teaching ESL at nights to make ends meet. I've got his phone number and email and will try to get a hold of him. This professor also told me about the "Thomas More Institute," which apparently offers adult-ed courses, and bears looking into.

So that's it for now. Thank goodness the waves of depression wore off. Sleep does wonders: I highly recommend it. Now, onwards to the library and karate.

Comments

[emerlion.livejournal.com]

I don't know how much this interests you, but ESL certification could get you some interesting overseas jobs, including Japan, China or Korea.

If you like that sort of adventure.

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

So I've come to understand. I'm not necessarily certain I'd want to at this point. Living as close as Toronto, for 9 months, was tough enough on me. I'm not sure I'd be able to cope with living on the other side of the world for a full year. But we'll see. The option is there, and I may yet pursue it.