Page 23 - ELG2312 Dec Issue 487

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
Career progress means changing sector

Looking for the next step in your career? Melanie Butler gives her perspective…

ot very many years ago there was a It’s a shame because the ‘Dip’, as these which turns out to be a diploma mill run out
clear road map to a career in private diplomas are generally known, are really good of a basement in Delaware.
sector English Language Teaching; training courses. But unless your employer A Masters can also help you get a job
Nat least in the UK, the Antipodes, offers to pay you to do one, don’t expect to teaching in an international school, especially
the Middle East and most of Europe. see a return on your investment. those run on American, Australian or
You graduated from a University, took There are, as there always are, parts of Canadian lines. It can offer a leg up into the
a four week training course – typically the world which pay EFL teachers well: tertiary and vocational sectors, which are also
from the University of Cambridge, Trinity Japan, Korea, Taiwan are holding up, and undergoing a boom.
College London, or from their national Francophone North Africa is currently In fact, a Masters is the most flexible of the
equivalents – then took a job abroad for at booming, with salaries higher than those available career qualifications. However, if
least two years. Then you took a Diploma in Southern Europe. But all still prize you want a University career as an academic,
and got a job in academic management at native-speakerism above any qualification, and teaching teachers to teach English rather than
a private language school or taught in a don’t know the difference between a ‘Dip’ and students to speak it, you will still normally
tertiary college. Finally, if you really wanted an online course from any Tom, Dick or Harry. need to do a Doctorate.
to break into the academic big time, you There is no longer any point in paying for Other options, at least if you fancy working
took a Masters. your own higher qualification to improve your with young Learners in a British International
Now it is not so simple. Most jobs in most career in the private sector. Instead, you pay School, is train to do that. A number of
countries still require a degree in order to for a higher qualification to get out of it. Universities, including Oxford and Bath, offer
obtain a visa. Now two-thirds of accredited The question is not ‘which qualification do related Masters or you can opt for an IPGCE,
UK language schools take non-graduate I need to get on’; ask instead ‘which one do sometimes confusingly called a PGCEI, the
teachers, while in Malta they can employ I need to get out?’ international version of the UK state school
school leavers who did well in their English Take the University Sector. If you want to training courses. These can be done on campus
exam at 18. The number of four-week online teach English to University students there (University of Buckingham), in local training
courses is at an all-time high, and figuring are plenty of jobs at decent rates of pay across centres overseas (University of Nottingham),
out which ones are acceptable and where is a the world, except the US where the demand or in mixed mode (University of Bath).
full-time job. for pre-university language courses is falling. Currently, most of the courses do not equal
Most UK language schools – and those in However, to get on any of the places that Qualified Teacher Status in the UK.
Europe – still require a Diploma for Academic pay well, you will need a Masters. In the But with 350,000 teaching jobs overseas, in
Management, but with wages for Dosses on Middle East they may insist on one taken on British-style international schools alone, with
par with those on offer to the manager of a campus and face to face, because they have proper pay and free accommodation and flights
fast food outlet, it’s hard to justify the £3500- been stung once too often by fake Masters home, forget language schools; this is the
5000 cost of the course. certificates bought online from a ‘university’ classroom career which offers progression.

editorial@elgazette.com 23