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Graduate case studies

Graduate case studies
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Abdus - 
English as a Foreign Language Teacher

Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

About the job

Main responsibilities

Teaching multiple private lessons and group lessons basic language skills.

Typical day

Working in a private language school is a 12-9PM job. The range of students varies depending on which organisation you work for. My oldest student was 60 and youngest 2. A typical day for me involved approx. 6/7 40 minute lessons. In the beginning you to lots of preparation but that gets easier with time and experience.

What do I enjoy about my job?

I get to live abroad and earn good money.

Challenging aspects

The challenges of discipline with younger kids, and the issues of adjusting to of different classroom learning styles of different cultures but the work itself is fairly straightforward with a small amount of experience.

Why did this area of work appeal to me?

Note: TEFL is not much help in building a career and does not lend itself to many transferable skills (although, as a first job after graduation, it could be quite suitable), since the job is so easy. The main reason to do it is to live abroad and make money and possibly learn a language.
I left Japan for Libya when I realised that I wouldn't use the Japanese language in the future and there was no other reason for being there other than that it was fun. Libya/Arabic will be more useful.
Living abroad is pretty interesting, of course, but most employers for more serious jobs may want hard skills.

Training I receive as part of my job

There are many TEFL on-line courses out there. I went for the £1000/month CELTA course, which I thought to be the best. Some TEFL employers will want something like this, but many do not. The course itself is pretty full-on, but most employers seem to train new employees for a week even if they have the CELTA. Each employer thinks they do TEFL differently, but they don't really. The best training is just learning techniques along the way and asking more experienced teachers.


Career information

Brief history since leaving University

Multiple jobs, such as:
catering, waiting tables, data entry, admin, sandwich maker etc.

Multiple internships:
charity, 2 think-tanks, global business research, Guardian documentaries, journalism, business writing.

Main job after internships:
ethnic minority charity sector... policy and public affairs.

Where do I see myself in the future?

In a completely different area to teaching or the charity sector.


Advice to students

My piece of advice to students

It can be very easy to get a job in TEFL.
Decide where you want to go first, and that will determine whether you need the CELTA or not (for eg. Germany... yes, Spain... no).
Be strategic about where you go... will it further your future prospects?
Learn the language. Use the time to develop yourself and get yourself suitable skills for longer term employment.


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Last updated: 21 Apr 2013