Why work in the English language teaching industry?
I was barely 18 when I stumbled into the EFL world.
I had just finished my A level and TEFL course and before I knew it, I found myself standing before a class of teenagers. It was a little bit daunting at first but I quickly learned the ropes to be able to teach, manage and entertain my students at the same time. Teaching English is just that – multiple roles wrapped into one!
Teaching English offers a world of opportunities. It develops you because you have to be confident and have good public speaking and communication skills, which are really important transferable skills to have for any job later on. You meet multinational students from all over the world and coming from such a diverse set of cultures. The experience makes you realize just how vast the world really is. And you have the world right there in your classroom!
If you want to broaden your horizons and learn more about the diversity around us, teaching English really is the job for you and it offers such great flexibility. You may even want to make a career out of it – there are plenty of accredited teaching courses beyond the basic 60 hour TEFL course that you can choose to follow: CELTA, CertTESOL, DELTA and DipTESOL to mention but a few. You can also read for a Level 7 Masters programme if you wanted to. The great thing is that once you have such higher teaching certification, you can teach anywhere in the world and you will find vacancies throughout the year.
I joined ESE almost 12 years ago. What I love most about working for this English language teaching school is that you really feel part of a global community. We are over 14 nationalities working at ESE. And then there are the students – hailing from all over the world. When I stop to consider how many languages can be spoken under the same roof – it’s mind blowing. Sometimes we organize cultural events in-house to celebrate, such as Malta day, Halloween or the Chinese New Year. It’s truly magical to see so many nationalities come together celebrating the same event under the same roof. Of course what really unites the ESE community is the English language, the common working language of the modern world or lingua franca, now spoken by over 1.5 billion people globally with over 600 million speaking English as a foreign language. Different accents, levels and pronunciations and some mistakes … it’s a common medium of communication we all share that brings people together. I would choose to work in this industry over and over again because it simply allows you to play such an important role in bringing people together and witnessing them improve their English from one day to the next.
When you work for a large established school like ESE, you may also be able to work in different business functions and get a better understanding of how businesses function. Marketing, sales, accounts, leisure, logistics, reservations … you mention it. There are lots of opportunities for career progression and development. And all it takes to set foot into this wonderful world of diversity is to get your TEFL for starters and apply for a teaching vacancy with us. Go on ! You’ll never look back.
If you need to take a TEFL why not contact ESE today for the latest dates of TEFL courses at ESE.
About the Author
Rachel Falzon
Rachel has been working with ESE in a number of roles for the past 11 years. She’s passionate about learning and development, people and communications. Rachel loves being outdoors, escaping to sister-island Gozo with her family and pet beagle, swimming, reading and doing all things creative.
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