Hi,

I"m looking into getting qualified to teach English as a foreign language, however firstly, I have a couple of questions, 1) Is there much of a demand for teachers of English as a foreign Lang and, 2) does anyone know if there is a preferred qualification that the Swiss language schools look for?, there seems to be so much available both from correspondence courses and in situ that it gets somewhat confusing.
Thanks for any advice.

Nick.

Hi Nick,
There is a hugh demand for ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers in Switzerland, especially for native speakers like yourself. Almost all schools require the CELTA which you can get from language centers in the French part of Switzerland and Zurich. The course usually takes about six months, or you can do intensive one month course in most places. It costs around CHF.4,000.00 for the certificate. I know they have much cheaper courses in England if that is an option. The pay for teachers is not great, usually around CHF.25.00 - 50.00 an hour, but I have found great jobs teaching public school teachers for CHF.120.00 an hour. Check out the English Teachers Association of Switzerland web site for job postings: http://www.e-tas.ch/
Hope this was of some help.

Thanks Koko,

Will look into the CELTA, also, is there a huge difference between TESOL and TEFL?

Well, CELTA is accepted worldwide. You can get cheap TEFL certificates via the internet with out any hands on training, so I can imagine some employers would be skeptical about it. I'm sure if you found a good school in Switzerland that taught the TEFL, that would be something else...

It's scary isn't it? Someone I know did exactly this. She was teaching teachers who would be teaching English to Swiss school kids. Their English was terrible and they had no interest in improving it. They were only attending the lessons because they were forced to.

Since there are a tons of native English-speaking teachers who would love to come and teach English to kids in the school system here you'd think that this would be a perfect solution. But no, to avoid bringing in a foreigner they'll use natives with poor English skills to teach English...

you have a good school in Fribourg - perhaps you want to pop in and talk to Nick Galtos there as I think this is his #1 school in Switzerland?

Thanks for that,

Will try to pass by this week,
Nick,

Hi there,

I completed the intensive CELTA course in July (Bern Volkshochschule). I found work 4 months later...and I didn't apply to that many schools. There is a demand for qualified teachers in the French part, but I've heard that the pay is less than in the German part. I don't have any problems with my salary and I teach in Lausanne.
Don't waste your money doing a course online or by correspondence - they simply don't prepare you for teaching...By 2007 all English language teachers in CH have to be Eduqua certified and with CELTA you'd only have to do the 2 day course (800chf) at the Hull School in Zürich, instead of the 6 month (I think) Eduqua course a friend of mine did before she applied to do CELTA. ETAS does have more info on the topic.

Derna.

Hallo all.
I just had some questions about what certificates are required to be able to teach english as a foreign language here in lovely Zurich.
The internet is overwhelming, thought maybe I'd cut corners and ask someone here.
Little background about me...from Canada, came here to be married in Dec. I have NO college degrees. I graduated highschool and got lucky with a job at a great company and worked there for 7 yrs. Now, I am here and finding a job is not going to be easy as everyone wants degrees. I started thinking what about english and teaching it?
I am just not sure of exactly what certificates most people want to see (TESOL, TEFL, CERTA??) I am new at all this and a little confused about where to look and what schools are reputable for getting these from.

any help/advice is appreciated.
(I also don't know german, although I am in the process of enrolling somewhere to start that as well)

I also have much work to do on my CV (don't even know where to start with this b/c of my lack of degrees and whatnot)

Thanks again guys!
Jennifer

I'm also looking at doing CELTA when I arrive in Zurich so that I can teach English. I've taught it at a uni in Australia but don't have the certificate. I've got an application in for the course, but wondered if anyone had any advice on work-visas for English teachers? My situation is I need the company/school to apply for a visa on my behalf - however, I have been told English language schools in Switzerland may not do this - that they prefer to hire people who already have a visa. Does anyone have any experience / advice on this situation? Or know anyone who I could ask about this?

Hi Jennifer

I just came across your post from nearly 2 years ago ... I am Swiss (German part) and just did my CPE and CELTA in Australia. There all teachers need an academic qualification, which I don't have as I only finished high school as well. But they didn't tell me that before I started the course.

Now I tried to gather some information about required Q in Switzerland, and haven't really been successful...did you find out eventually?

It would be great to hear from you if you know.

Fiona

Primary and Secondary Teachers learning English:
Primary and secondary school teachers are required to pass the CAE (Advanced) in order to teach English to the students. There have been various programs sponsored by the cantons to enable teachers to reach this goal. However, most programs are weaning out since the CAE is now being offered in the teacher study program.

Migros, KV Evening Courses, Castle's etc:
These schools teach standard and exam English courses. Most require a CELTA training, although Migros only requires SVEB1 and native English. Most prefer to hire native speakers who already have visas or the Swiss pass. Very few of these schools offer full-time jobs. Salaries vary from SFr. 50 - 120/hour. Many schools have noted a decrease in interest in English courses. This is most probably due to English now being taught at primary/secondary/higher level school and that many people go abroad to continue their English education.

International Schools:
I believe these schools prefer native English speakers with a university degree in teaching BUT I'm hoping someone with more experience in this area can give more accurate advice.

All the English teachers I know have Swiss passes gained through duo citizenship or marriage.

Thank you!!

The international schools require English mother tongue and a recognised teaching qualification whether a degree or a post graduate certificate. They will look for some teaching experience (relevant to the age group you are applying for) and you would also be expected to know something about the curriculum they use even if you haven't taught it.

So, if you have already a PGCE, you wouldn't need a CELTA on top of it? Or would you need to somehow demonstrate that your English is comparable to that of "natives"? How?

where does one go to get this CELTA in Zürich, is there a a school that is recommended moreso than others?

Then again, all those qualifications are only relevant if you want to teach in a language school. If you just want to give private lessons from home then you don’t need anything, just stick up some adds in local papers/migros etc.
My 14yr old has been approached by a few parents of friends from school to give lessons, he is now giving "lessons" to friends for CHF10/hr . Plus I’m sure he gets the occasional CHF5 for helping out with English homework.! It seems that some parents of Swiss children are quite keen for them to get a good grasp of English whilst in school.
Nick

Hi there prospective English teachers.

The CELTA is a great qualification which opens lots of doors in TEFL. As it happens we are offering a part-time course in Baden (15 mins from ZH HB)from 22 Aug-29 Nov 2008 with John Potts (the man who brought CELTA to Switzerland 25 years ago) and his excellent team of trainers. The course runs on Fridays and some Saturdays. For more info and an application form please take a look at our website under Teacher Training.

http://www.tlcsprachschule.ch/119-0-...-training.html

If any of you are already teaching and would like to learn more about teaching business English, we are also offering a great opportunity to work with well-known teacher trainer and author Mark Powell. The Certificate of International Business English Teaching (Cert IBET) runs from 25 - 31 July.

Please contact me if you are interested in either of these courses.

Kind regards

Julie
julie.collins@tlcsprachschule.ch
TLC-The Language Company
Bahnhofstrasse 44
5400 Baden
056 205 97 96

Julie, you conveniently forgot to mention in your unsolicited advertisement that it costs 4'200 francs.

So I've posted that fact up for you

Thanks Lob