At the low-end average of 800 euros a head, that’s
8,000 euros. Unfortunately, these numbers could attract a few
fly-by-nights into the business, and Madrid can be a fly-by-night
heaven, let me tell you. Put together any-old flashy website
and a half-decent looking program and people around the world
could think you’re really something. (It gives one something
to think about, don’t it? – nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)
Yet, every HR department in Madrid has their pet peeves even
about one or two major universities, whose employee-candidates
they regularly reject (they even state so in their employment
ads in the local press). This outright rejection is rarer in
TEFL in Madrid, but it happens in at least two of the biggest
agencies in Spain. Here is some more information on the business
related side of TEFL at: TEFL Madrid.
Also, here is a Certified TEFL school which has permitted
me to scrutinize them for the site: CELTA
/ DELTA Madrid.
This brings me down to the “why” of doing TEFL courses. What
I mainly want to talk about in this section of the site is about
the important things you learn on these courses that makes them
such a required part of your CV/résumé. If I were
a Director of Studies, I would require you to have one so I
obviously consider them worthwhile. The reason why is that I
think there are some extremely important areas in TEFL which
you must understand in order to be an effective teacher. Not
only that, but some of these points must be practiced with an
actual class of students in order to be able to assimilate them.
(As a school owner or DOS, I would discriminate against all
distance TEFL-course certificate holders.)
Years ago when I first arrived in Madrid an English teacher
tried to persuade me that he was a TEFL expert (he was writing
a book, or so he said) and that he would teach me how to teach
English (I didn’t ask him for his rates). In fact, it would
be a really good business if you could get 10 students together
per month.
