What qualifications would I need to teach English abroad?
I don’t know what requirements the teaching abroad programs have for Brits, but for Americans, they typically require a bachelor’s degree in any subject. A bachelor’s degree is the most basic university degree for us, which typically takes about four years to complete. We don’t have any equivalent to the GCSEs or A levels. Instead, all American students take more or less the same subjects in high school (college or secondary school to you Brits). Those who graduate with good enough grades (marks) can attend college (we use the word college interchangeably with university when we’re talking about the first four years). What they study in college/university, they choose then. What they studied in high school doesn’t have any bearing on that. If the teach abroad programs have similar requirements for Brits as Americans, then what you qualify in and what you study at university won’t matter so much as that you have at least a basic university degree. One drawback you’d face is that many of
In general you’ll need a degree (although there are still possibilities if you do not have this) and a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate to get a visa and work. The degree can be in almost any subject as it is usually required for the visa only so you will find teachers with a degree in Engineering or Sociology. Having said this, to help get the job it’s obviously better to be English or language related, for example a degree in English literature. The TEFL certificate can be taken either in-house or online at your own pace which is a much cheaper option (see http://icalweb.com). So when it comes to A levels you want to think about what will get you into university. It sounds like more on the Arts side but do remember that although an English type degree is better, you can teach abroad with almost any subject degree.
It depends entirely on where you want to go. To teach in Japan you absolutely need a university degree. They don’t mind so much what it’s in. You also need something like a CELTA or TESL certificate. For Japan, you should have some experience (at least a year) teaching ESL. You could go through the JET program. Japan is harder to get into, even for people with experience. You can find work in a lot of other countries without experience. China and Thailand come to mind. I’ve taught ESL in both China and Japan, and I thought China was a hell of a lot more fun than Japan. In China, I worked 4 hours a day and was paid 5 times what the average Chinese teacher makes. I had a free apartment on campus and invitations to trips and banquets and weddings. In Japan, I made about an average salary, but I had to pay $800 a month for the tiniest apartment I’ve ever seen in my life. There were no fringe benefits at all, and I had to commute an hour each way to work 8-hour teaching shifts. It was alway
