I'm currently in Korea and trying to get all my ducks in a row for a job down in Thailand. Will an online TEFL certificate be any use to me down there? I don't want to go to one of those training courses, because I can't get time off work. I've been teaching for 3 years in Korea (1y adult, 1y kindi, 1y middleschool).

Is an online, non-observed TEFL useful?

Not really. Few schools require teachers to have a TEFL, and you would not get the benefit of evaluated teaching practice in an online course. If you have 3 years teaching experience in Korea, you certainly don't need a TEFL to get a teaching job in Thailand.

Not really. Few schools require teachers to have a TEFL, and you would not get the benefit of evaluated teaching practice in an online course. If you have 3 years teaching experience in Korea, you certainly don't need a TEFL to get a teaching job in Thailand.

^Quite right! I might add that documented proof of your teaching experience would be far more useful than a TEFL Certificate. If there are any Korean documents that would show that you have some kind of official 'permission to teach' or have a Korean teaching license, I would recommend getting some sort of official English Translation and bringing that along.

Remember, nothing makes a bureaucrat happier than having a big stack of official looking documents plopped down in front of them.

Once you have some good, verifiable TEFL experience (with good references), for the average Thai school it doesn't really matter if you have a training certificate or not, especially if you already have a college education. At that point, it should be clear to anyone *else* with experience whether you can talk the talk, walk the walk, and give a good quick demonstration of some of your techniques.

TEFL educational programmes are most useful for the complete beginner, or for someone who wants to upgrade the *type* of jobs he is in (for example, to higher level schools which want to see more paperwork).

Once you have some good, verifiable TEFL experience (with good references), for the average Thai school it doesn't really matter if you have a training certificate or not, especially if you already have a college education. At that point, it should be clear to anyone *else* with experience whether you can talk the talk, walk the walk, and give a good quick demonstration of some of your techniques.

TEFL educational programmes are most useful for the complete beginner, or for someone who wants to upgrade the *type* of jobs he is in (for example, to higher level schools which want to see more paperwork).

It seems the 'Holy Grail' is a degree. If you have a degree a TEFL cerificate is superflous to requirements. Frankly I have never understood this mind set. How a degree in say, geography or media studies (God forbid it) makes a better EFL teacher is beyond me. It's probably designed to introduce an artificial recruitment restriction in view of the massive volume of aspiring TEFLers.

However, I understand through the grape vine of EFL blogs that there are many TEFLers in Thailand without a degree, with spurious fake degrees etc. etc. and some of them bloody good teachers. But the MoE are tightening up with all sorts of requirements, teacher licence, Thai language and culture examination etc. It's even been mooted that a BA in Education will be required.

Please, let's not turn this into a debate of degrees versus no degrees/

Once you have some good, verifiable TEFL experience (with good references), for the average Thai school it doesn't really matter if you have a training certificate or not, especially if you already have a college education. At that point, it should be clear to anyone *else* with experience whether you can talk the talk, walk the walk, and give a good quick demonstration of some of your techniques.

TEFL educational programmes are most useful for the complete beginner, or for someone who wants to upgrade the *type* of jobs he is in (for example, to higher level schools which want to see more paperwork).

It seems the 'Holy Grail' is a degree. If you have a degree a TEFL cerificate is superflous to requirements. Frankly I have never understood this mind set. How a degree in say, geography or media studies (God forbid it) makes a better EFL teacher is beyond me. It's probably designed to introduce an artificial recruitment restriction in view of the massive volume of aspiring TEFLers.

However, I understand through the grape vine of EFL blogs that there are many TEFLers in Thailand without a degree, with spurious fake degrees etc. etc. and some of them bloody good teachers. But the MoE are tightening up with all sorts of requirements, teacher licence, Thai language and culture examination etc. It's even been mooted that a BA in Education will be required.

Not quite right. There's been no tightening up. There was a proposal from the TCT a few years ago and lots of discussion on web boards but the proposal has been almost universally ignored by schools and teachers. The TCT has run some Culture Courses that made them some money, but I have never read a report that the 'new' teacher licence was required to renew or obtain a work permit at the ministries of education or labor. Lots of uniformed speculation though.

I've been here quite a while and every year I read 'new' requirements and 'tightening up' of the system. Nothing really has changed in all the time I've been here. I have read ajarn dot com since Ian owned it back in around 2001 and there have always been stories of 'new' requirements and also rumours of 'crackdowns' but it has been unsubstantiated by reality. Remember police checks? In Chiang Mai they have only existed on farang web boards.

Errr... I should probably mention that I *don't* have a bachelors in education. It's in Security Intelligence.

And I don't have any papers from Korea. You get an alien regestration card, and a visa stamp in my passport.

And actually kind of the only way I can prove that I worked for the first school was the stamp in my passport, since they have an incredibly high turn over rate (military, everyone gets stationed somewhere else every 2 years). I have a letter from the 2nd, and I'm sure I'll get a letter from my current school.

Errr... I should probably mention that I *don't* have a bachelors in education. It's in Security Intelligence.

And I don't have any papers from Korea. You get an alien registration card, and a visa stamp in my passport.

And actually kind of the only way I can prove that I worked for the first school was the stamp in my passport, since they have an incredibly high turn over rate (military, everyone gets stationed somewhere else every 2 years). I have a letter from the 2nd, and I'm sure I'll get a letter from my current school.

That is fine. Two letters of good work in your last two schools, and a bachelor's degree.

Sigh- I only mentioned college education as helping because it is a common sense thing that it does, though Loaded is right to point out that it is not a requirement for many jobs. Let's stick to the OP's topic.