No Formal Academic Degree

[polarityresponder]

I would appreciate advice from those who know and understand the recruitment policy for teaching in Thailand. I am well over 21! I suppose I could be classed as a 'self made person' and a 'late developer' in that I never had the opportunity to go to Uni for reasons of low academic grades when attending school and my parent lacked any ability to provide financial support., so no academic degree. However I spent many years in the British Army and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. I then went on to become the Executive Director for a Convention Centrre in Central London, with the responsibility for Policy, Operations and in particular, Marketing. I got myself an A+ from TEFL and am a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the grade of Fellow. My current interest is in the developing story of social media marketing and web 2.0 soon to be replaced by web 2.1 if not already. I want to teach but have resisted the decision to make application because of my lack of a degree. So my question is: Would any application by me be 'laughed out of court' For interest I am currently studying for a Dipolma in the Marketing.

[jdinasia]

Answer --- it depends on where you applied.

Triam Taharn or CRMA might hire you on the spot. You might get semi-legal work (no work permit) from various sources. You might luck out and get a job that offers you a WP and all the bells and whistles. The last is rather unlikely. Thailand has plenty of people with both degrees AND experience that the employers that can obtain the WP for their people etc have enough choices to just bypass anyone that doesn't match their ideal.

[Scott]

It is technically possible. I believe that some of the schools up country are able to employ people without degrees. I don't know exactly how they manage it, but plenty of evidence on the board that it does happen.

The rules and regulations are getting stricter and getting around them is getting harder.

The difficulty is that you usually need to get a Teacher's License or waiver to get the Work Permit. The Teacher's Council frowns on people not having degrees.

I believe that some types of tutorial and language schools do not need to have Licensed teachers, which may be a way into employment.

[richard10365]

University teaching requirements are going up soon here in Thailand. In a couple of years, 80% of all university teachers will be required to have a PhD. There are international programs all over Thailand. The easiest way to get a job in a university is have the basic requirements to teach. Other than that, it might be a bit hard but not impossible.

[jdinasia]

By the way ---- Triam Taharn (the Pre-cadet academy) and CRMA the military academy are both in Nakhon Nayok, just 100km outside of BKK.

[PlanetX]

If you want to teach, why not invest the couple of years to get on online degree and then you wont have to worry about anything

[Ijustwannateach]

This is an old chestnut for the Teacher's Forum, raising strong feelings on many sides.

The legal picture is that it is still NOT IMPOSSIBLE to be a fully legal, employed teacher with all the necessary paperwork including work permit and visa.

The practical situation on the ground is that as the demand grows for subject teachers (teachers of math, science English as a language arts class), the satisfactory and fully legal niches for non-degreed teachers is shrinking- at least in Bangkok (though from some reports the number of positions for those flying-below-the-radar is as big as ever). This doesn't mean that a position at a government school for a TEFL teacher with no degree HAS to be without a work permit- but they are less likely to understand the paperwork or want to go the extra mile. You may have to go to much more personal effort to help them work out the details.

Some fully-qualified subject teachers- not to mention parents- are aghast that people would be allowed in the classroom without education degrees, but from my observation of TEFLers this is not so bad. I have previously compared it to having the mother of one of my Spanish classmates in school come in to give us free Spanish conversation practice when I was in the 3rd grade. Simple once-a-week TEFL, especially at low functional levels, can be effective with only a small amount of training and experience (not to mention social functionality and common sense). This is best acquired for the newbie through one of the many short courses on offer (for example, those offered by our sponsors [cf banner ads]). Personally, I see no problem- especially for younger or lower level students, especially outside major metropolitan areas of Thailand- in letting trained individuals give TEFL classes even without a formal college education.

On the other hand, for you to accept more responsibility for the overall wellbeing of the children by trying to be an academic subject teacher or a class homeroom teacher, without any study at a higher level of your subject or any preparation for how children and young people develop, would be getting in way over your head. Too often the heated disagreements that begin around this topic fail to make the distinction between these different classroom statuses, and I hope you will start small. If you find you truly enjoy it, perhaps you *should* take PlanetX's advice and update your own education. Good luck.

[Suradit]

An important consideration not mentioned in the OP's message is the reason why he wants to come to Thailand. Since he would not really be qualified, at least on paper, anyone who is willing to take him on is hardly likely to offer much in the way of compensation and he would not be embarking on a career with any prospect of advancement or job security, much less retirement benefits or medical coverage.

If he's looking for something to do for a few years to finance an extended holiday, there might be some possibilities with the caveat it could come to an abrupt halt if your legal work status is irregular and officialdom intervenes. Pay levels under those circumstances will probably provide him with the barest subsistence budget and work schedules probably won't leave much time to see Amazing Thailand.

Also, while some of the better institutions will probably have students with comparatively advanced English skills and some specific subjects may use English as the teaching medium, I expect someone who is unable to function at all in Thai will run up against some understandable opposition from students.

"the developing story of social media marketing" sounds a bit ill-defined and fluffy. In Thailand I imagine 95% of marketing is aimed at Thai people in the Thai language and in a Thai cultural context. It doesn't sound like something crying out for foreign instructors.

[Scott]

IJWT has summed up the situation succinctly. Suradit has brought up that interesting point of the motivation of potential teachers.

I don't know very many people who have been successful at teaching when there motivation is to have an extended holiday. Teaching is hard work and generally doesn't pay well enough to do much of the traveling on holidays. Most of the people I know whose motivation to teach had little to do with education ended up with not very successful stay in Thailand.