First of all I don’t recommend using a third party or a recruiting website to find an online English teaching job. Always apply directly with the company yourself!
Some Basic Requirements – Most online English teaching companies want native speaking English teachers from the traditional English speaking countries: The USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and sometimes South Africa. Some companies prefer British accents and others prefer North American accents.
For native speakers without certification your options are more limited. One option is to fast track your Bachelor’s Degree using your work experience as partial credit. This will open many more TESL doors.
My Canadian friend who did not go to university and doesn’t have any TESL certification asked me what companies would hire him. After digging through my list I told him to apply to Learnlight, TalktoCanada and Lyngo. He was contacted by them and had a couple interviews. I recommend that teachers apply to many companies anyway. If you have teaching experience companies might hire you even if you don’t have a TESL certificate. It is worth trying, send out as many resumes as possible.
There are plenty of companies that will hire non-native English teachers (especially Indians and Filipinos) if they have native-like skills (C2 level). There is a certain demand for Indian teachers among business English teaching companies in Europe, as many European companies work with Indian companies.
Certification – Most companies want a teacher with a university degree (although they don’t usually care about what the degree is in). A TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) or TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate is also required by most online companies. There is basically no difference between TEFL, TESL and TESOL certificates. There are many places where you can get one of these certificates online and the time taken to receive one can vary. The CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) certificate was created by Cambridge English and is internationally recognized as a high quality English teaching certificate. It requires 120 hours and is more expensive than most of the other certificates.
There is a great Reddit post here about choosing a TEFL course.
You can get cheap TEFL certificates online. There is one on Groupon for $39 USD, but I wouldn’t recommend it as you won’t learn much about how to teach. However some English teaching companies don’t care where your certificate comes from as long as you have one. There is a comprehensive online one from the University of Toronto that costs about $1000.
Experience – Some companies want teachers with a one or two years of online teaching experience, other companies want teachers who have taught children or business English. It really depends on the company, the companies with higher requirements usually pay more.
Training – All good companies provide some sort of training. The training focuses on how to use the company’s online platform and their teaching methods. European companies often have their own teaching methods stressing student talking time and positive reinforcement. It is important to note that almost all online teaching companies have their own platform and their own material, so teachers do not have to spend much time preparing lessons.
Working Hours – Most companies will only provide part-time hours. Teachers who want to work full-time often work for two or more companies, or they work online in the afternoon and at a school in the morning. Many companies will also require teachers to sign a contact. Chinese companies usually want teachers to sign a contract for one year, where as European companies don’t often specify the length of time. This means that most online teachers are freelancers and responsible for paying their own taxes.
Tech Requirements – A fast internet connection is required to teach online as teachers will most often be teaching with video. Teachers may have to use Skype, Adobe Connect or other virtual classroom applications that allow the teacher and students to turn on their video and have a teleconference-like class. Some companies conduct lessons primarily over the phone with Skype, but you will still need a fast internet connection to call students. I have had to submit a internet speed test to several companies, the standard minimum speed seems to be 10Mps download and upload. You can check your internet speed here https://www.speedtest.net/.
You will also need a good quality headset (microphone and headphones) as well as a good webcam. Companies do not seem too picky about these things.
Resume and Interview – The last step before you start your online teaching job is preparing a proper resume/CV. You should also prepare for the interview process which often requires a mock class depending on what company you are applying with. I will add some links later of mock classes.
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great article. thanks especially for the computer speed test link. Been asked but had no idea how to find out about computer speed. Thanks so much.