The normal procedure is to pay to get qualified. Then go and work in a school who pays YOU to work there.

Love TEFL have a great idea: you pay THEM to get qualified and then you pay THEM to go and work in a school for free.

Sounds a bit of a rip off to me.

Just get qualified and go and find a proper job. Don't get taken advantage of.

A wild guess here: do you happen to work for LoveTEFL then Mazz?

To the original poster... I have just thought when I was looking for TEFL courses and internships there is another company that do 5 month internships which are paid. I think you can get these through TEFL Heaven but I'm not sure. I just remember finding one that was paid but unfortunately I couldn't commit to it at the time but it would have been what I would have chosen to do if I'd had a longer gap to do it in.

So are you saying that you can find reputable teaching work with just the online course alone? I've lost count of how many job adverts I have seen that decline applicants who only have the online course.

I don't see what the issue is with paying £650 to a company that sorts you out with a teaching placement with the added security of there being people to turn to if things don't go well. Accommodation for 8 weeks plus a holiday at the end of it... you could pay out 650 for a week long holiday to a company.

To OP if you decide against an internship I would recommend signing up for an intensive or classroom based course rather than online as respectable employers won't touch you with just an online certificate and no teaching experience. Either way it's going to cost a few hundred.

Like I have already explained you aren't paying to work.

On the internship you teach roughly 10 hours a week.. that's hardly working but doing enough to gain experience. If you add up how much accomodation with cost you for a 2 minth stay, add in food and drink for 2 months, add a four star hotel for two nights then a floating hotel room on the river for two nights. Then add on the transfers from the airport and travel to the island to stay in four star accommodation on the beach for another four nights and how much would that all cost? So I don't see where your idea of 'paying someone to teach' comes from as after all that it doesn't work out really different from doing a classroom based course.. you have to teach classes then too and wait, yes you have paid to do the course...

you clearly have a huge bee in your bonnet about these companies. Of course they make money out of it, that's called business, but I don't see that as a bad thing when they are helping schools who can't afford to pay a full time English teacher at the same time as giving someone the opportunity to teach and learn skills, see if it is something they actually want to do.

And to reiterate, you won't get a job with a respectable school without any experience of teaching first. And like I also suggested for people who have a problem with voluntarily using their time to help others there are paid internships you can apply for aswell.

I won't be kicking myself in a few years because I have had a valuable experience out of it and it's helped me gain skills and confidence.

As you seem to know it all how do you suggest these schools out in remote areas who can't speak English themselves go about hiring and also generating the money to pay for full time English teachers for over 500 students?

How about the countries with a high poverty rate, children who are homeless and their parents can't afford to pay for them to go to school. Should these companies not build schools in these areas and supply volunteer teachers to help them learn to broaden their employment prospects in the future? where are they getting their income from to pay teachers when the students can't pay to go there?

These internships are good for people who also want to travel and try it without committing to a long term, paid contract but just for the experience. There's plenty of paid opportunities in schools out there for teachers wanting to pursue TEFL long term as well as these internships. Not everyone wants to teach English long term.

People have different reasons for wanting to do things meaning different ways of going about it are more suitable. No point in patronising people because they have a different view to you. That's just life. You don't agree with them, I do, and the original poster has the free will to make up their own mind what they want to do.

I took the 120hr TEFL course with LoveTEFL and found it OK for the price. I wanted to get a little teaching experience behind prior to applying for a TEFL position overseas and almost signed   up for the China internship. 

Edited by WolfSapphire - 20 April 2018 at 22:37

Mazz0801 wrote: I did the Thailand Internship with LoveTEFL June to August this year and it was one of the most challenging but also one of the best decisions I ever made. You are placed in a rural school with at least one other Intern and generally the only English speakers in the area. They place you in schools that cannot afford to employ native English teachers and they are so grateful to people volunteering to go there. It's great experience for teaching and the teachers get you involved with other activities with them and in the area. At weekends all interns get together and do different activities and explore the area and get aquainted with the local tourist street. Depending on what school you are placed in you may end up being thrown in at the deep end like myself, though one of my friends was more of a teaching assistant for the two months and didn't take any classes on her own. LoveTEFL were great when you sign up providing with lots of information and easily contactable. They have staff in-country as well to help you out if any problems. They do have paid opportunities as well which would be good after the internship. The only reason I haven't gone to them for paid work is because I have chosen to persue teaching English in Europe instead but I would recommend them. So in my experience Thailand was awesome, but I have heard great things about China too. Hope this helps

Edited by WolfSapphire - 20 April 2018 at 22:42