When Michelle and I decided that we would be going to Thailand to teach English, we found out that you don’t really need any qualifications to get teaching work. However, with a degree and TEFL qualification, you can find work more easily.

The list of different TEFL qualifications was mind-boggling but our decision was easy. The course had to be short and it had to be cheap. This limited us to a 20-hour weekend course. Not the most prestigious or internationally-recognised of courses, but something that gave us an introduction to teaching English and a pretty certificate we could wave in the faces of prospective employees.

There were a few companies offering a weekend course that suited us but i to i were very helpful when I called them up to ask for a deal and were not at all pushy when selling. The course was a little more expensive than some others but we had a good feeling about the company and were not dissappointed when we arrived.

Teaching took place at Jury’s Inn, Manchester and was pretty intense (9am-8pm, 9am-6pm). Our tutor’s name was Meryl Burgess who kept things moving along nicely and had an incredible ability to teach without me being aware that I as learning until she stopped and analysed an activity we had just done.

The other students were great to work with and it was exciting to discuss everyone’s thoughts, plans and motivations. Meryl was also able to discuss her own experiences of teaching abroad and gave us an advice session on finding work.

I can only fault the course on its length. 20-hours allows you only to scratch the surface but is thouroughly enlightening nonetheless and you aren’t going to squeeze any more time from a weekend anyway. If you do plan on doing a weekend course, you won’t go wrong with i to i, but make sure you get plenty of rest beforehand!