Required Qualifications to Teach in Korea

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Required Qualifications

Required Qualifications to Teach in Korea

Korea employs many English language teachers, and generally does not require that you have any special qualifications for teaching English other than having a Bachelor's degree (in anything!) and being a native speaker of English.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree of any field or higher
Passport from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom, or the USA
English must be your first language
Enthusiasm about teaching
Teaching experience is preferred. If you have teaching experience, you will be offered better salary and benefits.

Do I need certification or TESL?

Korea Information - Required Qualifications to Teach in Korea

ESL - EFL - ELT - ESOL - TEFL - TESL - TESOL - CELTA - B.Ed - M.Ed

HELP!!! This industry is full of acronyms (click here for ESL acronyms defined). Should I take a TESL course or where should I start with things...

Often enough, Korean ELT employers are unaware of the standard, internationally recognized ELT training programs and certificates. Unfortunately, some Korean employers view language-teaching as something that people do for a couple of years after finishing university, and they are surprised if one pursues it as a career. This attitude tends to favor the unqualified and inexperienced applicant but certainly does not benefit Koreans trying to learn English.

On a personal note, I started teaching in Korea without a teaching certificate, without any experience and without TEFL/TESL or TESOL, in fact I hadn't even heard of the acronyms and ESL was still undefined for me. It took me all of about a week to realize I was in over my head. Yes, the school had textbooks and workbooks but I received no training on how to put a lesson together or manage a class. It took me about 2 months to actually figure that out and that was only because I was driven to succeed and I felt terrible for my poor students who were received sub-par English lessons. I highly recommend taking a TEFL course before you go or starting one a couple weeks after you arrive.

Requirements to Teach Children

Korea Information - Required Qualifications to Teach in Korea

Most Korean employers do not require an ELT Certificate. Having one, however, does usually result in a greater chance of being hired at a "higher" salary. The most useful and appealing qualifications for teaching children include:

a Bachelor's of Education and Elementary or Secondary teaching experience
volunteer teaching experience
tutoring children
daycare experience
any post-high school job that you've held which involved responsibility for children

Be sure to highlight this experience on your resume.

Requirement to Teach Adults

Korea Information - Required Qualifications to Teach in Korea

When teaching Adults, most hiring directors or employers would like to see at least a full-year of ELT experience as well as some sort of ESL certification or credential.

If a potential employer doesn't ask for these, you can be pretty sure the program is not necessarily focused on the quality of the teaching.

Some Koreans look for master degrees period for jobs teaching adults... there are a couple reasons for this, neither is necessarily a good one.

A Masters may suggest that you are more mature and therefore may be more suited to teaching older students.
There is a certain prestige attached to being able to say that their teaching faculty have Masters degrees.