From no experience to a dream job in months, weeks or days?

Regardless of your current situation – whether you’re a student, full time professional or between jobs – your first step will be the same. To complete an accredited English teaching course before you can take your TEFL abroad. Fortunately, there are plenty of options available that can work around your current circumstances and your patience levels.

The first thing to decide is whether you would prefer to study your qualification online or in person. Generally speaking, you will be able to complete an in person course faster. Using our courses as an example, the online courses take between 6 and 10 weeks to complete whereas the in person courses run between 4 and 6 weeks.

Of course, the online courses are slightly cheaper so that is another factor to take into consideration. However, in choosing to study online, you miss out on the face-to-face expertise of trained professionals and the opportunity to get a taste of the new life that you are chasing. So, although slightly more expensive, by choosing to study in person you will become qualified more quickly and have some amazing new memories as an added bonus.

With that being said, not everyone will be in a position to take 4 weeks out of their day-to-day life to study their TEFL on the beach. I wasn’t fortunate enough to do so. Instead, I was working full time while studying for the qualification online during my free time. Which meant mornings, evenings and weekends. Now I know that sounds like a lot of work but there are many accredited online course providers that allow up to six months to complete the hours you need to gain the qualification.

I studied with The TEFL Academy and managed to complete my 168 hour level 5 TEFL course within three months. The beauty of this method is its flexibility. If you are dying to get out there and experience life in a new country as soon as possible then you can fly through the modules in possibly only a few weeks. Or if, like me, you are more content to take it steadily, then you have plenty of time in which to do so.

The final consideration, with regards to how long your course will take, is to decide on the level of qualification that best suits you. The minimum amount of study time most providers offer is a 120 hour tefl course which will give you a level 3 qualification, equivalent to a UK A-level. Your other option is a 168 hour level 5 course, equivalent to completing the second year of a bachelor’s degree in the UK.

Your decision here should not be based on the time to complete each, however, instead you should conduct some research into the area you would like to travel to and find out the type of qualification that schools in the region typically require. You can do this by using a search engine for TEFL placements, such as TEFL.com, or by contacting schools and academies directly and enquiring about what they are looking for in prospective teachers.

So, in answer to our original question, the time it will take you to start that new life is entirely dependent on how long you want to spend gaining that accredited TEFL course online or in person. If you are in a hurry then an in person TEFL course in Malaga will take only 4 weeks. If you decide that a more leisurely approach is better for you, then it could take up to 6 months. Regardless of your decision, you will be entering a new exciting period of life that will be unlike anything you have experienced before. Good luck!