I am a recent US college grad looking to travel and teach English overseas. I am pretty informed about the TEFL/TESOL program but am hesitant to pay such a hefty fee without looking at all my options. I've heard brief remarks from a couple of people who say not to waste money getting a TEFL certificate, but rather just do it independently. I don't know what that means or how to go about even doing it. Any advice or input from experienced TEFL or non-TEFL certificate recipients would be grateful.
In my experience it really depends on where you want to go. There are many opportunities in Asia for instance that do not require any extra teaching certification. Teaching jobs in Europe on the other hand tend to require extra certification if you want to be competitive (it is also a little harder as an American as most schools will prefer to hire someone from the UK who already has EU citizenship).
If you do decide to take a TEFL course, carefully research the different options and programs. I would personally take at least a 120+ hour course. These are widely accepted all over the world and is your best value for the money.
Good luck!
I just took a TEFL course here in Brisbane, Australia and found it to be very helpful. I didn't really need it for the job I was applying for, but decided to take the course anyone because I knew next to nothing about teaching English. My course was 120 hours and included something like 16 hours of observed classroom teaching.
Overall, it was fun and now I feel much more confident about teaching in the classroom.
Good luck!