Program Reviews

As I was working full time, I couldn’t afford the full 4 weeks of a standard In-Class course at Vantage full time. So I opted for their Combined Class, where I did the course book online and then came to Bangkok for a fortnight to do my observed practice teaching sessions.

I worked my way through the 20 modules over about a 7 week period. I had no difficulty doing the work online and the programme was well organized and everything worked effectively. I also got support from an online tutor and I received prompt replies within a day or so.

After I completed the online portion, I came to Bangkok for my practicum where I taught six classes over two weeks. I first thought it would be pretty easy to do that over two weeks but I soon realized that the formulation of lesson plans—and many revisions—did take significantly more time than I originally planned.

The feedback I got from Vantage’s trainers was focused, highly targeted and very useful. Even though I was an experienced educator, I was relatively new to teaching non-English speaking students and I found the communicative approach I was now using highly effective. I saw myself getting better at it with each practice session. We also had to observe the trainers do their ‘expert demonstration” session as well as other trainees practice classes and learn from their experiences as part of our overall practicum experience.

I have thoroughly enjoyed doing my TEFL at Vantage and I would recommend these guys without hesitation. They go the extra mile to ensure you come out ready to teach

Vantage was great!

The observed teaching practices were both a lot of fun and an incredible learning experience. This is where I really acquired my new teaching skills. I found myself getting better with every practice session aide by the expert advice provided by the course instructors. After every assessment, I was always given a new challenge work in my next observed class. It was here that my teaching knowledge from the course book morphed into teaching skills.

I should back up a bit here. Before I even step into a classroom I first learned how to formulate a viable lesson plan so I could successfully teach to non-English speaking students. That meant I had to be aware of my student’s English levels. Vantage showed me how to do this. These guys are also an authorized Cambridge exam centre so teach about testing and how to measure language proficiency something I believe other TEFL centers don’t even cover.

As hard as this was in the beginning, with each succeeding lesson plan I seem to get better and faster so that by the course’s end I pretty much had this under control.

A truly great class with awesome instructors. You can’t go wrong with these guys.

I was quite worried about getting a job as an English teacher, even though I’m proficient, I’m a non-native English speaker. I’ve heard too many stories about how non-native speakers need not apply!

Vantage quickly put me at ease. They have their own dedicated jobs coach. Not only did the help me in creating a Power Resume, but I was also coached on interviewing techniques and specifically how to handle the NNES objection. They also reached into their network and I secured an interview and hired with a short time after graduation. The good news got better as this school isn’t far from my home.

The entire Vantage training team is highly professional. Their expertise was more than helpful in turning my initial hesitation about teaching English into a budding self-confidence.

I lot of this was developed ‘on stage’ in a real classroom. I had 7 hours of observed teaching to non-English speaking students. The feedback I got after each teaching session was crucial in building my confidence so I could live to teach another day.
My classroom experience was a huge component in the development of my teaching skills

I can’t say enough about my experience at Vantage. If you’re looking to learn how to teach at a highly successful level, you’ve found the right place.

Vantage is a place that I highly recommend anyone who would like to teach professionally in Thailand or abroad. These guys will make you a highly successful teacher.

I had previous teaching experience as I taught children in for almost five years, but outside my college education, I never had proper training in teaching a language. Teaching is what I love and, admittedly, I knew that I still lacked the specific skills for teaching English as a second language.

We had very engaging class sessions—our group soon become very close—as we went through the course book. But the book is just a base. The course not a series of lectures, but its developed workshop style so there’s a lot of discussion. This was particularly valuable as the trainers have decades worth of experience so they can really add a lot of insight and extra knowledge that the course book doesn’t cover. The experience is a kind of interactive classroom environment where you feel free to ask anything without being shy of making silly mistakes

We covered a lot of ground in Vantage’s TEFL course, but its engaging nature keeps it fun and in check. Just don’t expect to have a lot of free time when taking this course. But you’ll come out as a highly successful teacher.

Taking the TEFL Course really took me to a whole new level in the teaching line and I believe I was at the right place just at the right time.

This was one of the best courses I have ever taken in my life! Chris, Kevin and Ryan make an awesome team at Vantage Siam. The experience the team has definitely helped me and all my fellow teacher trainees when it came time to the teaching practicum. Their depth of experience definitely shows and cleared up a lot of the questions and doubts I had about myself and in teaching others. This was also in a great location in the middle of Bangkok and I got to explore a little bit of the city during the course. Highly recommend this school and no doubt you will learn a lot about yourself and others and come out with a TEFL training certificate to teach anywhere in the world! It is a course to be taken seriously, especially for people with no prior teaching experience. As long as you do the work, however, you should be fine and not anything much more difficult than a summer session course at any university.

The teaching practicum was one of the high spots of my TEFL course. Everything you have to do in the classroom was a real ‘live’ situation. I got really great feedback after each practice which was super helpful in my development as a teacher. Moreover, the self-evaluation made during the course allowed me to know my areas to focus on to improve for the next class. I think I got better with each practice session.

The trainers at Vantage are among of the best teachers I have ever studied with in my life! They explain and answered every question in details. Don't worry if you don’t have teaching experience before, because this course was very well designed and covered very thing you need in the future to become a successful teacher in the classroom.

I would recommend without hesitation taking the Vantage’s TEFL certification course to everyone who wish to get an intensive and professional level TEFL training program. This course had a very positive impact on my career as an ESA teacher.”

Vantage TEFL is a very well designed and very varied course. We studied phonetics and phonology, methodology, grammar, management classroom, evaluation and testing, materials compilation and teaching techniques. And we learned how to make ‘killer’ lesson plans.

This course will prepare you to be super confident and very successful in almost any classroom.

Vantage’s training team are fantastic teachers! They lead trainer, in particular, goes into great detail, explaining everything and answers to my many questions were dealt with very accurately!

The observed teaching practices were one of the most important parts of the course because the feedback I got after every session really made me a qualified teacher. Moreover, the self-evaluation made immediately after each practice session allowed me to know my areas of improvement and what I could do better or differently for the next class.

For those who wish to get a professional level TEFL training program, I recommend without hesitation Vantage’s TEFL certification course. This will launch your education career and this course had a very positive impact on my career as an ESA teacher.

I came to the TEFL certification course with many concerns and even more worries, but after the first day, I knew I was in the right place. We dove right into the material and it was surprisingly enjoyable.

Vantage run small class sizes and that translated into a great deal of personal attention—right through the entire course. “Vantage goes into a lot of depth with the course material and Chris added a lot of personal insight from his 25+ years in the education industry. He’s an amazing instructor.

The observed teaching practices were one of the highlights of the course. It’s one thing learning the material. It’s very different indeed putting it into action. The trainers explained that this was where knowledge become skills.

This course prepared me to be to direct a class and I’m happy to report in a big jump in my confidence levels. The whole Vantage team is very helpful and want to see you succeed. I highly recommend taking the TEFL certification course with Vantage.

I came into this course lacking confidence in my own ability to teach others. Vantage completely turned that around. The bottom line was that it turned out to be absolutely fantastic in terms of its efficiency and curriculum. It gave me the confidence to walk into an English classroom anywhere and teach at a professional level.

The trainers always kept saying that new teachers are really born in the classroom. They gave me a lot of theory in the actual TEFL courses, but it was the observed teaching practices that metamorphosed this knowledge into real teaching skills. The observations I got after each lesson were really eye-opening and I could see my development after each teaching session.

The entire Vantage training team is there to help. While their lead trainer obviously focuses on your development as a teacher, they also have a dedicated jobs coach who’ll sit with you to develop your own Power Resume and will work with you on interviewing techniques. The team includes a Thai speaker who shows you how the “other side of the desk” experiences learning a second language.

Vantage provides you with everything you need. You do need to come with the right mindset however. The class is intensive, but not overwhelming—provided you keep up. This isn’t a course that you can put on the shelve and cram during the last week. But the rewards will be more than worth it, in terms of the knowledge and skills your will development

If you want to begin a career as a professional teacher, these are the people you should be talking to.

I came to this program with five years of teaching young learners in China. Have said that there were many eye-opening methodologies and teaching techniques I learn during Vantage’s 4-week long course.

For me, the observed teaching practices—what Vantage calls the practicum—that was the most single most important part of the course in my development as a professional teacher. It was here that the knowledge I learned from the course curriculum became real teaching skills I could use in the classroom.

Vantage's trainers are incredibly supportive and always ready to help you. They also have wealth of experience as their lead training started in this profession in the mid-1990s

I also got a lot of personalized help on the job front. I sat down one-on-one to create my own Power Resume. I was coached on interview techniques. And my resume was placed with Vantage’s partner agencies that place hundreds of teachers in Thai schools each year.

If you’re looking to make teaching a career—getting a solid professional skill set in the process—you should be talking to Vantage.