Program Reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed teaching and living in Thailand. I met some amazing people along the way and it is definitely something I would recommend to anyone! When I wasn’t teaching during the week, the weekends were spent travelling the country. I loved the culture, the food and the whole experience was amazing! Teaching the kids was the best, it is classroom training you can’t get anywhere else and the 120 hour TEFL course was the perfect set up for working abroad. Can’t fault it!

I spent six amazing weeks teaching English to Thai teenagers in the Kanchanaburi province and it totally transformed my perspective on many things in life. Even at the age of 27 I found that I learned a lot about myself, made new friends and realised what my priorities on returning to the UK would be. I totally recommend this programme to anyone who wants to trial teaching English before committing to a 12 month contract - it's a fantastic opportunity to gain practical experience in a supportive environment. I also recommend to anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the 'real' Thailand. For anyone who's priority is to travel Thailand, I wouldn't consider this programme unless you plan to travel afterwards. This is a teaching programme and you should be taking the time to deliver engaging and effective lessons. You do have weekends and public holidays off to explore, but you are expected to remain on campus during school time and you should be looking for ways to get involved with the community and make a difference to the students. My tip is that the more you put in, the more you'll get out of it!

I taught in a secondary school and absolutely loved teaching teenagers. You can have a lot of interesting chat and fun with them! One of my favourite memories was being ambushed by my class of 17 year olds in the evening. They pleaded for me and my co-teacher to go with them to the next town and sing songs at the market. We jumped on board and found ourselves singing pop songs to raise money for less fortunate children in Thailand. I was so inspired by the students and glad to be part of the social action.

In advance of the internship I received excellent support from the i-to-i TEFL team. I also felt very prepared after completing the online TEFL course and an additional classroom practical course. The in country partners were also fantastic. They delivered a comprehensive orientation including trips that introduced us to Thai culture and food. Throughout my stay they made sure that I was safe and happy.

Finally, the Kanchanaburi province is a great place to be. I was only 30 minutes from Kanchanaburi town where there was a great backpacker scene and plenty to see and do. I was also a very cheap, two hour mini bus ride from Bangkok. After the programme I joined the organised trip to Koh Samet island. It was a beautiful and a fantastic way to relax after teaching.

i-to-i’s Vietnam internship is a great introduction to working and living in Hanoi. I’ve no complaints from sign-up to pairing with their in-country partner, ELC, and the included 120-hour TEFL course is bolstered with 20 hours of classroom training.

Vietnam also offers the best rates of pay and the cheapest living costs, so you make back the fee and leave the internship with a nice travel package.

I had every weekend free and used these to either explore Vietnam’s capital or travel the country; Hanoi is a great base.

Accommodation is basic but fine - and mostly importantly free including all bills. Electricity is the most expensive commodity here and there are no hidden fees. There is a bit of variation between the shared houses, some are better than others, but that's the same anywhere with any kind of student accommodation, and once you finish the internship, rent is super cheap in Hanoi.

BME is the English centre we worked for, teaching in public schools around Hanoi. They ferry you door to door by car taxi, a frustrating mode of transport in my opinion, and are at times unreliable, but they do try to make the experience a good one for you, something which is quite clear by the large community of teachers who either still work for BME (myself included) or still live in Hanoi. I bump into people all the time who started on this programme who are a great support network. BME pay on time every month and make sure that every teacher is working and living there legally: this means visas, work permits, foreigner residency, etc.

Life and work in Vietnam is not going to be the same as what you’ve experienced before. Communication lapses and miscommunication via language and cultural barriers are rife, but you will learn to adapt, teach, work and succeed in any and every environment.

My experience with i-to-i TEFL was fantastic, communication was good and explained everything I needed to know about the internship. I was offered a discount as I already held my 140 TEFL course, and had the chance to do another 20 classroom course during orientation which was good (although not specific to the teaching we would be doing in Hanoi). ELC who run the internship were very informative and supportive whenever I had any problems. BME the education company who we worked for in Hanoi were, majority of the time, quite unorganised, I do not know if this is a Vietnam thing or just for the company, but be prepared for things not to go to plan sometimes! The overall experience was amazing, the opportunity to see Vietnam and use my TEFL with the comfort of the support from the internship is definitely worth paying for.

Overall I really enjoyed the programme because it gave me the opportunity to move abroad with a certain degree of hand holding. I had some issues with the package I purchased. I had already completed my TEFL studies which I was told was no issue and I would finish the 2 day class training once I reached Vietnam. However when I sent on my certificate I was informed that I-to-I did not work with this company and I would have to complete 120 hours of TEFL in less than a month. The companies in Vietnam can be difficult to work with and at times manipulative but the help with Visas and housing etc was useful.
The package is good if not a little pricey.

The courses offered with i-to-i are amazing, I had the honor of taking the IELTs coach, Young learners, teenage learners and the main 160 hour +20 in class hour courses. These courses go in-depth in the areas you will you need to know and practice when going out to teach English internationally. The grammar lessons proved very practical, the extra material offered to buy also helped out greatly(teaching guides). You can't just choose the course and think you can rush finish it. Its gonna take time, and the amount of time you invest into it, will be well worth it in the end. Taking notes through the course, I look back and there was never a chapter that did not have information needed. The safe are also very helpful in and throughout the course, trying to help boost your confidence and guide you on the right path. I greatly encourage you to try it. On the plus side, it is a lot cheaper and I believe more fun then the oxford courses.

From the very beginning you get ripped off (scammed in my opinion). You get charged an application fee to sign up to the initial internship with I-to-I, thinking oh this isn't too bad? Wrong. 6 months later I still feel like I’m paying for everything myself.

You get introduced to the Thai company that are running the internship. They pay you a low monthly salary in my opinion. As well as this, your contract is on an hourly rate so if you miss any classes due to public holidays, you are obliged to work these on your days off (Saturday's) otherwise you lose your pay.

If you go to Thailand without an agency, there’s a chance you’ll get higher pay (a whole lot more, and sometimes more with a degree).

Speaking of degrees, the partner organization takes your ORIGINAL degree certificate and transcripts so I found it difficult to leave the internship. As well as demanding a lot of fines and charges if you do leave them.

In terms of communication they do not care, we have went weeks without receiving email replies from them.

When asking why we get underpaid, I felt we received a disrespectful answer.

They pay for our accommodation but we pay for bills. And the landlords go to any cost to keep your accommodation deposit.

Upon arriving you’ll have to pay out of pocket for for visas and work permits. We did not receive our visas to stay in Thailand until December after being there for two months, and we had to pay overcharges as a result. (They also pulled us from school for this, so we were deducted pay from school). As well as this we did not receive our work permits until February -- a week before the internship finished.

The schools themselves, we did not get allocated a school until almost a month of being in Thailand. I was moved from place to place by the partner organization with no permanent job. I moved from Bangkok to surin and then got moved all the way down south after some miscommunication and told I was working up north. It wasn't until the end of November (after having to use my own savings to survive as I was depending on a promised job) that I was allocated a school. For the selection process, there was 8 of us and we had to line up in front of 200 Thai teachers as they all analysed our appearances and bidded on who they wanted at their schools. We were then sent to each school after the partner organization told them we were all qualified and experienced teachers from England! When specifically the internship said that we did not have to be qualified to do the internship. So all the schools assumed we were amazing enough to run our own English courses.

I did not receive pay slips. I got underpaid each month. They do not reply to emails. Proceed with caution.

We did not receive a finish date and upon asking about a finish date since December we were ignored.

We were also told by I-to-I and the partner organization to not book flights home on the 31st of March when the internship ended. So everyone booked a few days later. We then asked about our visas, and the partner organization told us they would only pay for our visas until the 31st.

We worked 7am-16:30pm every day. But only got payed on the hours that the teachers actually signed our lessons for. It is advertised as a 5 month internship but we only got paid for 4 month, and one of those months was only half a month worth of pay.

You could go to Thailand, go to any school with a degree of any kind and be on a comfortable monthly salary and pay for a nice apartment with a bit of a spending cushion.

Beware and proceed with caution.

Hi!
My experience with my Thai Internship and GES Thailand was a wonderful experience. I was able to meet new people, great traveling, and an overall memorable time. The GES team were wonderful with helping me with my paper work, teaching, and living arrangements. They were very nice and helpful with everything I needed.The Orientation was a big help as well because I got to meet other interns and make life long friends and it also helped me learn Thai culture, language. A lot of my questions and concerns were answered as well. After Orientation, we had about 2 weeks to travel and explore before school started which was perfect to get a hold of my surroundings. Overall, I feel that I have grown as a person with this part of my life.I had such a great experience with this internship that I stayed to teach in Thailand and I am very happy with my choices and decision to stay. I would definitely recommend this Internship!!

I have been in Thailand since the 11th of October and still have received no placement. I have been moved twice (one of which was a two day journey). Four weeks later and I am still waiting for someone to contact me in relation to my placement. So far I have been moved twice, with no guarantee of a secure placement. I received a call from the company the night before last asking me to go to Singburi, where I was supposed to be forwarded the details of the school/accommodation etc. and starting in a kindergarten there today. Yet I have received no information whatsoever.
At this stage, I am extremely concerned with the lack of understanding I and the other interns have received from the staff at i-to-i. I 100% agree with all the complaints noted above

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my time on this internship, and I felt very lucky with the group I was placed with, and the in-country coordinators we had. However, I think the LoveTEFL UK team need to really be more involved, and actually go and see what the internship is like for themselves. We were told we didn't need Spanish, but really we did, and we found the schools that we were placed in were quite disorganised and our roles weren't very clear. All in all we didn't feel like it adequately prepared us to go on to teach ourselves.