I've been teaching with an online company for a few years and haven't had much experience with live students. Lauren did a fantastic job setting me up with a great company here in Taiwan. She streamlined everything and was able to get me in touch with some of the best schools. I'm extremely grateful for her professionalism as well as being a FREE resource. I only wished I would've found this website sooner. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.Thanks, Lauren and Go Overseas for this amazing opportunity.

I'm so glad I chose this program to begin my journey to teach abroad because an ITA Alumni is the reason I got a job overseas so quickly. Upon completion of my course, which I was able to do online while also taking college classes, I saw a post in the ITA Taiwan Alumni group where someone had a job opening at their school and was able to message this person and get an application in right away. It was a very quick process and I did not have to do much searching on my end for a good job overseas. If any of my friends or family wishes to teach abroad in the future I will 100% reference ITA to them.

ITA is one of the more expensive TEFL certification courses, for good reason. The value and assistance you'll receive are above and beyond. Career and course counselors go above and beyond to give you as much information as possible about your future home, guiding you in the right direction. My advisors called the Korean embassy and found out that exactly what moving with my husband would involve. Their advice pointed us in a much better fitting direction and to our new home - Taiwan!

I found this course to be very effective and useful in preparing me to teach abroad. The course was challenging and very encompassing. They also throw you in almost immediately to activity and lesson planning. While this seems very intimidating when it first happens, I am very grateful to have been exposed so early on. The thing I am most grateful for though is the job search guidance and alumni support. Student Affairs has been wonderful in giving me feedback and guidance on the resume and cover letter, interviews, and school locations. The alumni are also extremely well connected. Being able to speak with other people who had already spent time teaching in my desired country was so helpful in giving me confidence in my choice to go to Taiwan and reassurance that any question I have can be answered by another alum.

Ah ITA, you guys are good. I had already heard/read great things about their TEFL programs before signing up, so I didn't have to be seriously convinced. However, my initial contact call reaffirmed everything I'd heard and boosted my confidence in the program more-so. I initially was focused on the one-month intensive in-country TEFL program, but after speaking to a person in the office about what I was hoping to achieve with the certificate, I was told to go for the (less expensive) online program.

I really enjoyed the pace of the class, and the fact that the instructor took the time to respond to all of our comments. The weekly group-chat assignment also made it feel like more of a "real" class. Bonus: the instructor was also very familiar with Taiwan, so offered some great advice personally before I even set foot in the country. Coupled with the informational video chats held pretty frequently and live-streamed, I felt quite prepared jumping into the job-application process.

When I did begin to look for jobs, Christie with the Student Affairs team reached out right away and was nothing short of a huge help. She answered all of my questions honestly and promptly, and led me in a straight direction towards job success. After sending her a very late-night email with a contract from a prospective (now current) employer that was time-sensitive, she responded sooner than I could have hoped. Her confidence in the contract/employer and perspective as a "third party" gave me the confidence to take the leap and accept the offer - which I'm extremely glad I did today.

There are many programs like ITA. However, the professionalism and personality behind the organization was a win-win in my eyes. Like anything worth doing, I had to work hard and stay very organized/focused. But my journey from the first call with ITA to where I am now, months into my dream of teaching abroad, would have been MUCH more difficult and convoluted had I not taken the steps towards success with them.

I am so glad I chose ITA to prepare me for teaching abroad. I made the decision somewhat on a whim and all my conversations with the staff at ITA before, during, and after my course were more than helpful. I had assistance right from the beginning in planning for my move abroad, from practical information like how much I should save for start up costs to the less tangible support that comes from conversations about their own travel and teaching experiences.

The course itself was amazing! My teachers were both incredibly knowledgeable and experienced. They were able to answer all of my questions and I graduated with full confidence in my ability to teach English.

However my favorite part of ITA is the benefit of having alumni living all over the world, available to answer your questions and give you advice. I've loved helping people who are thinking about moving to Taiwan and I've been reaching out to alums in the countries I want to travel to next. It makes it so much easier to keep leaping when you're able to find out everything you need to know about where you're going to land.

My typical day includes traveling to and from work on public transportation and usually teaching from either 2-7 hours in a given day. There have been many good things that have come from teaching English, like the pleasure of spending time with young children and watching them progress throughout the year that you are with them.
Some of the difficulties have been that the pay is not very great and sometimes there aren't enough teaching hours given. It is also hard to adjust to new rules and regulations within a vastly different country than your own.

A lot of the schools and parents in Taiwan want only teachers that 'look' European, and despite the fact that I grew up in New Zealand and has English as my first language, my pay is half that of an European-looking teacher. Teachers that look Asian are paid less and are subjected to less-welcoming work conditions, and I have found that TEFL certificate do not improve the situation much. The program's great but I haven't found it a worthwhile investment as it hasn't really improved my work opportunities. However, if you're just looking for ways to be a better teacher, it would serve you well.