Review from current trainee on 2015 intake

I am a current volunteer on the ABCi intermediate programme. I have been asked before I leave to write a review of my experience and thoughts about this programme. Austria is a beautiful country to work in and we have seen a lot of the country driving to and from schools. One of the biggest pros of ABCi is that the students really respond to active learning, which is this company’s focus. I have worked with a wide range of different students and this approach seems to work well with almost any type of student. It was particularly beneficial to students with learning difficulties and disabilities as they found the songs very beneficial, with parents asking if they could sing them at home with their child to keep them learning English.
During my time at ABCi I have worked with many different types of children throughout Austria and have had over 320 hours’ worth of teaching experience. To my knowledge this offers the most teaching hours I have heard of for a TEFL and TKT certification programme, as you are expected to teach full time after just a week and a half from starting the course. This has been a primarily learn-by-doing experience with the academic part of the course being taught and assessed after working hours. This has been difficult as this means that during the beginning of the course we could be working at school from 7/8 in the morning to 1 / 2 in the afternoon, then do training sessions til 4, drive back to our accommodation by 6pm and then spend a few hours preparing lessons for the rest of the week and researching and writing assignments.
There are some financial costs to taking this course. Flights are not paid for, and you are expected to show proof of a round trip travel within a short period of time after accepting the position. For me, this meant borrowing money on very short notice. If you do not have the opportunity to pay for flights right away this could be an issue. It has also cost a lot in living expenses, particularly as I have had the Vienna location twice. It is lovely to live here but the living costs are more expensive than elsewhere in Austria. I would not recommend coming to this course with less than 1200€ at least. ABCi provide store cupboard essentials such as pasta, rice, sauce and bread etc. but do not offer any fresh fruit or vegetables. As fresh produce is quite expensive in Austria a food budget is needed. If you have special dietary needs this may be quite difficult with the store cupboard food and in Austria in general. Store cupboards contain meat sauces even if the people living there would prefer a vegetarian sauce, and most of the essentials contain gluten with the exception of rice.
I believe that my time here has been a generally positive one, and I have made some friends who I will stay in contact with for sure. It has also been a good taster experience of EFL teaching without a long term contract. This experience allowed me to trial teaching with no commitment and I believe this was helpful.