What is your favorite travel memory?
My favorite travel memory might be the time I was traveling through Asia and offered a free English class to a hotel manager's son in Laos in return for a free night's accommodation (I was broke). It worked and set me on my path towards working in ELT. That was in 2001 and I haven't looked back since.
How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?
Since 2014 I have been the Sales & Marketing Director for Oxford TEFL. My career path started with a strong desire to continue traveling and make a living at the same time. So, in 2005, I came to Barcelona to become a qualified TEFL teacher. After a few years of teaching English as foreign language in local schools, I started to feel I wanted to try something new. I became interested in management, sales and marketing so I enrolled in a Diploma in Educational Management. Soon after that, I developed my own English immersion courses, which involved taking English students to my home town Winchester, in the UK, to learn English with me. It was a big learning curve as this involved me leaving my comfort zone and retraining to some extent in order to build a website, create social media profiles, source partnerships with schools in Spain and run my own business. During this time, I also completed the Trinity DipTESOL with Oxford TEFL which was the seed for the relationship I have built with the company over the last 12 years. The Trinity DipTESOL proved to be not only a valuable stepping stone in my teaching career but also because the Oxford TEFL team at that time decided that I should become more involved in the sales and marketing of teacher training courses. It was such a great opportunity for me that I decided to focus only on this and retrain again to obtain the Diploma in Professional Marketing. I really believe in being a lifelong learner and I am always looking for new ways to hone my skills and find ways of applying this to my work. I usually take a new course every couple of months to keep updating my skills. One of the main things I have learnt over the years of working with Oxford TEFL is the importance of having a strong and dedicated team. My team give me the confidence and flexibility to start new chapters in the Oxford TEFL journey, such as developing a new Spanish teacher training department. As the Oxford TEFL brand has grown over the years, it has provided me with lots of new challenges that I can only be grateful for because they have offered me the opportunities to apply my skills and be creative within my role.
What is the best story you've heard from a return student?
One of our CELTA applicants from years ago didn't meet the entry requirements to be accepted onto the CELTA course due to her level of English so she enrolled in our Online TEFL Starter course instead and kept studying English to improve her accuracy. After a year or so she was accepted and completed the online CELTA course with us. A couple of years later she enrolled in our Trinity DipTESOL course which is for experienced teachers who want to advance their career. She is now running her own school in Italy! It just goes to show what determination and focus can do for you.
If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?
If I think back to those days when I was still a traveller and looking for my next adventure abroad, I would have enrolled in our CELTA + Developing Teacher with Spanish course. This would have been my first stepping stone to a new life in Spain, learning the lingo and starting my career as a teacher. This combination of programs also makes it easy to meet other foreigners in Barcelona which is ideal for those who are traveling alone.
What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?
Since we opened in Barcelona in 1998, we have been helping teachers gain qualifications which have allowed them to teach English around the world, develop their careers and develop their professional skills. We are the most popular online CELTA course provider and a leading Trinity DipTESOL course provider worldwide. Our graduate recommendation rating is 9.4 and part of this is because we listen closely to our graduates to keep improving what we offer. Over the years we have earned accreditation from Cambridge Assessment English, Eaquals and the Instituto Cervantes which is a huge achievement. This helps guarantee our trainees and students that they will receive the best possible service from us at the highest of standards and that we will be able to help them reach their goals.
What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?
I think that we are all moving towards a more environmentally-aware, sustainable way of consuming. People are much more considerate when choosing which brands to build relationships with so I think that brands who demonstrate a clear commitment to reducing their environmental impact or contributing back to society will become more popular, relatable and sustainable in the long-term. For education providers, this will involve some hard work but it will also, hopefully, mean a much more holistic business model which is not solely aimed at profit making, but also that aligns with the values that consumers are asking them for. In the case of Oxford TEFL; we have built a relationship with Camfed which provides education for girls in Africa, and we have also made all our courses 100% free – saving around 5000 photocopies per week. It's also important to seek out a great team for whom you can provide a springboard for their own personal and professional growth. This will help ensure that, as a happy and fulfilled team, we can stay aligned with the values and mission of the company. And finally, as mentioned above, listening closely to what people want and finding a great solution for them.
