A Challenging but Great Learning Experience

I initially signed up to take Vantage’s Combined TELF course, but I decided to change to their In-Class Course. The Course Director was very accommodating in letting me switch and it was all done with a couple of emails. He also quickly answered my questions about the course, TEFL and what I would be able to do with my certification afterward.

Vantage’s lead trainer, Chris, was very knowledgeable and he has about 25 years’ experience in the education industry. He’s a first-class coach.

He made a significant amount of material we had to go through both interesting and enjoyable. He uses a workshop style which I believe is more engaging and the activities we went through made us thoroughly understand the methodologies and techniques we were learning. Vantage run small classes to accommodate this style.

The practice teaching sessions were done with diverse types of students. We went to a local military school was quite challenging for our first lessons. These were primary classes with 5-6 years year old students. And as is typical in Thai public schools, the class size was 30+, which made teaching a challenging experience, but one does learn when thrown in deep water.

On the other side of the spectrum, we also taught young adults of 18 and19-year-olds at a nursing college in small classes of some 12 to 16 students.

Vantage also have their own Jobs Coach, and I worked with him creating a personal Power Resume and Cover Letter. He also taught us interviewing techniques and job hunting tips.

Overall it was a great learning experience, but a challenging one. I’m very confident that as a new teacher I can go out into the world and confidently and deliver successful Englsh classes.