A lot of comments claim that TESOL qualifications aren’t recognized in Japan. That it doesn’t make a difference in the teaching situation or compensation. My experience seems to say otherwise.
I’ve taught in three private high schools as a regular staff member, not dispatch. Each time I was hired, HR told me I was a strong candidate not just because of experience and Japanese language fluency, but on the strength of a post-graduate TESOL diploma from a college. On my resume are a few presentations and publications, too.
My suspicion is that a lot of people posting here, since they have no qualifications, have no idea what the job prospects are for qualified teachers.
I’m not trying to be mean here. It’s just if you don’t know, you don’t know.
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Most people here aren’t actual teachers, but ALT or Eikaiwa instructors. In the lower level jobs, a CELTA or a TEFL or a Trinity CerTESOL don’t matter in the long run. You aren’t going to get a better salary with dispatch or Eikaiwa with those on your resume, though you might be more likely to land an interview.
I don’t think anyone is going to claim a Masters degree with publications is going to be ‘useless’. Especially when we are talking about direct-hire positions with Universities or private schools. Same with International schools and teaching licenses, having a license is simply expected when you start the conversation.
Also, you have a lot of things going for you based on what you have said.
* You are already in Japan
* You have a presumably high Japanese language proficiency
* Masters with publications
* Presumably previous years of experience built up teaching in Japan or back home
Not many can boast all these, depending on how long they’ve been working in the country. If anything, it would be surprising if you were not able to get more than entry-level work.
It’s going to be really hit or miss finding schools with staff in charge of hiring that even know what TESOL is. It’s not that they don’t exist, but they’re pretty insulated from the ALT/dispatch population and a lot of time they’re schools with enough/competent enough foreign staff that know what qualifications to look for.
As opposed to schools who have few to no foreign staff, and Japanese teachers of English that have little to no exposure to language education outside of Japan. Such schools are more likely to reach out to dispatchers or to not care about/not know about higher level qualifications.
If you already have connections with direct hire teachers with legit qualifications, it’s a lot easier to find the schools here that do direct hire and do care about people having an MA.
Are you talking about an MA in TESOL or one of those online certificates you can get for $200?
Agreed, I got my current job pretty much just because I have a CELTA. Yeah, your “international” daycare isn’t going to care, but plenty of private schools DO have people on staff who know what it is, and even if they don’t it at least shows that you gave enough of a shit to try to better yourself.
Can you post a link to the some of these “lots of comment” that say TESOL qualifications aren’t recognized in Japan? If you’re meaning an actual step up (private JHS/HS is basically glorified ALT work)
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1. If people want to work at a -legit- international school, you would need teaching credentials like a teacher’s license, DELTA etc. A TESOL would not help in this case.
2. University teaching would require an MA (can be in TESOL, English etc). A TESOL certificate also would not help in this case.
> My suspicion is that a lot of people posting here, since they have no qualifications, have no idea what the job prospects are for qualified teachers.
Very few qualified/licensed foreign teachers actually want to teach in Japan for the long-term. As such, they generally never reach the point of gaining access to the “good” jobs. Japan really has nothing to offer foreign educators other than a “wowee I’m living in Japan” experience. Pay is worse, Yen is weak, hours are terrible, family/friends are a world away, and for those not tenured, being forced to pick up your life every 1-3 years and move/job hunt is not an enjoyable or economical way to live. If you are lugging a family around, forget about it.
Those in the know and/or those with cushy positions are generally older than this sub’s main demographic and are not going to be posting on a primarily ALT/Eikaiwa venting/questioning subreddit. Such positions are generally kept until retirement and recruitment gatekept from outsiders.
My TESOL cert did nothing to get me a job. When I was job hunting at the time, private schools all but told me I needed an MA to have a serious chance. So I got my MA. My first post-MA job was a lot more work than ALTing and I created a *lot* more value for my school but I was paid exactly the same salary I had made previously as an ALT. Multiple times in my post-MA career, I have worked alongside non-Japanese teachers who had no TESOL credentials whatsoever, but who earned more money than I was being paid because they were on a legacy contract or because they played political games and got in good with someone in admin. At my current school I finally earn a comfortable salary, but I have to work my ass off to get it and I hear it’s not as much as I could make in a lot of American school districts.
Having been on hiring committees, I know that MAs can help an applicant out-compete a rival with a TESOL cert, which can help an applicant out-compete a rival with nothing. But depending on the timing, the school’s needs, and how many rival applicants apply, they definitely aren’t necessary to get in the door. And once you’re in the school, getting promoted isn’t really decided by qualifications, at least in places I’ve been.
I think it’s dangerous to generalize about jobs in the TESOL industry here without aggregate data, just going on personal experience. There are vastly more positions that open and get filled than any of us can possibly experience in a lifetime of working here, and the precise alchemy of getting ahead has multiple ingredients and factors that vary from job to job, manager to manager, and season to season. What works or doesn’t work in one situation may be irrelevant in another, and if we’re teaching, we are probably too busy with that to have an in-depth view of the national industry as a whole. What we think is knowledge based on our own experience in the industry is really just knowledge based on a very particular set experiences rolling the dice.
So the only thing I can really say is that it seems better TESOL credentials are more useful than no TESOL credentials, except for when they aren’t. In the end, the benefits I’ve gotten from putting dedicated time into researching what we know about how to teach and being mentored by professors who taught me how to read research with a critical eye has been a lot more reliably useful to me as a teacher than counting on the diploma documenting that research process to get me a good job has been.
The advice given on this forum is to get your MA/teaching license if you want to advance. That is good advice. Maybe a TESOL can get you into a private school, but an MA can do that better.
So, the advice “don’t bother with a TESOL certificate, get an MA” is good advice
It depends on what they’re looking for I guess. You don’t always get reasons for being turned down. I’ve been rejected for being the wrong gender, for not being the right type of personality.
Then again, I got hired at a uni before I got my MA so I’d have to guess that was something to do with having the DELTA.
I think the thing is that you need to take the shot. If you don’t then you won’t get anywhere. When I first came here, people told me that university jobs were impossible to get, forget about it.
Looking back it’s more like they just don’t want to study because they don’t enjoy teaching. You can get the MA in a year now if you are willing to grind it out.
It comes back to one thing for me: don’t trust anyone’s word here as gospel, find out for yourself. That goes for everything in Japan. A lot of people stay here a while and think they have everything figured out. But often they’re just putting on a show.