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Teaching English Post-Covid19
In the first 18 years of the 21st century, the tefl industry, and the opportunities it provided to teach English around the world, skyrocketed.
This increase in demand for the English language was partly due to local schools in many countries starting to teach English to students from a much younger age and the increasing value being able to speak English has in many areas of employment and industry.
In recent years China has become the largest employer of English language teachers in the world.
Before the coronavirus outbreak in late 2019, there were many English teaching jobs advertised online which you could apply for from home, be interviewed for, and if successful be offered a job, which you would start once you arrived in the country.
There were some countries that you could go to without having a job offer and apply for positions on the ground. You would then be interviewed in person and then start teaching when offered a job.
Some jobs even provided benefits such as housing, paid flights or flight reimbursements, health insurance, and paid vacations.
But then in late 2019 covid-19 struck and basically the world closed and we were all told to stay home. But despite this, covid decided to stick around and we couldn’t sit around waiting for it to go away, so more and more people started working from home while lockdowns and travel restrictions remained in place across the globe.
With schools closed and extracurricular activities off the table, a lot of parents turned to online tuition for their children.
There were already a number of companies that hired native and high-level English speakers to deliver English lessons online. When covid hit, the demand for online lessons, especially from China, dramatically rose and many more teachers were hired to supply the demand.
Many schools and language centres around the world which hired foreign English language teachers to teach in person at their institutions, also started delivering their lessons online.
As the lockdowns and social distancing started to slow the spread of the virus and schools in Asia started to reopen, the demand for online teachers dropped.
Now, following the introduction of the vaccine, and with many countries having already vaccinated a large portion of their populations, the demand for in person English language teachers is likely to rise.
Some of my English teacher friends who returned to their home countries when covid hit, are now back abroad and teaching in-person in schools, language centers, and universities.
Some countries are now accepting applications from teachers who aren’t already in the country for face-to-face teaching positions starting in September.
Whereas I don’t think it’s a good idea to get on a plane, fly to another country and try to find a job on the ground just yet, it might not be too far off.
Covid-19 has changed the way that many people around the world live, work, and travel, and due to the nature of the TEFL industry, it too is likely to change.
Post covid, health insurance is likely to be of even more importance. Some employers will still provide teachers with health insurance but there is the chance that some won’t provide cover for any future outbreaks such as covid19. Having your own insurance might provide you with better coverage for healthcare and extradition so if you are wanting to teach English abroad, my advice is to start looking at insurance options and do read the small print – most travel insurance policies are invalid for people who are working abroad and not all will cover the cost of leaving a country due to a pandemic.
On a more positive note, employers are likely to value online English teaching experience much more than they did pre-covid19; in the event of any future virus, teachers who are able to move their lessons online and continue delivering high-quality lessons will be very valuable for schools and language centres.
Whilst it will take time for there to be the same number of available teaching opportunities as there were pre-covid, now is the perfect time for those of us who can’t wait to start or re-start teaching English in classrooms in foreign lands to get ready to meet the demands of TEFL post-covid19.
If you haven’t taught online, and you can spare a few hours a week, getting some online teaching experience is a great start.
My course How to Teach English Online Independently is a great start if you’re interested in finding your own online students rather than making the commitment of working for an online company, and even for those of you who just want to get a few ideas of what to actually do in online English lessons.
If you want to step into the classroom with a range of activities up your sleeve, have a look at my course; 50 Low/No Prep Games for the TEFL Classroom.