CELTA Training Course - Face to Face

No. The vast majority of people who take our course do not have any teaching experience. The CELTA course is designed to give you the necessary skills for the classroom.

Yes. While previous teaching experience can be an advantage, it is a Cambridge requirement that candidates complete all aspects of the course fully.

You will be teaching real students at two different levels over the course . There will be between 5-15 learners in each lesson. They know you are in training and are enthusiastic to get English classes for 2 hours.

A lot of teaching is about developing the skills of a learner.  So, you will be getting learners to do reading, listening, writing, and speaking and helping them to become better at this skill.  You will also teach grammar and vocabulary during your teaching practice.  We give you a student’s book and notes concerning what you need to teach. 

To meet the assessment requirements, candidates must attend a course and:

• Practice-teach classes of the relevant age group and size for a total of six hours
• Observe experienced teachers teaching classes of language learners for a total of six hours
• Maintain and submit a portfolio of all coursework including all written assignments and materials related to teaching practice

Assessment is continuous and integrated. There are two components of assessment:

1. Planning and teaching
   1. By the end of the six hours of assessed teaching practice, candidates should have demonstrated successful achievement of all of the teaching practice assessment criteria
2. Classroom-related written assignments
   1. Adult learners and learning contexts
   2. The language system of English
   3. Language skills
   4. Reflection on classroom teaching

On a face-to-face full-time course, a regular day is from 9am until 5pm.  The morning usually consists of two input sessions taking place.  These sessions could be ones like “Classroom Management”, “How to Teach Grammar”, “How to Develop Listening”, “Pronunciation Work”, etc.  We try to involve all candidates as much as possible in these sessions.  This generally lasts from 9am until 12 noon.  

We then do some Teaching Practice preparation before an hour-long lunch break.  This preparation time is your opportunity to show us what you are planning to teach and get some assistance from your tutors.  

Teaching Practice then takes place in the afternoon when you teach between 45 – 60 minutes.  You usually teach twice a week with Teaching Practice taking place on Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday.  Feedback usually finishes at around 5pm.

No.  It is not necessary to have a university degree in order to do the course.  You may not find work in Ireland or the UK without proof of a Level 7 degree (Ireland), Level 6 degree (UK) or equivalent.

Candidates must have a standard of education equivalent to that required for entry into higher education

The short answer is no (but it is possible to fail, and occasionally this does happen). The course is developmental. We want to see you improve each week and be able to reflect accurately on your performance. Failing teaching practices towards the end of the course is therefore is a lot more significant. It is quite common to have a below standard grade for one TP. Having a second below standard TP is cause for concern and at this point your tutors will do everything they can to support you.

Absolutely not. We are looking for applicants to have a good advanced (C1) or proficiency (C2) level.  You will be screened during your interview to see if your own use of English is to standard. We might ask you to complete a task if you do not have a recent certificate to prove your level. We find non-native speakers do quite well on the course as they have been in the position of the learner and have greater knowledge of the language system.

CES often recruits teachers who have successfully completed their CELTA with us.  We also liaise with schools abroad so there is often the opportunity to find work in around the world.

• For online courses, as well as having access to the official Cambridge platform, we also give all our candidates access to our very own CES Moodle platform.  This has been developed by our experienced team and contains plenty of extra invaluable content that helps to enhance the learning experience. 
• Our tutors are also always here to take any questions throughout the entire course.

Fill in our application form and email it to [email protected]. Upon receiving the application form, someone from our team will contact you to arrange an interview.  It is a Cambridge requirement that all applicants are interviewed.  Before the interview, you will be asked to complete a pre-interview task.  During the interview, you will be asked questions about teaching, why you are doing the course, answer some language awareness tasks, as well as doing a short writing task