TEFL courses in London
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
This course takes place in London and we encourage the use of public transport. For people who then book onto a project overseas, detailed information is given on ways they can minimise their impact on the environment during their travels. We encourage our volunteers to be aware of their impacts, from carbon neutralising their flights to being aware of their water usage and litter and so on so that they contribute positively and not negatively to the community in this respect.
Our company:
You taking part in this project enables us to continue to donate financial assistance as well as necessary goods, where it is needed around the world. Examples of donations include building new classrooms, providing school uniforms for poorer students, buying computers, sports equipment, playgrounds, toys, mattresses, classroom equipment and funding school trips and the building of libraries, and more. We also donate significantly to conservation research efforts and the purchasing of necessary conservation equipment. In the past, these donations have been made in all continents and in projects where we work, and some where we do not work.
Recent donations made include:
- Donation made of approximately £300 to a school in Ghana to support the purchase of new equipment for a new classroom, funding to build new signs to advertise the school and money to purchase school books.
- Ongoing monthly donations made to orphanage in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and every year additional money given at Christmas to buy presents for children.
- Approximately £1,500 towards the building of a desperately needed classroom in a Zulu school in eMakhosini, South Africa.
- Approximately £880 to Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in Malaysia to help publicise the centre and draw funds to care for injured and abandoned Orang Utans.
We employ an all local staff force in most of our destination countries, which benefits the local economy. These range from skilled country managers, who are often pillars of their community, to local labourers and craftspeople. We believe in paying our overseas staff fairly, and many are rewarded with higher than average wages for local standards. When required, we send local staff on training courses to widen their skills. For example, a member of staff in South Africa recently attended an ‘eco-school’. Here, she was trained in eco teaching methods, which she will take to the schools around her region of South Africa to encourage eco-friendly farming methods.
We are committed to upholding strict ethical standards that ensure a positive and lasting impact upon the environments, communities, institutions, volunteers, animals, children and people that we work with. For example:
- We encourage our volunteers to make the most of local opportunities available to them, such as shopping at local markets, eating in local restaurants and using local services and transport.
- We encourage volunteers to pay fairly for goods and services. We believe that over payment for goods and services or payment to beggars can have negative consequences and result in the over-reliance of tourism within the local community.
- We strongly advise against purchasing wildlife souvenirs or anything which may perpetuate the death or cruel treatment of animals for the purpose of profit.
- We advise on dress codes and codes of behaviour in all of our destination countries to ensure volunteers don’t cause offence to local communities.
Our aim is to create always a win-win-win situation in terms of the benefits for the local communities and institutions that we work in, for us and for the volunteer. We do not embark on any project that is not beneficial to the communities, institutes or volunteers. We conduct regular volunteer satisfaction surveys to monitor our performance.
Our projects enable vital conservation, research, care and education work to take place directly where it is most needed. For example, the schools where we teach English very often have no other English teachers, and so they rely on us for continued lessons. We kept a Species Survival Conservation project in South Africa afloat until completion after it was threatened by lack of funds. Our volunteers contribute, all over the world, to projects that would not exist without them.
Community
This informal informative TEFL course is open to anybody who speaks English and has a desire to help others learn to speak English. English is such a powerful tool in today’s social climate where so much of tourism and business is conducted in English. This course helps to empower and enable people to go abroad and teach children and adults this vital language. It provides a supportive environment and a wealth of expertise in our tutors who are also, quite personably, available online after the course to help people fulfil their dreams of teaching and travelling.
TEFL is a sister company of our holiday company, an organisation set up 16 years ago to help communities around the world in developing countries by providing them with volunteers from developed nations. At the top of the list of benefits an international volunteer can provide to local children and people is the ability to learn English. This language ability significantly increases the job potential of the individual form the local community (not to mention their confidence), whether by enabling them to work in a nearby town, rather than the backbreaking and unpredictable work of ploughing the rice paddies as their ancestors have done for years before them, or by bringing more tourism into their area.
Having seen the results of voluntary teachers improving the languages skills of many, many people throughout Asia, Africa and South and Central America, we understand that the benefits of teaching are immeasurable. A course that enables willing, enthusiastic, busy people an opportunity to develop and use this skill is beneficial to all involved. We understand that voluntary assistance in the right place in the right way can have a deep and lasting impact on communities as a whole, not to mention the cultivation of lasting international relationships between individuals, teachers and students. Most people realistically cannot commit to a life long role of volunteering. However many people can commit to a short term project or two throughout their life. We want to enable normal people to learn how to effectively teach English as a Foreign language – in a short period of time – making travelling and volunteering, or a career in teaching an affordable and realistic goal, in turn benefiting many people all over the world.
