From basic requirements to how you can find English teaching jobs online—here’s everything you need to start your online teaching career.
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The coronavirus pandemic changed the way we lived our lives. Nearly every country and community was affected—and the education sector suffered, too.
When the World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced COVID-19 as a global health pandemic, schools of all levels in countries worldwide had to shut their doors until further notice. With the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, many academic institutions had to abandon traditional practices and adopt distance learning practices to continue educating pupils nationwide.
The coronavirus pandemic significantly boosted the already-growing online learning industry. The field of online learning soon proved itself necessary during this time: not only did it provide students worldwide with an opportunity to learn from remote experts without travelling, but teachers established themselves through their own classes while homebound due to quarantine restrictions.
As early as 2019, our survey showed that 1 in 5 of our graduates went to find an online teaching job. Now that the pandemic has increased the popularity and need for online education, we continue to see the rise of teaching English online as a legitimate way to earn from home.
If you’re looking to join the bandwagon, this article can help you get started. We’ve included the basic requirements of an online English teacher and a comprehensive guide to choose among the three common job types: teaching with a company, on online marketplaces, and as a freelancer.
You’re bound to find an option that’s a good fit for your goals and lifestyle.
3 Steps to Build Your Foundation and Get Started
As the industry grows and many teachers flood into the online space, the demand for qualified teachers increases. But it also means you need to do everything you can to prove yourself and stand out from your competition.
Establishing yourself as a qualified teacher helps you get hired and attract more students for more income. In other words, even though it takes a lot of effort to build your credibility and skill, the rewards make it worth it!
Once you've completed the requirements and training, decide which teaching route you want to take. Because there are so many to choose from, let's look at how you can start teaching English online:
So, where do you start?
Begin by setting up the foundation of your online teaching career. Cover these basic requirements that teaching companies and students look for in an online teacher, as they will set you apart from those who just haphazardly apply for teaching jobs.
Gain initial experience: You can do an advanced course to get some practical experience with teaching online. We offer our Online Teaching Practice specifically for you to have the opportunity to try teaching English with Zoom. You may find it remarkably different from teaching in person!
Doing an advanced English teaching course also helps you know yourself more. Do you really want to teach English online? Is this something you truly want to pursue as a career? Does your teaching style match your intended students? It also serves as a "taste test" before getting into any company or starting a freelancing gig.
Update your CV: Lastly, prep your CV for sending to prospective companies and clients. We have a CV guide to help you write it, as well as our CV builder tool if you’re a TEFL Org student.
Writing your CV is crucial because any grammar or punctuation mistakes will affect your credibility as an English teacher. In addition, if you have any previous experiences or skills that can support your capabilities as a teacher, highlight them in your CV.
3 Ways to Find English Teaching Jobs Online
There are three simple ways for you to find English teaching jobs online. Since each has its advantages and disadvantages, we’ve outlined them below to help you decide which suits you best.
The first way is by working for a company that teaches English online. These are organisations that hire teachers as employees to work for them. While the hiring process depends on the company, it usually includes signing an independent contractor agreement to teach English online. You will likely have a TEFL interview and teach a demo lesson before they hire you.
Because of these beginner-friendly benefits, working for companies is ideal for new teachers looking to plan lessons and create materials.
Moreover, since companies are established businesses, you can start earning a lot sooner with a company than if you do freelancing. You can begin teaching almost immediately after you pass a company's application process, just to give some perspective. They’ll seal the deal, set up your schedule, assign you students, and all you have to do is show up in the virtual classroom. This process is fast, especially if you compare it to freelancing, where you’d have to do a lot of marketing for months before you start getting student inquiries.
Benefits of working for a company
Working with an established company is a great way to get started and gain experience, as most of them will do the following on your behalf:
Plan the ESL (English as a second language) curriculum
Provide you with the teaching materials
Decide on the learning platform (digital classroom)
Train you on teaching guidelines and materials
Streamline process from beginning to end, including dealing with any teaching concerns
The second way to find English teaching opportunities is by using online marketplaces or teaching platforms. This route is like a middle-way, hybrid option of working for a company and going freelance completely. You’ll have a sense of stability while enjoying more flexibility as a teacher.
The function of an online marketplace is to connect the consumer with a supplier. In that sense, online marketplaces for teaching English online operate as a platform where teachers can connect with their students. Said platforms take a commission in exchange for their service, where you can create a profile, set your own prices and hours, and attract the type of students you want to teach.
These marketplaces allow students to choose their teacher by browsing profiles. Because you’ll be on a list next to other teachers, you’d still need to do some kind of marketing to promote yourself and stand out from the competition. One way to stick out is to create an introduction video to show potential students how you’re like, and make sure that the prices you set are competitive yet reasonable.
What's it like to teach on an online marketplace?
Here’s an overview of what teaching on an online marketplace is like:
You’ll set your rates and hours
You’ll create your lesson plans
You’ll have to create an attractive profile to market yourself on the platform
You’ll have to find and engage with students to keep them coming back
The platform will manage the financial transactions
Complete freedom to build a business according to your preference and goals
CONS
Need discipline to stay consistent
Requires marketing and business knowledge to build a loyal student base
If you want to become a freelancer, here are some tips on how to establish your business:
Highlight your credibility: There are plenty of people out there trying to earn a little cash from tutoring or teaching kids after school. What you want to do is to position yourself as an authority in the market—highlighting your professional TEFL qualification and past experiences.
Use professional equipment: A blurry camera or choppy internet connection eliminates any atmosphere of professionalism. Therefore, ensure that you use the best equipment you can to show students that you’re a legitimate online English educator.
Focus on brand development: As with any business, you need to build your brand and shape it to be something clients would trust for their education. Create a website, have social media presence, and develop your niche to show students that you’re worth their investment.
Don’t be scared to push creativity: Now, as the industry grows, customer expectations rise as well. This means you need to consider how to set up your virtual classroom and how creative you want to be to set yourself apart from the competition. For example, online whiteboards enable your English students to interact in lessons, while online games can help them feel more comfortable with you.
Know how to price fairly: You need to find the sweet spot to charge at the highest cost possible without alienating your potential clients. Charge too high, and they’ll get turned off; charge too little, and they might devalue your abilities. Ensure that you calculate how much you need to make a full-time wage while considering how much students would be willing to spend.
With so many opportunities for business in the digital age, choosing to teach English online is a great way to help others and earn while staying home. Teaching English online is a great way to explore your own interests and make money in the process. The more you enjoy what you're doing, the better opportunity it will be for students to learn from someone who cares about them.
Lastly, the third way is to start your own online teaching business from scratch. While working for a company or marketplace are the two common ways to enter the ESL world, you can certainly set up your own business if you’ve gained enough experience to know what makes an ESL service perfect.
However, no matter how glamourous “building your own business” sounds, working as a freelancer entails a lot more sweat and elbow grease on your end. You have to do everything from advertising to recruiting students and collecting payments—many of which may be new to you.
After reading through this list, these could either be advantages or disadvantages from your perspective, depending on your goals. You’d have to find your niche, promote your brand, do all the finance work, and manage a business.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of perks in setting up a successful English learning business. For one thing, there’s virtually no ceiling to how much you can earn. It’s up to you to grow as big as you want the business to grow. You also have the opportunity to chase the whole reason why you became a teacher in the first place—focusing on the students or teaching style you’re most passionate about.
Managing your freelance teaching
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll have to manage:
Creating your English teaching curriculum
Planning each lesson and its corresponding teaching style
Deciding the age group(s) you'll teach
Determining the class size
Your payment structure and rate, and methods
Your teaching schedule and number of classes
Your primary teaching platform where students can find and learn from you
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How can you make the most money as an online English teacher?
A. If you want to earn top dollar as an English teacher, you should get your TEFL qualification as soon as possible, choose your teaching niche, and seek the highest-paid online teaching companies. Ensure that you’re working during peak hours, and make the most out of the students and classes assigned to you. Once you’re all set up, you can start your own English tutoring company and keep all the profit you make.
Q. How do you get more students as an online English teacher?
A. If you’re working for a company, the number of students and your schedule might be less flexible. However, if you’re working via an ESL marketplace or your own business, you can amp up your marketing efforts and generate more interested students.
There is an element of digital marketing strategy that comes into play, coupled with your actual skills in using software and tools, advertising, and creating lessons that gain positive reviews.
Q. What are the best sites to teach English online?
A. There are a lot of English teaching sites for you to choose from. We understand that they may be overwhelming, especially if you’re unsure what you want to prioritise as an online English teacher.