Overseas Job. Scam?

October 10, 2004 1:38 PM

My sister was asked if she wants to join a friend teaching english in europe. One thing she said raised a red flag, though. [mi]

Apparently, the program charges $1600 for you to stay for four weeks and take the class to get your teaching certification. They would then help you get a placement teaching in the city of your choice. I hadn't heard of a program that charged to do the training, though, and that made me question it.

Does this sound legit? Am I simply being an overcautious older brother?

posted by SpecialK to Work & Money (4 answers total)

Response by poster: This is the program's website: http://www.teflintl.com/

Comments from mefiites that have done something like this or have researched it (or live over in europe) would help! Thanks.
posted by SpecialK at 1:40 PM on October 10, 2004

Depends on the certificate she would get. The best certificate, to my knowledge, is the CELTA. You can read about it here. If the institute she's considering is offering a different certificate, I would do a bit of research before commiting. There are a bazillion places offering their own certificates. Only the CELTA is universally recognized. Again, someone may have different info but that's my understanding.
posted by dobbs at 2:14 PM on October 10, 2004

Some tips on avoiding overseas job scams.
posted by claxton6 at 3:44 PM on October 10, 2004

Sounds like a scam to me. It would sound a little less like a scam (but still a scam in my eyes...) if they didn't make you pay for it up front but rather once you got a job. If they were truly a good school, they'd have deals with the schools out there to take the money directly out of the paycheques.

Sounds like she isn't going to Europe to get a job, but rather going to Europe to take a class.

pwb.
posted by pwb503 at 10:43 AM on October 11, 2004