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Teaching English Online Without a Degree; How to Do It!

Is it possible for you to be teaching English online without a degree? Yes. Absolutely. Let me explain. Firstly, teaching English completely changed my life. It allowed me to start travelling the world, and earn money anywhere. Getting my TEFL and teaching English in Thailand and South Korea was one of the best decisions of my life, and set me on my way to make my first $1million dollars from my blog, and visiting every country in the world. But how can you do it in 2020 and beyond? 

First, Get A TEFL qualification

If you don’t know what a TEFL is, it is a qualification to Teach English as a Foreign Language (I explain what a TEFL is here in more depth). 

To get this diploma, you can either study in a classroom to become TEFL-qualified, or you can study online to become TEFL qualified. It can cost as little as $300, and it’ll give you the freedom to teach English almost anywhere in the world. Or even better, online!

Can Anyone Teach English?

I answer a lot of questions about teaching English overseas here. But basically,  if English is your first language, or you’re fluent in English (harder to find jobs, but still possible), then you have the opportunity to get a teaching job in almost every country in the world. 10 years ago, I used this avenue to pursue teaching English in Thailand, it was one of the best years of my life. I had no experience, I didn’t speak any Thai, and I had never traveled. Just taking the leap of faith was hard, after that, it was the adventure of a lifetime. For you guys,  thanks to modern technology, now you can have even more freedom and teach English online. That can be teaching English to kids, HSC English tutors, or to adults. Anything really. Travel as you teach. Amazing.

Teaching English Online (with or without a degree)

So long as you have a good internet connection and a laptop, teaching English online (even without a degree) is possible from anywhere in the world. The freedom that teaching English online can give means that people can effectively become digital nomads almost overnight. What used to take years to work out, people can now make money from their laptop and travel at the same time. It’s amazing, and something that I wish had been available to me when I first taught English back in 2007-2009. 

Do You Need A Degree to Teach English Online?

Short answer. No.

Another huge benefit of being able to teach English online is that you’re not at the mercy of Departments of Employment. For example, I taught English in Thailand and South Korea, both countries need you to have a degree in order for you to teach. It’s a legal requirement for you to have a degree in order to be granted a work permit. Simple as that. The schools don’t care, but they have to respect the law. With teaching online, that barrier is removed and you can begin teaching English online without a degree immediately. Now that is a serious opportunity. 

If you want to physically teach in a country, as I did, just make sure you do your research about each country to make sure you’ve got everything in order before you arrive. For those of you who don’t have a degree don’t worry because there are still plenty of options available – especially when it comes to teaching online.

How To Teach English Online Without A Degree

When you want to teach at a school or language centre you in most countries these days, you do indeed need a degree and a teaching qualification. The solution to that is: teaching online without a degree. 

So how can you do this? As I mentioned above, first get qualified with a TEFL course – getting qualified is fairly straight forward and affordable. Companies like The TEFL Academy are the places you should be looking at. You do everything online, it takes around 160 hours and costs less than $300. That’s a pretty good way to get qualified and start your teaching journey without a degree.

Within a week or two, you’ll have your TEFL qualification. Then it’s time to sign up to an online teaching platform, start earning money and travelling the world.

Here are some well-known companies that’ll let you teach English online without a degree:

• Cambly
• PalFish
• Lingoda
• Open English

Sign up to any of those, and you can expect to earn anywhere between $12 – $30 per hour. Easy as that.

What’s Teaching Online Like? How Does it Compare to Standard English Teaching?

I have taught both in a classroom and online in the past. They both have their benefits but the aim remains the same, to deliver a quality lesson to your students. With the current situation in the world, and most countries on lockdown, teaching online has never been so important and a service in big demand. The main difference is that 99% of the time, your online English teaching will be one-on-one, whereas when you’re in a school or language centre in Thailand or Peru, for example, you’ll be in a classroom full of people. 

The benefits to you, the teacher, are huge; flexible timetable, flexible location, no travel costs, teach students from all over the world and teach as many classes as you like.

The experience of teaching online takes a little getting used to at first but I found it really rewarding because you get to teach the student without the distractions of a class. The student will be at home, in comfortable/familiar surroundings, so they’re at ease and fully focused on learning. There are challenges with not being physically in the same room but I would say teaching online has many more benefits than being in a school.

Thoughts On Teaching English Online Without A Degree

I am yet to find such a straight forward and simple way for native English speakers to earn money online when they travel.  Sure, starting a travel blog, and online business is the dream, but they take time to pay off. With teaching English Online without a degree, you can change your life instantly, and then if you choose to, you can work on the big money later.

All you need to do is get your TEFL sorted and that’s pretty cheap (just ditch the beers and Starbucks for a month and it’ll cover the cost). That can take as little as a week or so. Sign up to the various online teaching platforms and away you go. Teaching English changed my life, and I’m sure it can do the same for you. And in fact, it’s even better now because teaching English online without a degree is now possible, and you don’t have to be stuck in a classroom for a year, like me in Thailand. Enjoy the change of life. What a time to be alive.