Teaching TEFL online has never been easier in 2024, with lots of different opportunities globally. Each day, more and more students decide to learn English online, and you can be part of that by becoming TEFL-qualified and start to teach online today!

What course should I take to teach online?

Of course, to start teaching English online, you will need a TEFL certificate! You can obtain this very easily with one of our online courses. For online teaching, the minimum industry standard is 120 hours, which you can earn in a matter of weeks! If you want to obtain a higher-level qualification, which might be beneficial for you to stand out from the crowd, you can take a look at our 180-hour Diploma. All of our courses are completely online and self-study, so you can get qualified in a convenient way for you, based on your lifestyle and commitments.

If you want to gain more specialised knowledge (and confidence) in teaching online, then you should definitely consider the 60-hour Teaching One-to-One and Online course that we offer. It will provide you with an in-depth look at teaching online and private lessons. This is a common way for teachers to boost their TEFL income. The course will leave you feeling even more prepared to enter this world and start a new online career!

If all of the above sounds good to you, our Advanced Diploma offers a complete package for the wannabe online TEFL teacher. It comprises the 180-hour Diploma course plus 2 specialist courses (of course you can choose the Teaching online course in this!). It will give you the foundations of teaching TEFL plus the extra low-down in specialist areas to really give you that boost for teaching online.

How do I teach online?

There are many ways to teach online. Which one is best for you depends on what you’re looking for in terms of stability, flexibility and salary. Often, it’s good to combine several options but we’ll look at that later! Ensure to read any job adverts carefully so that you know what’s required of you, and what the company are looking for in an online ESL teacher.

Working for an ESL company

This is the most common way to get started. If you don’t have any/ much experience then this is the way through the door to start clocking up the online TEFL hours and build your teaching know-how. Companies advertise every day and offer a range of different positions to teach online. 

They can be anywhere in the world, so you will need to bear this in mind for the teaching hours. Peak hours are important in these types of companies. If you can’t teach the most popular hours of the day, then you might miss out on classes. It can also work to your advantage. If you’re looking for a morning schedule in Europe, then the time difference with a lot of Asian countries in the evening can work well for you. 

ESL companies typically have a minimal number of hours they expect you to work per week. They often offer reward/ bonus systems based on student reviews. A lot provide lesson materials ready-to-use so it can be a nice start if you don’t have any experience in lesson planning and making materials.

The downside of teaching for a bigger company is that the pay is lower than other routes. However, it might be worth it in order to get started and get some lessons under your TEFL belt! Then you are work towards applying for higher-paying jobs or exploring other options.

Tutoring platforms 

There are many platforms where you can advertise your teaching services. These platforms will help provide you access to students looking for teachers (mostly one-to-one classes). There is usually a commission involved in return for this. You can upload your profile, set your own rates and gather reviews from students. This will help you get more students in the future. 

The advantage of doing this is that you can set your own rates of pay. This means you can earn more. You need to bear in mind that the platform will charge a percentage so factor this in when you set your rates. You can check out other teachers on the platforms with lots of reviews to see how they present themselves and what they offer too. It’s always good to be aware of the competition in the market.

These platforms don’t typically involve teaching materials so you will need to provide your own. This doesn’t mean you have to create everything from scratch. A good teacher can utilise course books, and online resources and save their own resources for future use.

Set up your own TEFL business 

The most lucrative way to succeed in teaching TEFL online is to teach your own classes, away from any companies or platforms that take a cut of your earnings. In that way, you can set your own hourly/class rate and keep 100% of the earnings.

Word of mouth and reviews are very important when building up your own teaching clientele. To grow your business, it’s a good idea to develop a stronger social media presence. These days many people follow English teachers on Instagram, Youtube or TikTok, and then go on to book lessons from there. A website with your background, classes offered and prices is also a good way to show you are professional and ready to help students learn English!

Following on from social media, you can also think about creating your own courses. This could be an online group class you will run for a few months. Typically, teachers give students the option to pay monthly or offer a discount if they pay for the whole course from the beginning. This helps guarantee earnings for a steady amount of time. 

You can also create your own self-study courses to earn a more passive income. This is something that might be done when you have a bigger following and more experience. It takes a lot of work to create a course and you need to have a good presence for people to buy it. Building trust with your followers/ potential students is important. They need to trust in you, your knowledge and work before they spend more money on your courses or lessons. Remember reviews are always key!

How to be a successful online ESL teacher?

It might take time to build up full-time earnings and more time in order to be able to make money on the higher end of the TEFL scale. This is completely normal and achievable with some time and hard work! Like any career, it can take time to get the results you want, especially financial ones!

Starting off, it’s a good idea to keep your eggs in more than one basket while you build up your income. Very few ESL companies offer full-time hours – they often try to provide 10-20 hours a week, which is not always guaranteed. There are times when the work is lower due to holidays and dips in student numbers.

If you can get work with a few companies (especially in different time zones), then it’s a good way to feel more secure in your work and finances. Make sure to check your teaching contract for any stipulations about working with other companies. Some might specify you can’t work for another company based in the same country, but most don’t have any regulations about you working for others. 

The smart idea is to find one company with more hours as your main work and then pick up other hours and tasks with other companies. This is a good way to ensure you can get the hours you want and need. When you work online, having a plan b is a sensible move! Remember that there might be slower periods (August time is quite a universal one). It’s good to have other options for work if you need it during these times.

Needless to say you need a good internet connection to teach online and a quiet space. A neutral background is often preferred and good-quality technology such as a good laptop, microphone and headset. These are essential items for teaching online and companies expect these as a minimal. If your internet is unstable, you’ll need to invest in a better service or get a back-up. You will lose the work quickly if you can’t actually do the classes!

Where to look for online work:

Naturally, to find online work you need to look…online! Try different ESL blogs, job websites (TEFL.com etc) and tutoring platforms. Join relevant Facebook groups where jobs are also posted.  Take care that they are legit and research the company when you see an ad. You will often find reviews of other teachers leaving their experiences either on social media or at glassdoor.com

Some recruitment can be fairly quick and you might be teaching in a matter of a week or so. However, other companies might have longer recruitment processes and involve multiple layers of interviews (including a practice lesson). You can research recruitment at different companies online for extra tips and a bit of preparation! 

Working as an online TEFL teacher can be incredibly rewarding. You get to teach students from all over the world and expand your own ideas at the same time. You have more freedom to set your own schedule. As your experience increases, you can decide how much you want to make per hour, which is a huge advantage to teaching English online.

Get going today by completing your online TEFL certification and start earning online!