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Head to dynamic Vietnam – a country rising in popularity with the traveling community. Take part in cultural and sightseeing activities, gain a TESOL qualification and then teach in Vietnam for up to a year!

Nepal – home to the tallest mountain and the deepest valley – is a country that everyone needs to visit at least once. Volunteer for women’s empowerment in Pokhara and take part in educational and health care initiatives. Live with a host family and other volunteers and witness first-hand the friendliness of the Nepali people.

Pokhara in Nepal is a dream location for volunteers looking for a city bursting with culture and beauty. Live in Lakeside a popular area in Pokhara and the start point of many world-famous treks. Teach English in Nepal in local school, working with incredible teams and energetic children.

Head to Hua Hin or Chiang Mai in Thailand and gain an internationally accredited 120 hour TESOL/TEFL qualification which can be used to teach abroad. Want to live and teach in Thailand? Use your qualification to gain a job in a reputable school and experience life living the beautiful ‘Land of Smiles’.

Bring games, laughter and fun to disadvantaged children in schools or nurseries in some of Port Elizabeth’s poorest townships. Your enthusiasm will encourage the kids to be passionate about their education and their future – these kids are desperate to learn, and your time as a volunteer will help not only with their studies, but their life chances too.

Why volunteer as a teacher?

Working as a volunteer teacher is an extremely fulfilling way to spend your gap year abroad or career break. Children are full of energy and see the world from a unique perspective – making each day different and exciting. If you are looking for English teaching opportunities and considering becoming a teacher in your career, teaching English and volunteering abroad is a fantastic way for you to gain valuable work experience and learn more about teaching. There is no better way to learn about a country than to live and work as a local community teacher. You will develop your teaching skills, help others to develop conversational English and in some countries speak the local language to develop your own foreign language ability.

At Oyster, we believe that it is important that the schools that we work with benefit from having native English and fluent English speaking volunteers. As a volunteer English language teacher, you will be provided with a full briefing, maximising the impact you can make teaching abroad. No previous teaching experience is required to teach English. There are plenty of volunteer English teacher positions in various locations across the globe. Teach English in Asia, South America and Africa.

Learning English is often vital for children living in developing parts of the world, particularly if they want to work in anything to do with tourism. A teach abroad program gives children the ability to learn English but also learn a little about the culture from where the volunteers live, again helping them to create a portfolio that may prove useful in future life.

For those looking to be paid to teach in a school abroad or wanting to gain an internationally recognised and accredited TESOL or TEFL course qualification, speak to the team or look at our TEFL jobs page. We offer TESOL training in Thailand.

If you want to be paid to teach English abroad then you will need to be a native English speaker with a BA degree. If you do not have a degree, why not join our teaching internship in China which includes a TEFL certification course.

Why different types of courses?

As well as TESOL and TEFL courses, there are also ESL teaching courses available (although these tend to be less popular these days) for people who want to become an English language teacher. These stand for:

  • TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
  • TEFL – Teaching English as a Foreign Language
  • ESL – English as a Second Language

For more information about how we select our childcare and teaching abroad programs, and support our volunteers, read our child protection and safeguarding policies.

You can also read more about how teaching on your gap year can help develop your professional skills.

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