The Department of Tourism (DOT) is inviting 200 teachers of English as Second Language (ESL) to join its free Online Master Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certification course from September 27 to October 10.

The 120-hour Online Master TESOL Certification Course is one of the initiatives of the DOT, through its Office of Product and Market Development, to support and sustain the country’s ESL industry.

The course aims to make the ESL teachers more employable by providing them with the current and appropriate teaching methodologies.

Chomsky Language Training Center, established in 2018 to provide internationally aligned and globally recognized training programs to ESL teachers in the Philippines, will conduct the certification course.

Entry qualifications for the applicants are as follow:
· At least one year of ESL teaching: face-to-face/online (without TESOL certificate)
· Certificate of Employment
· CEFR Level = B2 (via British Council ‘My English Score’) or any Proof of English language proficiency level equivalent to CEFR B2 (i.e.: IELTS, TOEIC/TOEFL, OET).

Successful graduates of this course will be registered with the American Licensing Authority of International English Language Teaching, an online database that serves as a reference for employers to validate the TESOL Certificate of ESL teacher applicants.

Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Interested participants may register through this link: https://bit.ly/37oI0sa

Like other industries, the country’s ESL industry is faced with an unprecedented crisis, with classes disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

ESL schools around the country have been forced to close down temporarily or permanently, leaving thousands of its teaching and non-teaching staff unemployed.

Before the pandemic, the DOT said the ESL market was a significant contributor to the country’s tourism industry and has seen the growth of various destinations of the country like Manila, Cebu, Baguio, Iloilo, Bacolod, Clark, Subic, and Davao.

To ensure that ESL teachers would be able to carry on with their profession and resume the service to the source markets, the DOT launched programs in partnership with the British Council to help them develop a working understanding of effective online teaching theories and strategies to support the transition from face-to-face to online instruction.

“The DOT will continue to identify and provide other capacity-building programs to assist the ESL teachers in navigating the online world of teaching while waiting for the re-opening of the industry,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.

“This training program is also expected to further enhance the qualification of our English teachers,” she added. (PNA)