Anyone with experience in TEFL teacher training in London?

I'm thinking about doing a TEFL teacher training course very soon (Apr-May). It has to be in London, and either the Cambridge CELTA or Trinity TESOL certificates, though I prefer the former.

I've looked online and come across the following schools:

Golders Green College
International House London
Isis Group
Language Link
Oxford House College
Saxoncourt
St George International
St Giles

Anyone have any experience with these or other schools? Thoughts? Comments? Recommendations?

Any input is appreciated.

I did the CELTA at St Giles in Highgate. It was great. There's a bit of luck involved regarding which pair of trainers happen to be running the course during the month you attend, but generally a high standard - based on what I saw during the 2 years they asked me to stay on and teach.

A couple of the best trainers have left now, but it's probably still good. The month training is a very intense experience, and even if you don't end up teaching, you'll learn loads about yourself, and walk away with a bunch of decent transferable skills.

mind if i ask what the difference between TEFL and CELTA is?

two different examining bodies, pretty much the same course/qualification. CELTA might be slightly more recognised.

Was about to post a new thread about this but might as well tack it on here.

I'm thinking about doing a TEFL course (hadn't heard of CELTA) and was wondering how people had found it. I don't have higher (A-level) english but that's more due to the fact I was a waster in 5th year at school and at college when I re-sat it rather than I have any problem with the language but still kinda worried that I might struggle with a course like this.

I did a CELTA last year. I wouldn't worry too much about struggling with the course, you don't need any formal english qualification (as far as I know). Chances are you already know everything you'll have to teach just from speaking the language for however long you've been alive, it's just a case of learning how to explain that to others. During the course you study the specific bits of grammar or whatever it is you're going to teach next lesson, then repeat until eventually you don't have to refresh your own memory so much.

Feel free to PM me with any questions!

Cheers.

Going to look into the possibility of doing it as an elective this year (coz then I wouldn't have to pay for it) or if not then ILA funding, though I want to do a German course which is going to eat up most of that I think.

Seen a few courses advertised on the ILA site, seems to be lots of different lengths of course available, presumably the longer course you do the better stead it stands you in for getting a job out of it.

Did you do a course at all?

I did, well half of it anyway.

I did the classroom but but then my gf got a bit upset about the prospect of me going off to a foreign country so I never finished the online stuff.

It's not particularly difficult, just time consuming.

who did you half do it with?

Oh yeah that's the other thing, I did it in Glasgow with an utterly horrible little chauvinistic muppet called Mark.

Ah. Unlucky.
Ta for reply

Is anyone currently working in this industry at the moment?

I'm thinking of doing a CELTA and trying to do some teaching in the UK.

Any advice and information about working conditions would be welcome!