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Teaching online is an independent contractor position. Most contracts are offered for a six-month term, with the possibility of being offered a new contract thereafter. Contractors are responsible for their own taxes, as no withholding is taken from payments.

Absolutely. Online teachers come from a variety of different backgrounds. Often the best teachers are those who are interested in personal development, mentoring or the English language. If you’ve ever coached a soccer team or were the go-to person in the office to show the new guy around, you could have what it takes to be a great online English teacher.

Unfortunately, no. You need to teach on a laptop or desktop computer.

Find out more about our other technical requirements here.

You need to have at least a 40 hour TEFL certificate from an accredited source. It should be a general certificate rather than a skills specific version e.g. a TEFL in grammar. Remember, you can submit your application without a TEFL as long as you complete it before you start teaching. During your video call, our team will be happy to advise you on suitable courses.

Our students live around the world. Each country has its own regulations governing teacher qualifications. In order to offer you the biggest selection of classes with a variety of students, all online teachers are required to hold a bachelor's degree. Your degree doesn't need to be in teaching or in English.

You can get in touch with our core staff to discuss any important issues during the U.S.-business day.

EF has a global presence so we can also offer online help for technology and scheduling issues outside of office hours.

Not at all! Our Academic team creates optional materials which can be uploaded into the classroom in advance. They are provided as a resource tool for you. This means you don’t need to spend hours planning lessons or preparing activities.

Sometimes in Private Lessons, a student may request a lesson on a specific topic - then you can create materials relevant to that.

Yes! We understand the last thing you want to be doing is figuring out new technology when you’re facing a student for the first time. You’ll be given time to get familiar with the online classroom before you start teaching.

We have lessons scheduled 24/7 but we do have some peak times where there are more students looking for available online English teachers on our platform.

In EST, these are:

Monday-Friday

• 7am-11am
• 7pm-11pm

Saturday & Sunday

• All hours

These are the minimum hardware configuration for laptops and desktop computers:

• CPU: Intel i5 (10th generation) or higher; 4 or 6-digit identifier but should NOT contain the letter U.

  or

• AMD Ryzen processors 5 3000 CPU or higher AND Nvidia 1050 GPU or higher

• Memory: 8 GB or higher;

• HD: 30GB free capacity, SSD HD;

• Screen resolution: 1536 * 1024 or higher;

• Windows ONLY, Windows 10 or higher;

• Browser: Chrome 102 or higher;

• Webcam: 1080P webcam is needed (Logitech C920 recommended);

Network:

• Uncapped internet
• Download: 1 Mbps (2 Mbps recommended)
• Upload: 1.5Mbps ( 3 Mbps recommended)

These are the recommended peripherals:

• Green screen;
• Ring light
• Noise cancelling headphones.