TESOL certificate or Bachelor degree

For the purposes of obtaining a Business Visa/Work Permit, the TESOL Certificate must be for a TESOL course that has assessed classroom time and must be of at least 160 hours duration.
No stipulation is made regarding a Degree other than 'a Degree' - it wouldn't matter whether it was a Bachelors or a Masters etc.

For obtaining work purposes, there are still a lot of language schools who will employ almost anyone.
Problems do arise though as most places only want teachers with white skin. It is not always the fault of the language schools, it's the people paying for the lessons!!

I can speak with some experience here.  I have a both a BEd and a 160 hr TEFL.  When I was giving my documents to my lawyer to assist in getting my WP, she initially said I would not need the TEFL certificate because of the BEd but she had a second thought and said that we had better submit it anyway.  I think the law allows for a WP for people with BEd (or whatever it is called in AU) and no TEFL.  This should be even more so if your major was EFL or ELL, but does the diploma indicate that?  If it does then I would apply on that basis.  The problem is that you never know about which bureaucrat will be handling your application.  If they reject your education degree then you could take a quick TEFL course probably in HCMC or Hanoi  Of course you and I both know that a full semester of student teaching for a degree in education far surpasses any classroom experience in a TEFL course but the Vietnamese bureaucrats may not.

By the way, even though you are a native speaker of English, you will surely encounter some prejudice, not in daily life, but in employment.  You may want to consider asserting that you do not speak Vietnamese, even if you do.    I had a Viet Kieu co-worker who was a paralegal in the US and a graduate of Michigan State who told me that his salary was $2 less than mine.  He was born in Vietnam but his US accent was essentially native.  This was while he was working as a legal translator for a big Australian law firm downtown where of course his English would have to be essentially flawless as money hung in the balance.  You will find work, but you may find yourself confined to kiddie classes and even preschool.  Of course that could be what you like best.  For me I like 12-15 year-olds even though I know a lot of people dislike teaching that age.

Not to detract from THIGV's post (I'm not a teacher and am not employed by a VN company) but maybe another option would be to also contact VN immigration or your local VN Embassy to clarify things for you.
Things change here all the time and it wasn't long ago when you had to also provide evidence of 5 years 'experience' in your field of expertise.
Online information from search engines doesn't help much - it is often out of date or missing vital information; a case in point is a new Decree issued in February 2016 by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung which stated that "a foreigner who has proved to work as an expert, manager, executive director or technician for foreign enterprises, is also eligible to work in Viet Nam without a work permit"

The law changes as much as the visa laws. When I did a WP application 8 years ago I was told to get a letter from an Australian employer stating I was the manager of that company and what my duties were and then have it notarized in Australia.Seeing as I had no degree this was a way around it legally, it worked and I received my WP and later my TRC.

TuyetDang wrote:

.... do we still need to have separate TESOL certificate to apply for a job?

Perhaps I failed to focus properly on your question.  To apply for a job you don't need anything in particular particularly if you are a blonde haired European or American which you evidently are not.  But don't worry, you will find work; it just won't be automatic.  The problem is in obtaining a work permit.  It would seem that you meet the qualifications minus the TESOL/TEFL certificate and as I said it may be that technically you may not need the TEFL cert.  My personal advice would be, after you graduate, come to Vietnam and hit the ground.  Most employers seem to prefer hiring face to face and in your case that might be even more necessary.  You will need to demonstrate directly to them that you are a native speaker.  If they say you must take a TEFL course, then take it in Vietnam as it is cheaper than it would be in AU.   If you have family on Nha Trang you may want to be employed there but keep your horizons open.  You also might want to check out the thread on the VEC as you should be eligible.  That would save you scrambling around for short term visas until you can get established with a work based residency card.

The law change that ScriptShack references appears to be mostly related to employees and managers of multinationals who are already on their company payroll.  A lot of teachers got all excited when the 5 year thing came out but I believe the government has clarified that with respect to teachers.

I am not sure if links to other forums are allowed here but you might want to look at this:  http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic … ork+permit  If it gets removed, I will send it to you by PM.

Hi,

Thank you for you clarification. And yes I was also of thinking of heading to Vietnam once I graduate and find a job that one. May I ask what that VEC is? And specifically how long can I be in Vietnam for if I'm not on a working visa, as I was thinking of getting a 1 way ticket but unsure how I would be able to go about and being unquestioned.

Thanks

TuyetDang wrote:

May I ask what that VEC is? And specifically how long can I be in Vietnam for if I'm not on a working visa, .........

See the sticky thread titled "A Quick Gide to the Certificate of Visa Exemption" then forget half what your read and go to your local Viet Kieu travel agent and ask them to get you one.  They doubtless have a working relationship with the Embassy in Canberra.  This will give you maximum time on the ground for job searching and eliminate the need for renewals for the first 6 months.   You may need documentation of your parent's birth in Vietnam but I am not sure.  Rely on that travel agent.  Unlike in Vietnam, they do this in Hawaii for the cost of postage and I expect Adelaide should be similar.   

I realize there seems to be a debate over whether one may work with a combination of a work permit and a VEC (and Nha Trang may be an area where this is a problem) but at that time you could see about a work based Temporary Residency Card (TRC) if need be.

im looking for Navtive English Teacher

you can recommend to me?
thanks a lot

Hi I am an Australian native speaker looking for a job next year when I university gives me my Bachelor of Education certificate.

Thanks

TuyetDang wrote:

Hi I am an Australian native speaker looking for a job next year when I university gives me my Bachelor of Education certificate.

Thanks

Just a tip but as you will be a job applicant, it may be best to use a computer with a full keyboard and not a phone when you post here or if you apply for jobs online.  It seems you may be a victim of auto-correct.