Let's not be elitist! In our course, persons with PhDs and MBAs have trained alongside persons with only high school, or A-Level, qualifications, and nearly all of them (even those with PhDs and MBAs!) have been successful in acquiring prestigious English as a Foreign Language teaching positions. So what does this mean?

Let us say first that everyone should have a degree, if it's possible to acquire it. It shows that one has learned how to learn, learned where to acquire information when it's needed, and, most importantly, learned through the character-building experience of taking on a long difficult project and seeing it through to a successful conclusion that hard work and dedication pay off. Yet most of us, if we had to take (or re-sit) our course final exams all over again six months after graduation, would flunk!

Ultimately, education is more than just university training. It is life experience, continual self-improvement, hard goal-oriented work, experience in business - and, to no small extent, the application of a keen, knowledge-hungry intelligence to everything we do in our lives. Finally, it is the experience of having performed to the peak of our individual abilities work that benefits not only ourselves, but also others. Indeed, in a very real sense, education is not only discovering and practicing a way of supporting ourselves and our families; it is also, by effect, humanitarianism in practice. In other words, we ourselves grow and become (educate ourselves) continuously in the process of fulfilling our own needs while striving to make the world a little bit better place for others.

Helping the peoples of the world learn to speak and use our English language is one of those ways. But how does the lack of a degree impact on finding good employment in Thailand?

Frankly, in most instances, you will not be able to teach for universities, international schools or government schools. In this you may take heart, in that university and international school students have, for the most part, already acquired an English as a Second Language ability level. Your knowledge and skills are far more needed by the numerous private children's schools, language schools, families and business persons whom you will be able to teach, and welcomed by most (but not all of them, of course) to teach. In doing this, you can expect (perhaps even during your first six months of experience) to be earning in the range of 30,000-50,000 baht a month, a comfortable income range for people making their homes in Thailand.

But will you be "legal"? Technically, without a degree, you will not be able to get past the first requirement for obtaining a work permit as a teacher, which is to obtain a teacher's license. The reason we say "technically" is that, as our residents say, "This is Thailand!", meaning, in our case, that if you train, go through your six-month period of "practice" (if you lack prior experience) and teach well and enjoyably, an excellent school that pays well will want to employ you - and you will get both a Teacher's License and a Work Permit - meaning you will never, ever need to go out of Thailand again unless you wish to. And, no, you will not get all, Thailand, "The Land of Smiles"!

For those interested, nonetheless, in acquiring "life experience" degrees from "accredited online universities", it is possible to receive a university diploma complete with transcripts and a validating letter in just a few days' time based on your prior life experience (and for the appropriate fee, of course), all of which are items desired by Thai Ministry of Education officials in granting teacher licenses. Unfortunately, we do NOT recommend any such "diploma mills" with which we are familiar, including the following ones, so proceed with great caution if you approach them!

Belford University      Rochville University      Ashwood University

For the benefit of those who don't wish to risk everything by going the above route, you need to appreciate that there are hundreds (if not actually thousands) of wonderful and "humanitarian" teachers of English as a foreign language living and working in Thailand who when they arrived had neither experience nor degrees, and the overwhelming majority of them have both Teacher's Licenses and Work Permits and are raising their own families here. Their students and schools are very happy with them, and would surely be diminished if they went away!

And don't EVER let anyone tell you otherwise. Shhh!