Trinity CertTESOL Teacher Training

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Next Course Dates:

Monday 13th January to Friday 7th February 2025 (Full-time, face-to-face, 4 weeks)
Monday 7th April to Friday 13th June 2025 (Part-time, online, 10 weeks with Teaching Practice face-to-face in Dublin, Clare and Malta)

50% of fees refunded if employed by Atlas in July!

CertTESOL Course Dates

Dates Course Type Availability
Monday 13th January to Friday 7th February 2025 Full-time, face-to-face  4 weeks Available
Monday 7th April to Friday 13th June 2025 Part-time, online, 10 weeks with Teaching Practice face-to-face in Dublin, Clare and Malta Available
Monday 1st September to Friday 7th November 2025 Part-time, online, 10 weeks with Teaching Practice face-to-face in Dublin, Clare and Malta Available
Monday 17th November to Friday 12th December 2025
 Full-time, face-to-face  4 weeks Available

Fees

  • The standard price for our CertTESOL course is €1200, which includes the examination and moderation fees, the cost of photocopied course materials and the end of course Trinity certificate. No extras to pay in-course.

  • After a successful interview, a deposit of €350 secures a provisional place on the course.

  • There’s also an early bird discount which means that the course fees to pay would be €1000.

  • For the part-time course, any trainees who have worked with us or who are contracted to with us at one of our Atlas Junior Centres in July, will receive a 50% refund on their fees paid.

Ways to Take the Trinity CertTESOL

In-school courses run at our Portobello centre in Dublin 2, Monday to Friday 9:00am – 5:30pm, with study breaks.

The pre-course tasks also include our complementary pre-course professional development course Using Google Apps for Education kickstarter.

The full-time course is an intensive programme and requires total commitment. In addition to in person course hours, you should allow between at least 8 to 10 hours a week for reading, lesson preparation and writing up journal assignments. This would be in the evenings and at least part of one day at the weekend.

If you have any other obligations during the period of the full-time course, such as a part-time job, it is highly unlikely that you’d be able to fulfil the course requirements. You should also be in good health, be able to access a quiet study space at home, and be able to manage the stress arising from an intense course.

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You can complete the Trinity CertTESOL on our less intensive part-time blended course (10 weeks). This combines online input sessions with face-to-face Teaching Practice in one of three schools in Dublin 2, Ennis in County Clare, and Malta.

Our blended part-time courses have 2 evenings of Zoom sessions per week, and one morning to mid-afternoon session on Saturdays.

A typical week on a part-time online CertTESOL is as follows:

MONDAYS

6:00 pm – 10:30 pm

Teaching Practice, followed by Feedback on Teaching Practice. And finally, Supervised Lesson Planning for the following TP session.

THURSDAYS

6:00 pm – 9:45 pm

Input Sessions x 3

SATURDAYS

9:00 am – 3:15 pm

Input Sessions x 4 and Journal Review & Guidance

The rest of the week is flexible regarding when you study as you will be working with the materials on our online platform – write your lesson plans, teaching materials, and journal assignments for the course units at a time that is convenient for you. We estimate that trainees should spend about 7 hours per week on these self-study tasks to complete all course assignments successfully.

We share and present materials through Google Classroom and Google Sites.

This is a great opportunity to complete the course without having to travel, give up your current job, pay for accommodation and living expenses without money coming in… and still have the same great results!

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Course Information

  • New teachers starting their career
  • Teachers with some experience who want to develop their skills
  • Teachers who want to travel and teach English
  • Native speakers of English and non-native, expert speakers of English

You want a job …

  • that’s fun, creative and rewarding
  • that allows you to connect with people from all over the world here in Ireland
  • that allows you to travel and experience the world
  • that allows you to work from anywhere, whether that’s the comfort of your own home, your campervan or a flat by the beach in Spain
  • that offers you the opportunity to work flexibly and set your own schedule

  • Do you want to live in Spain, Italy, Japan, Vietnam, Brazil or Dubai? The Trinity CertTESOL is one of the two big, globally-recognised initial teaching training qualifications. Just like the Cambridge CELTA, it’s a passport to travel the world.  
  • The Trinity CertTESOL will not only qualify you to teach around the world, but also in QQI-recognised English language schools in Ireland.
  • You want the confidence that comes from having more knowledge and hands-on teaching experience when you step into the classroom for the first time, you’re starting out on the right foot. Get the grounding to be a successful face-to-face and online English language teacher (ELT). 
  • The Trinity CertTESOL has a reputation for academic integrity and quality, and is also a little less . An assessor from Trinity College London assesses each and every CertTESOL course that Atlas runs to ensure that our courses deliver the quality and academic rigour expected.

  • Atlas Language School offers a well-thought out, rigorous Trinity CertTESOL teacher training programme, that focuses not only on making sure you qualify, but that you come off the course with the tools to be an independent teacher from the get-go. A teacher asking the right questions and someone who we ourselves would wish to employ.
  • Our small trainee group sizes and close attention to the needs of our trainees ensure we can respond to each trainee and training group flexibly, giving you the personal attention and support needed to meet the challenges of the course.
  • Our experienced teacher trainers are knowledgeable, passionate and committed to offering our Trinity CertTESOL candidates the best training available. We believe the Atlas Language School Trinity CertTESOL has been designed to ensure our candidates access an engaging, quality curriculum that will set you off on the right path to becoming a successful English language teacher..
  • We offer three great locations to do the Teaching Practice component on the part-time courses. In Dublin, the school is located in a landmark building right on the Grand Canal in Portobello, Dublin 2. Our south central city location is on plenty of bus routes and is near to Charlemont LUAS stop. In Ennis, County Clare, we are in a purpose-built, modern school, again in a central location. In Malta, the school is situated in Pembroke, a town in the north-east of the island. It’s also purpose-built, and has large, well-equipped classrooms. All three schools are within a few minutes walk of cafes and eateries. Great locations to chill and relax at lunchtime , or before and after school, as well as celebrate at the end of the course!

No previous teaching experience or training is required, but if you are interested in gaining the Trinity CertTESOL you should consider these standard entry requirements.

  • minimum age of 18 on the course start date.
  • English language proficiency. For non-native speakers, minimum C1 (i.e., Cambridge CAE, IELTS 7.0)
  • Educational background to research and understand new language and grammar, and complete written assignments
  • potential to develop the necessary skills to become an effective English language teacher.
  • can comply with all attendance requirements for successful completion of the course.

These criteria are assessed by a member of the teacher training department by referring to a candidate’s application form, interview, references, copy of degree and (where relevant) a copy of English language proficiency certification.

Having looked through all the course documentation, we hope you’ll decide to go ahead and make an application to join one of our full-time or part-time Trinity CertTESOL courses. When you do, the application process will run as follows:

Stage 1: Complete the Forms

Complete the Application Form (an editable pdf file available via the APPLY NOW button) and send it to us either by email or post. You should retain a copy of your completed application form, as it will be referred to in the interview.

Stage 2: Interview

If your application is successful, we will contact you within 5 days of receipt of the forms to arrange an interview. The interview will either take place online or at Atlas Language School in Portobello, Dublin 2 and will last approximately 1 hour.

There is a written component to the interview. Immediately before the face-to-face interview, candidates complete a number of short written language awareness tasks and to complete a short piece of writing. These language awareness tasks will be developed as points of discussion in the actual interview part with a course tutor.

Stage 3: Course Registration

If you are successful at the interview stage, you will be offered a place. In order to secure a place on a particular CertTESOL course you will need to pay a €350 non-refundable deposit. The balance of the course fees is due no later than 2 weeks prior to the commencement of the course. Once the course fees have been settled, trainees are sent the pre-course task. This should be completed and returned to us before the commencement of the course.

One last point to remember is that spelling and accurate English are important considerations when filling in the application forms.

We look forward to hearing from you!

All Atlas Language School Trinity CertTESOL courses are highly practical in approach and are designed to enable trainees to:

  • develop the core skills for teaching English in the language classroom
  • familiarise yourselves with the principles and practice of effective English language teaching
  • develop an awareness of language and how it is used, and be able to apply this in your professional practice
  • familiarise yourselves with appropriate resources and materials for use with adult learners of English for teaching, testing and for reference.
  • develop an appreciation of the methods to monitor and evaluate learners’ competence and language learning needs 
  • help learners upgrade their language and say things in English better

  • The course is a mixture of practice and theory
  • 130 hours of input, guided tasks, assisted lesson planning and teaching practice
  • 6 hours of assessed teaching practice for each trainee
  • 5 hours of observation of experienced teachers
  • a minimum of 70 additional learning hours for reading, research, lesson preparation and journal writing
  • Course covers the same content and is assessed is the same way, whether the course is taken in-school or online

Having a Trinity CertTESOL certificate is your passport to employment worldwide. Just like the Cambridge CELTA, the Trinity CertTESOL is recognised globally so you can more confidently look for teaching posts at accredited schools in Ireland, the UK and across the EU, South America, Asia and Australasia.

Trainees following the CertTESOL course at Atlas Language will, of course, have a foot in the door for future teaching work with us. But the CertTESOL course at Atlas also includes a free, optional end of course career kickstarter Working in ELT module. It focuses on helping you to find teaching work at good quality schools in Ireland and abroad after the course. We provide guidance on finding jobs and outline the broad range of career opportunities and specialisations that exist within ELT.

Course Delivery

You will attend input sessions on planning, classroom management, teaching skills, language awareness and materials given by our teacher trainers. These will equip you with theoretical knowledge and practical tools and ideas to help you plan your lessons. For the online CertTESOL, input will be a mix of asynchronous self-study activities and tasks and real-time, synchronous online workshops with the trainers.

You will attend 4 language classes as a language student to help develop an initial understanding of how a lesson is structured and how the teacher manages classroom interaction.

You will watch a minimum of 4 hours of lessons taught by experienced teachers while you take notes on teaching methodology and practice.

You will teach for a minimum of six hours, working with classes at two or three levels of English. This will involve the planning and delivering at least 8 lessons which will be observed by one of the course tutors and a small group of peers. Each TP session is immediately followed by a written self-evaluation, and feedback and comments from you, your tutor and fellow trainees.

You will complete a number of written journals – e.g., teaching practice, learner profile and unknown language, as well as a materials assignment.

You will be assessed on a combination of your teaching practice, a language awareness test and written journals and assignments using a weighted marking system. Teaching Practice is the core component.

The five assessed CertTESOL units to be completed and passed, along with the guided learning hours per unit and the respective weightings, are as follows:

Unit Number of Guided Learning Hours (out of total 130) Assessment Details Weighting – i.e. marks available to final result
Unit 1: Teaching Skills 74 Pass mark to be obtained for each of the three elements:
Teaching Practice (45%), Teaching Practice Journal (10%) and Guided Observation Journal (5%)		 60%
Unit 2: Language Awareness (Grammar and phonology) 20 Pass mark of 60% to be obtained for test or exam 15%
Unit 3: Learner Profile 18 Pass mark to be obtained for all sections of written profile 10%
Unit 4: Materials Assignment 8 Pass marks to be obtained in line with Trinity’s external assessment (written work and face-to-face interview) 10%
Unit 5: Unknown Language 10 Pass mark to be obtained for all sections of Unknown Language Journal 5%


An external assessor, appointed by the Trinity College London, visits each course in order to inspect candidates’ portfolios and journals and to interview each candidate about their materials project. The assessor’s role is to monitor the courses, standardise grading and recommend final grades. Trinity College London awards the final grades and issues certificates to successful candidates.

Our CertTESOL Course Trainers

Gary Tennant
Gary TennantCourse Director
I took the scenic route to where I am currently, via kicking a ball around, writing a doctoral thesis, computer programming, farming (not in that order) and working with international students and teachers in various language teaching organisations in Spain, Denmark, Cuba, UK and Ireland for over 20 years. I have the Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adults (RSA DTEFLA).

My current interests include task-based teaching and learning (TBLT), Open Educational Resources and remixing and sharing innovative and purposeful ideas that help to maximise the impact of teaching on student learning outcomes.

Billy Rogers
Billy RogersCourse Tutor
I am DELTA-qualified and have over 16 years’ experience in a range of academic roles including learner support, academic management, recruitment, teacher development and teacher training. Having worked for Atlas Language School from 2008 to 2021, I rejoined the school in 2024 to work as the Junior Programme Coordinator and SENCO, as well as train new teachers on the face-to-face and online Trinity CertTESOL courses.

My responsibilities for CertTESOL courses here at Atlas Language School include:
• Future Course Tutor training
• Trainee recruitment and interviews
• Course delivery – input sessions, teaching practice feedback, assignment marking

Umran Ozturk
Umran OzturkCourse Tutor
My BA in Foreign Language Education, my Trinity CertTESOL and my Cambridge DELTA have all given me the opportunity to discover the joys of teaching. 25+ years of experience in 7 different countries has undoubtedly taught me, culturally as well as professionally, more than I could have imagined.

Teaching English and training teachers in various contexts has shown how important it is to respect different cultural attitudes and attend to different needs. Each individual merely needs to find their own way. Therefore; guiding and facilitating learning, promoting creativity, critical-thinking and self-autonomy while remaining attentive to emotional well-being is what I strive for in my classes.

Ram Subramanian
Ram SubramanianCourse Tutor
I started teaching English in Japan in 2007. Since then I have worked in Thailand, India and the USA, teaching ELT and other subjects ranging from music to Sanskrit. I came to Ireland to complete an M.Phil in Applied Linguistics and went on to also earn a DELTA. I have been at Atlas since 2021, and I have been Head of Teacher Development here since 2023.

I am particularly interested in task-based learning, low- or no-material techniques, and effective ways to use students’ first languages in the classroom.