Choosing IHCAM

If you haven't checked out my blog post about International House and want to know more about them then (click here) so you can be redirected to my post.

 After finishing CELTA, I knew that I wanted to continue my teacher education in some way but was unsure in which direction I wanted to go. One of my colleagues who graduated with me decided to do iCELT with Seven Idiomas in Sao Paulo and I chose to go with International House’s certificate of advanced methodology. I'll give you a rundown of why I chose to do the IHCAM  as opposed to iCELT (this course was discontinued by Cambridge Univerity in the middle of 2020) in this post.

 One of the biggest factors for me was where the course was being delivered. I live in American, Sao Paulo which is about an hour and a half outside of the capital. This is a limiting factor for me because as a teacher working full-time the necessity to travel into the capital for professional development is a very limiting factor. So in terms of access to the course, International House’s platform was one of the defining factors for me, and choosing to do the certificate of advanced methodology over the camera certification.

 That being said I did have some doubts in terms of market recognition. Though the certification from International House is very much valid and accredited in association with Cambridge University it is relatively unknown in the marketplace, at least here in Brazil is my impression. That wasn't a very important factor to me as I viewed this course as something to prepare me for the Delta courses. So even though not many people know about this certification, it is wonderful in terms of preparation for more advanced courses. Also, International House is a fantastic school and well recognized and therefore should be given recognition in terms of certifications.

For every teacher price always plays a factor in deciding what professional development we choose to do. And of course, in making my decision it also played a factor. Now, I am writing this article in reflection of choosing that course,  so I don't have the exact figures from the time when I took that course but I will bring to you the current rate as of 2021. The International House course currently costs non-international house staff 570 GBP (around R$4028) plus some taxes. Unfortunately, IH does not offer as many payment options as some of the training centers here in Brazil. If I am not mistaken, since it has been a few years, the option was to make the full payment or to make two payments for the course. So, this will require you to organize a bit beforehand to get your finances situated for when you start the course.

The IHCAM experience was great for me, you can read all about my reactions to going through the course in another post (here). If you have any questions please feel free to contact me!