General Info
You can volunteer as an English teacher in South Africa during your gap year, career break, or during an extended vacation. You can gain this work experience without any previous teaching experience, and we do not require you to have a TEFL qualification. Our volunteer teaching projects in South Africa not only benefit the people in the schools where we work, but also the wider communities.
Our volunteers teach conversational English in schools to a range of children of different ages and abilities. While you’ll have the basics of a blackboard and chalk, classrooms often lack other resources. You’re most important resource is yourself, so try to draw on all your experiences and interests to really bring the lessons alive. Bringing items from home such as photos, stamps, and magazines can be great for building lessons around, and our Teaching booklet will also give you plenty of ideas.
Some schools in the townships have classes with up to 70 students taught by just a single teacher. By helping a local teacher or even taking a class on your own, you will be greatly relieving the workload; while providing the students with an added dimension to their education. Each volunteer is expected to teach for at least four hours per day.
Volunteer work
You can work with primary or secondary school children so let us know your preference. You can teach English to children of any age, and are also likely to be asked to help local teachers brush up on their own language skills.
Volunteers will contribute their valuable time as teaching assistants and tutors in primary and secondary schools, and as childcare workers in day care centre in Venda, South Africa. They will have the opportunity to be directly involved in the motivation and development of young people’s lives and ultimately helping to bridge gaps and influence change in the ‘New South Africa’.
If you want to teach in a more holistic, informal environment you could also choose to work as a mentor with more vulnerable ‘at risk’ groups of youths. This placement would see you teaching functional literacy and numbers, English, basic computer skills, and general life skills to children between the ages of 8 and 16 – many of whom are living on the streets. Please let us know when you apply if this interests you.
Skills / Qualifications
There are no specific qualifications for teaching projects in South Africa – except fluency in English and love for working with children.
Room / Food / Supervision
A place to meet with Local host family, share your day’s events over dinner with other volunteers doing medical, sports, healthcare, and orphanage projects. The host family / volunteer house is a great place to hang out, with a relaxed and laid back vibe – perfect after a hard days work! Local South African food is provided at the host family / volunteers house during set meal times but you are free to explore Johannesburg and Pretoria’s many restaurants – which cater for all tastes. On weekends you can either choose to stay in the city, or get out there and see the country. Volunteers generally stay with home stay families in the local communities.
Our host families are active community members; mature, trained, and experienced with international volunteers. You will get a single room (or share with another volunteer) in a home stay. The accommodation will be clean and simply furnished. Local host will provide three local meals a day. During the volunteering staying period local organization staff will guide, help, and supervise you.
Note: all projects require volunteers who are self-starters and can conduct their daily activities with minimal supervision. You will take part in a flexible schedule in one or more of the following areas (depending on program needs and volunteer skills): you may work in the morning at a school and in the afternoon at a “place of safety,” or a day care centre, etc.
