Teaching On Skyeng: What You Need To Know

With the plethora of online platforms and companies offering English language lessons to learners and teaching positions to English teachers and tutors, it is difficult to know which online teaching companies are legit.

We’re going to get to the bottom of this by asking the people who really know what they’re talking about: the teachers themselves. 

In this series, we’ll talk to teachers currently teaching online in 2025 and ask them the important questions.

First up, here’s what you should know about teaching on Skyeng.

Meet Natalie, a Skyeng tutor

Natalie, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hi, Natalie Bartle here!  I am an online TEFL teacher with a Level 5 Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).  I have several other qualifications which greatly support me in my teaching endeavours, such as Professional Life Coaching, Business Management, Training and Pastoral Care.

Truth be told, I embarked on this online teaching journey as a means to an end.  My business was a ‘pandemic casualty’ and I found myself without an income for four years.  I am so grateful for being guided in this direction, as it turns out that I love this work and that it is one of my greatest blessings ever. 

At the age of 55, I have finally found my purpose, and I have fallen in love with my new career.

I have a home office set up as a teaching base.  However, travel and business are my greatest passions and thanks to online teaching platforms like Skyeng, I am able to pursue both of them.

I am also currently teaching on the 51Talk platform (not the greatest in my opinion). I have also recently been accepted by Preply and am busy setting up my profile, 

Why did you choose SkyEng?

I was researching platforms that offer opportunities to teach Business English, and the Skyeng profile came up. The draw card for me was that they are the largest English language school in Europe and were launching a new project for English teachers.   I was extremely excited to find out that the new project was to offer an English conversational platform to their students.  

How long have you been teaching on Skyeng and what’s been your experience so far?

I have been an English conversation teacher on Skyeng for six months now, and my experience has been nothing but positive. 

Based on my experiences with other teaching platforms, I tend to compare every detail, and can honestly say that Skyeng brings characteristics such as caring, support, understanding, and so much more to the table. These characteristics are very rare with most other online platforms.

How easy was it to start teaching on Skyeng?

It was a bit of a challenge, initially, to get started on this platform, as some of my application and set-up correspondence emails were forwarded in Russian! 

Requests for translated documents were actioned quickly..  A personal manager was assigned to me for orientation. It turned out that she was so much more than a manager; she was also patient, friendly and knowledgeable. It was far more pleasant and efficient dealing with her than dealing with an AI robot for initiation and teaching support, as is often the case on other platforms. 

Training was in digital format on a fairly user-friendly system.  Unfortunately, the platform can be very quiet at times, so it does take a while to build relationships with students.

Does Skyeng allocate students to you, or do the students have to choose the teacher?

Skyeng is a 1-to-1 platform that offers two ways  to receive students:

A student will request a conversation slot without selecting a specific teacher.  An alarm will ring throughout the teachers’ network, and then it’s a case of ‘fastest-fingers-first’ – whoever accepts the call first gets the time with the student.

Students can select a specific teacher and be directed to their profile.

Because it is still a fairly new project, the platform can be very quiet at times. 

Natalie also teaches students on 51Talk and Preply.

What is the pay structure on Skyeng?

I guess this is the part that would be considered to be a ‘downside’ to the platform. 

Teachers are paid approximately $1.60 (converted to Russian Rubles 152.00) for 15 minutes.

We always want more money—it’s human nature—but I feel that on this specific platform, the pay is acceptable. I would do it for nothing if I could!☺.  Payments are also ALWAYS accurate and on time.

What does a typical day look like for you?

This is where my reasoning comes into play about the rate being sufficient for the job:

• You don’t need to open slots or make bookings.
• You can log in at any time, from anywhere and enjoy a chat.
• Skyeng does not micromanage your time. 
• There is no need to prepare, as the platform provides conversational topics, or students can opt for free conversations. 
• Students can decide how long they would like their conversations to last, so there is no sudden interruption when time runs out in the middle of a conversation or lesson.

In addition to this, what I also really like about this platform is that:

• their peak hours differ from the majority of other platforms’ peak hours; and
• when my other teaching platforms are quiet and bookings are scarce, I log into Skyeng and earn a bit of extra income during my quieter periods.

Read More: Are Conversation Classes Really Effective?

What are your students like?

The students are typically adults aged 18 and over.  Conversations are always interesting as students are mostly highly educated. I have spoken to neurological researchers, business owners and IT specialists. This platform is all about imparting and receiving knowledge.  

Students are extremely goal-driven and passionate about learning English.  I have quite a few repeat students and have built strong relationships with them. 

All students are Russian-speaking natives and are spread all over the world, e.g. Cyprus, Thailand, Israel, Kazakhstan, Finland and, of course, Russia.

I’ve had conversations about classic works of art, the development of food seasonings, snowdrop flowers, crazy traffic jams and chocolate cake. There is never a dull moment for me when I’m in conversation.  (In my opinion, there is great wealth in learning through conversational English.)

How does the student feedback system work?

Conversation teachers on Skyeng offer both verbal and written feedback at the end of each conversation.

Students can follow up with a message after the conversation.  They can select feedback from a feedback template with set phrases and emojis.  As I said, Skyeng does not micromanage. 

However, they do review conversations and give feedback, but there are no strict reporting policies or lengthy documents to complete.

Is teaching Skyeng sustainable as a full-time job? 

Unfortunately, this platform isn’t sustainable as a full-time job.  It is nice for ‘rainy day savings’ or a holiday stash, though.

Skyeng does have a platform which offers formal English lessons, but they do not have open vacancies for foreign English teachers at the moment.  However, they are hiring native Russian speakers to teach English lessons. So if you have these credentials, then I sincerely recommend that you make use of the opportunity to teach with this company. 

If they ever opened up to foreign teachers, I’d be the first in line to apply!

Have you experienced any technical issues?

I haven’t experienced any downtime on the system.  I have seen that the IT department sends out notifications when there are outages, but I have never been affected by them. 

The platform has a user-friendly testing system, which you can run before you go online to chat. This is very reassuring and helpful because you know that everything is in order for your time online from the get-go.

Tech support is readily available, and I have received assistance with my system on a number of occasions without any delays.

I have very strong back-up systems in place, so loadshedding here in South Africa hasn’t affected me so far.

Does Skyeng offer support to teachers?

The platform has several forms of support for teachers.

They have:

• teacher support,
• chat support,
• a personal manager,
• and a teacher community. 

Teachers are offered training when and where applicable.  There are also various social clubs online for teachers, such as Book Club and Chess Club.

My absolute favourite part of the platform is the POSITIVITY.  Teachers are encouraged and motivated.  There is no penalty-driven system, and there is respect all around.  I love the transparency with which Skyeng operates.

There are also notepad facilities for both teachers and students.  I tend to use the notepad facility quite often to teach vocabulary—it is a great help with word identification, spelling and pronunciation.

Would you recommend Skyeng? 

I love that Skyeng treats teachers so well. They see the importance of the well-being of both teachers and students. I feel that this platform has a very healthy balance between personal interaction and technological advancement.

When I need assistance, I can speak to a person rather than a robot. At the same time, AI and other technological programming are used to enhance the system where necessary.  

In comparison with other online teaching platforms I have dealt with, I would say that Skyeng is one of two platforms that has a winning recipe as far as TEFL teaching is concerned.  It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s a platform which I appreciate.

So…

• If money is your motive for online teaching, then this is not the platform for you.

• However, I would  recommend Skyeng to teachers who want to gain experience in English conversation and teaching, and for those who want to build wonderful relationships,, and learn about art, flowers, seasons, businesses, and many other wonderful aspects of the world out there. 

Wow! This doesn’t sound like work – it sounds like hanging out with new friends! If you’re keen to get involved, sign up for a TEFL course today – and you could be chatting on Skyeng tomorrow (well, almost!)!