Meet Our Trainers

After moving from Indiana to Scotland and graduating with a master’s degree in TESOL from the University of Edinburgh, Gina moved to the island of Malta where she spent 7 years teaching English to students from all over the world, ranging from beginner to advanced level.  During this time, she developed a love for creating materials that helped students to use the language in meaningful ways. After sharing these with her colleagues and seeing the benefit they had for both students and teachers, she chose to self-publish a resource book on Amazon called ‘On the Go English’

Since then he visited and taught in countless countries. During his time in Africa, he has worked with various charity organisations including helping with the Ghana rice feeding program and working with local and international organisations in the fight against diseases like Malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS. He is now based semi-permanently in South Africa.
He has thousands of hours face to face and online classroom teaching experience.  As well as TEFL, He is able to teach IELTS, Cambridge Advanced, Cambridge First, Cambridge Key, CLIL and TEYL.
He has taught a wide array of students from young learners aged 4-5 at Level 1 (no exposure to English) all the way through to successful company directors with a solid grasp and understanding of English. He finds teaching, tutoring and training a rewarding and fulfilling career and feels watching someone’s journey from a beginner to an advanced level and interacting with them is an opportunity that few other jobs allow.

He started out teaching children and high school students before later working full-time teaching Business English at Japanese multinational corporations and colleges. After some 20 years in Thailand, Japan and the Philippines, Simon returned to the U.K. and has been teaching Academic English at universities since

Jo started teaching EFL in 2008 in Barcelona, spurred on by a love of language and adventure.  Since then she has taught all ages and levels of student in Spain, Italy, Colombia, England and Ireland.  She says that the best language teachers are language learners and so has attempted to learn Spanish, Catalan, Italian and French, to greater and lesser success.  She believes the most exciting thing about being in the classroom is going on a journey with your students and helping them grow and gain confidence.  Engagement and effort are also key to learners’ success.  Having gained her Delta qualification, Jo has taught English for Academic Purposes to help students gain the skills needed in order to do their Master’s in an English speaking country and also tutored students for scholarships such as the Fulbright programme.  She branched out into teacher training in 2017, providing training for teachers of adults and young learners alike.  She loves teacher training because, not only do we teach, but we get to analyse the mechanics of the craft we do every day and that’s fun and exciting for her.

She began teaching English and Spanish in 1999 and was an assistant to the language professor during her university years. She got her Bachelor´s degree in Social Work but focused on School Social Work and worked with many Hispanic families in the USA. Part of her job with the Indiana Department of Education was teaching English to the parents of Hispanic children to improve their children´s education and advance their adaptation to the USA. She then returned to Spain and worked in an English Academy teaching children, teens, adults and business groups. In 2010, she got her TEFL teaching certificate and has been teaching formally and informally ever since. She is currently teaching full time in a private school as an English teacher. Teaching English involves being able to put one´s self in another´s shoes in order to be able to connect English to their life and walking with them as they face their fears and gain confidence.

The best part was that moment when the lightbulb would come on. The glow in their eyes when something that seemed so foreign now looked slightly clearer, was pure joy.

Having never travelled further than 60km away from home, Baphiwe decided going to China to officially kickstart her teaching career would be a fantastic idea. She was right. She taught kids aged 3 to 18 at one of the biggest language schools in China. She enjoyed listening to their stories, discussing the history of culture with them, and mostly seeing them become more confident in the four major English learning areas, reading, speaking, writing and listening.

Baphiwe worked in Istanbul, Turkey after that and then settled in Kobe, Japan for two years. In Japan she worked at a language school, teaching mainly Business English. It was as challenging as it was fun. Many of the students were already fluent and were getting ready to emigrate or to attend conferences where the language would be English.

Baphiwe says the key to her success as a teacher is that she just loves people and helping people understand things.

She has found TEFL teaching a great way to experience other cultures. Clare then went on to study a modern languages degree at the University of Manchester where she taught English, while studying. She has taught on a number of intensive summer courses both in the UK and abroad.  She has also spent one year teaching in Chile which she found to be an unforgettable experience. She really enjoys teaching English and especially likes the creative side of TEFL teaching. She also really enjoys teaching grammar! Her hobbies include; playing music, swimming and reading.

She taught English face-to-face in Romania and China and online to learners from around the world. Her teaching experience covers General English, Business English, English for Specific Purposes and IELTS preparation. She worked with a variety of student demographics ranging from K-12 students to working professionals and corporate executives.
Alex specializes in learner experience, learner engagement and the development of targeted learning interventions to address any deficiencies the learners might encounter in their language acquisition cycle. She currently works in Chicago, IL as Learning Professional designing, developing and implementing blended learning solutions that result in positive desirable change in human performance, work processes and organizational outcomes.

She taught in international schools in The Netherlands and for non-profit agencies meeting the needs of immigrants and refugees in the USA where she lived for over twenty years. She has a Masters degree in TESOL methods and has managed ESL programs based in schools and churches, workplaces, juvenile centres and community colleges. She is particularly keen on providing support and encouragement to newly qualified ESL teachers or those wishing to expand into online ESL teaching. She has extensive experience in the training and management of faculty and volunteer teams in addition to program development and blended learning. She believes that knowing student goals, backgrounds and barriers to learning is essential to the success of her students.

He has taught business and general English in the Czech Republic, Indonesia and also at summer schools in the UK. He was College Director of a Japanese School in the UK for twelve years, where he observed teachers, made materials and taught English to high school kids.
Mike is also a published fiction author. His first book, Jalan Jalan, was the Guardian’s Self-published Book of the Month winner prior to finding a traditional publisher. The book was inspired by his experiences while teaching in Asia.
He lives just outside Prague with his wife and two kids.