A person who is certified to teach or is already teaching a language professionally may qualify for a Professional Practice Buddy profile on uBitto.
If you apply for a professional teaching profile on uBitto, we will ask for documentation that proves your training or experience in:
- Education
- Language expertise
Since different countries offer different certification for education and languages, we review each application personally and make our decisions based on all of the information you provide.
How to provide documents
Please scan and upload a copy of your relevant degrees, certificates, work documents, or other proof of training, experience, or special expertise.
Do not edit your documents after scanning them. They will not be published on your profile. uBitto will keep your information only for internal reference, so be sure that your name and other identifying information is clearly visible.
Documents should be in colour.
Examples of acceptable documents and certificates
1. Language teaching certification from an accredited institution
An accredited language teaching certification qualifies you for a professional teaching profile.
This type of document is perfect as it shows your ability both as an educator and as a language expert at the same time. It must be from an accredited institution to show that you have achieved a certain standard of quality.
Tip: If you are looking at a certain type of certification on the internet, search for “accreditation” or information about which organizations have accredited the certificate.
For example:
- Bachelors or Masters degree in Teaching [X] as a Foreign Language
- CELTA, DELTA
- DELE (Spanish teaching)
- DITALS (Italian teaching)
- ELE (Spanish teaching)
- Großes Deutsches Sprachdiplom (German teaching)
- CTCSOL（国际汉语教师证书）(Chinese teaching)
- TESOL/TEFL
- Other accredited foreign language teaching certification
2. University or higher education degree in Education
For example: A Bachelor's, Master's or Doctoral Degree in Education
If you have this, you may also need to upload a document showing your expertise in language.
This type of document is excellent for showing your training as an educator, but depending on the situation, uBitto will also need evidence of your expertise specifically in languages, for example:
- Degree in Linguistics
- Degree or experience as an interpreter or translator
3. Teaching license
For example: State Teaching License
If you have this, you may also need to upload a document showing your expertise in language.
This type of document is excellent for showing your qualification as an educator, but depending on the situation, uBitto will also need evidence of your expertise specifically in languages, for example:
- Degree in Linguistics
- Degree or experience as an interpreter or translator
4. Proof of employment at language training or teaching institution
This type of document is excellent for showing your experience as a language teacher. Depending on the situation, uBitto may also require certification showing your training in teaching theory in addition to your practical experience. It is also dependent on the institution and your position.
Examples:
- Reference Letter from a School Director or reputable Teaching Institution.
- Copy of a work contract showing your employment as a professional teacher.
All documents:
- Must be signed and dated
- Must have clearly visible contact information
- Must show the dates of your employment
- Must briefly describe your responsibilities
Other work experience may also be acceptable if it is from an institution that demonstrates excellent standards for language teaching or other similar services.
5. Degree as a student of Linguistics or Languages
These degrees are excellent for showing your expertise in the language, but you will also need to upload documents showing your training or experience as an educator.
Note: If your degree contained a teaching component or required lessons in how to teach a language, please include a transcript so that uBitto can verify your training both as a language expert and as a teacher.
Examples of acceptable degrees:
- Linguistics
- Literature
- Translation
- Interpretation
- Foreign language
Examples of Other Documents and Certificates
Additional documents can be used to verify your other skills and interests.
The following documents will not count towards your status as a professional teacher, but can be uploaded to your profile to demonstrate your interest, special talents, or language proficiency to students.
1. Certificate from an unaccredited institution
There are many free online courses available for people to gain skills and knowledge in interesting subjects, but most are not accredited (meaning that they are not held to a certain standard), and so they cannot be used to prove your ability.
However, they can be used to show students that you are serious about learning and continued self-improvement. These documents are often called names like “Certificate of Achievement”, “Certificate of Participation”, or “Certificate of Accomplishment”.
For example, the following free courses are usually not accredited:
- Unaccredited courses from Open2Study.
- Unaccredited courses from Udemy, Coursera, or other MOOCs.
- Unaccredited courses from ALISON online courses.
- Community-organized workshops.
2. Language degree or proficiency certificate
This type of certification is very important for proving your language level but does not directly tell us if you are also able to teach the language. We recommend adding this certification to your profile as proof of your abilities (especially if you are not a native speaker of the language), but it will not count toward your status as a professional teacher.
For example:
- IELTS, TOEFL, etc. (English proficiency exams)
- HSK (Chinese proficiency exam)
- DALF, DELF, etc. (French proficiency exams)
- Other language proficiency exams
Image from ielts.org
3. Casual work or volunteer experience (may depend on the situation)
This type of experience is very good and helpful to your personally, but most types of freelance or casual work experience cannot be accepted towards your professional teaching profile unless there is a way of showing that a certain standard of quality was required.
Even if your work experience can be accepted, it will have to be accompanied by documentation showing your training as either an educator or a language expert.
How your credentials will appear on your profile
Your uploaded scanned diplomas and certificates are not published on your Practice Buddy profile.
uBitto needs these scanned documents for verification purposes during the Professional Practice Buddy application process and keeps this information on file for internal reference.
If you have any questions, you can contact us at info@ubitto.com or wait for feedback on your application. We personally review every application and will follow up with an email after making a decision on your application.
