@PsyGuy

Thanks a lot for all the help. So I will do that, just say its a Master of Education and hope that it will suffice as teaching credential. I might still invest the 200$ to get an official certificate which states that it really is the equivalent to a Master since I don't want to leave the impression of trying to deceive people.
Will leave an update here once I hopefully manage to move forward so others in similar situations can learn from it.

@PsyGuy

The degree I hold is the equivalent to a Master of Education, it would cost me around 200$ to get the degree accredited to state that it is the equivalent to said Master by a government licensed institute in the US. So maybe that is something I should do. What my university issued for me after I requested for an English translation of my degree is a "diploma supplement" which describes the German educational system pretty detailed, as well as the length of my study and the type of courses I had to pass, but in no way mentions the words "Master of Education". As I was using this document for all my applications it could have contributed to my difficulties finding work.

I also looked at the provisional degrees, but the fact that I would have to travel to the US for it also currently makes it too difficult for me.
If getting my degree accredited so it states that it is equivalent to a Master of Education is something that would be helpful I would be able to do that fairly easy. If that won't be helpful I would not know what else to do, since I am very grateful for all the other suggestions but they all seem to be beyond my means at this moment.

@ PsyGuy

Your input is really helpful and I appreciate it a lot, so thank you again there.

Now that everyone here convinced me that the TEFL certificate will not do much for me, and the DaF (the German teaching certificate equivalent to TEFL) is very limited in terms of available positions abroad, I am wondering what my next step could be. I know now that I want to focus on teaching the two subjects I graduated to teach (Art/P.E.), but do feel that with my current qualification and experience it is close to impossible to find work. At least the number of applications I sent imply that. And since schools never send a feedback as to why they didn't consider you for the position, I can only still guess it has to do with the years of experience/teaching license.

Are the provisional teaching credentials that PsyGuy suggested maybe my best bet? Or should I just keep trying to land a job in a tier 2/3 school to have more work experience to show for? ( Although I am pretty sure I also applied to some low tier International Schools without success)

Thank you very much for all the honest replies!

What I take from it is that a TEFL certificate in my case hardly makes any sense since it would not help to increase my marketability. I did in fact teach for 13 months in Ghana in a German/International school and have a recommendation letter from that school which outlines the responsibilities I had. At one point I was responsible for all of the schools swimming classes ( P.E. is the second subject I graduated in) as well as being responsible for a lot of Art classes and two extra curricular activities per week. I am not sure how much that work experience would count in an application though, since it was done before finishing my degree.

@PsyGuy the provisional MA sounds interesting and I will look into that further, thank you for pointing me towards that direction. Even though I am yet to grasp what that certificate actually is, I am looking forward to do some research on it.

It is a bit a tough realization that a M.Ed. does not seem to account for much without a teaching license. I do hope to save up enough to still get my teaching license at one point, but from what I saw it would cost around 6000 $ which is too much for me currently.

I would still be very grateful for more input on the topic since the advice I can get here leads to much more valuable outcomes as the ideas I could come up with myself doing hours of online research.

Thank you and have a great weekend all!

Hello all! Apologies for possibly asking a question that has been discussed a few times already. I did read a few entries on the topic in different forums that were all somewhat helpful but in the end they didn't help me to find an answer. I would even say the amount of informations available rather added confusion.
What I would like to find out is if a TEFL certificate would raise the chances to find work for me, and if so, if there is one that can be done fully online by an internationally well recognized provider.

The general notion seemed to be that online TEFL certificates are not worth it, that one should always aim for a CELTA or certTESOL, and that NNES will have a hard time nonetheless to find work teaching English. I am sure those points are all valid to a certain extent, yet I would like to quickly explain my situation to find out if taking an online TEFL course would be the right step for me.

To explain my situation, I am a 37 year old German national and graduated last year with a German degree which is equivalent to a Master of Education. Unfortunately this degree does not come with a "teaching certificate" which would need another 2 years of in classroom training to obtain. I did leave Germany after my degree to live with my fiancée in Madagascar and have since then been applying for numerous jobs in international schools worldwide. The main reasons for not getting hired yet seem to be a.) having only a bit more than 1 year of work experience in an international school during my university time, b.) not having a "teaching certificate".

Since going back to Germany to finish another 2 years there to obtain said "teaching certificate" is currently an option I want to avoid at all cost I was looking for feasible alternatives to help me to improve my chances to get hired. An online TEFL certificate seemed to be a good option as it does give you a certificate that some schools might consider as "teaching certificate" while at the same time opening more opportunities to gather work experience as a teacher internationally.
I do have a passion for the language and have given private tutorial lessons for non-native speakers in the past, yet the reason I am considering the TEFL certificate is not to solely rely on teaching English, but rather to add another skill/subject to my portfolio (my degree is in teaching Art and P.E.) while at the same time having a type of "teaching certificate" which could help find the first job. I am after all striving to work as an Art teacher, which was my major, but for now the hurdles I mentioned seem to be too big of a factor to get hired.

I would be very grateful for both, advices on which TEFL online provider to choose (I have a few in mind but would like to hear unbiased opinions), as well as suggestions on other possible steps to take to get hired by international schools.