Cambridge has officially approved CenYing Teacher Training Centre as a CELTA Centre in Taiwan. Face-to-face CELTA is finally available in Taiwan.
According to Cambridge English, three out of four English language teaching jobs worldwide list CELTA as a preferred or required qualification. Our first face to face CELTA course launches in March 2026, offering immersive practical teacher training for both new and experienced teachers.
If you are ready to level up your teaching and earn a globally recognised qualification, send your resume to celta@cenying.com.tw. A required pre interview task will follow for eligible applicants.
Who should apply:
Suitable for new and experienced teachers with strong English proficiency.
Interview timeline:
Interviews begin in early January and places are limited.
Location: Training takes place at our modern centre in Keelung, easily accessible from Taipei.
For more information, visithttps://cenying.com.tw/celta-taiwan/.
I looked for CELTA quite awhile ago when I was planning my move to here. Gave up because the US locations were so far from me. Surprised it took this long to get here. As much as I love Keelung, rough location for newbies or people looking to grab it in an interesting place.
Thanks, I appreciate that. And you’re probably right that it’s not the easiest model to make work.
We’re very aware the margins are tight, especially compared with places like Chiang Mai. For us, the bet is that there are teachers already in Taiwan who want proper face to face training without flights, visas, and a month abroad. If that demand is real, it should hold.
Either way, we’ll find out soon enough. Appreciate the honest take.
Fair comment. The market is definitely different now.
That said, a lot of what we see locally is teachers still being thrown into classrooms with very little practical training. Even now, plenty of schools here still ask for CELTA or something equivalent, but there’s been no way to get it without leaving Taiwan.
It may not be a 1990s gold rush idea, but for teachers already here who want real classroom training, it still feels relevant.
That’s a good example. CETYL worked because it was practical and local, not because it was flashy.
I think that’s the key now too. Not everyone wants an online cert, and not everyone can or wants to leave Taiwan for a month. If it’s grounded, face to face, and useful in real classrooms, there’s still a space for it.
Nice, that’s a classic place to do it. Different era, but still a solid grounding.
Out of curiosity, do you feel the training actually shaped how you teach long term, or was it more something that helped early on and then faded into the background?
Yeah, that’s exactly what we kept hearing. People wanted it, then hit the “I have to fly somewhere for a month” wall and dropped the idea.
Keelung is definitely not a “destination CELTA” city, I agree. We’re not trying to compete with beach or culture locations. The focus is more on teachers already in Taiwan or planning to work here who want the training without uprooting their life. For that group, Keelung being close to Taipei and easy to commute actually matters more than being scenic.
Out of curiosity, if it had existed back then, would you have done it locally or still preferred doing it abroad?
I was looking into CELTA as I was deciding to move to Taiwan to teach. If it was available in Taiwan, I probably would have done it since that’s where I was going and I had the money for it. The closest place in the US was a 6 hour drive and short term housing for the duration of the course would have been ridiculously expensive.
In hindsight I’m glad I never took the course and spent all the money. It wasn’t relevant to the kind of teaching I started with nor the kind of teaching I moved onto. Not for me, but it’ll be good for more passionate teachers here. 30 minute train ride to Keelung is also quite reasonable from Taipei anyway.
I enjoyed my CELTA, which is probably the best TESOL cert out there. You will probably learn something new, but with your qualifications and experience it probably won’t be a revelatory experience. The peer teaching observation and debrief will help you look at your teaching in new ways regardless of where you are when you get there.
But, I remember mine was about $2000 dollars and a one-month full time commitment. In the Taiwan market, you can expect zero return on the investment.
And generally, the return on investment question applies to every possible CELTA student in Taiwan. Government schools require qualified teachers with teaching certificates from their home country, a CELTA won’t do it. Buxibans are in a competitive market and trying to cut costs which they can do by hiring less qualified people. It is possible to overqualify oneself out of a job in Taiwan. As the demographic crunch means there are fewer students not just in Taiwan, but also other places where the qualification might be helpful (such as Japan, Korea, and China). Combine that with free AI language learning tools, how much is a CELTA a good investment for anyone in this day and age?
There are many higher paying teaching jobs in Taiwan that require a CELTA. It is a good investment long term, IMO.
As an example, a mate of mine was plodding along teaching with a chain cram school for almost 20 years when I finally persuaded him to go to Chiang Mai and get his CELTA. Of course he aced it. I think he was earning around 80k a month and three years later he’s earning 130k a month as a senior teacher for a much more respected organisation. With paid vacation, sick leave etc.
It’s intensive, too. Full days in the classroom plus homework and assignments. I paused my part-time work for the month because I didn’t want to risk failing (one of our twelve didn’t pass).
It’s a great certification no doubt, but for the Taiwan context I’d recommend either a part time teaching license from the states (if the loophole still exists), or any cheap and easy TESOL certificate (Taiwan is very much a box ticking culture), or a career change (because of demographics and AI, for those young enough).
Aside from the British Council (who also provide CELTA globally but apparently didn’t see the business case to do so in Taiwan), I wonder who would require a CELTA?