In some countries the demand for adult English language teachers outstrips the supply; as state-funded programmes struggle to provide needed services with shrinking funds, the role of volunteers in teaching English becomes crucial. And this happens in developing countries as well as western countries such as the USA.

The following organisations arrange for volunteer teachers to travel and teach in volunteer programmes around the world, particularly into China and Africa. There are also volunteer groups providing support and teachers into local communities, for example, into regions of the USA where there is a great need for volunteer teachers. The volunteer groups should help arrange your travel, training, accommodation and any visas.

AmeriCorps
www.americorps.org
AmeriCorps is a United States-based organization. The domestic Peace Corps has more than 40,000 Americans in intensive, results-driven service each year. AmeriCorps has built its foundation on teaching children to read, attempting to make neighborhoods safer, building affordable homes, and responding to natural disasters. AmeriCorps serves with projects such as Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross, and Boys and Girls Clubs. After a term of service, AmeriCorps members receive education awards to help finance college tuition or pay back student loans.

AmeriSpan Unlimited
www.amerispan.com
AmeriSpan has become a major force for anyone wanting to study language abroad in Latin America. AmeriSpan’s network offers language programmes in nearly every Spanish-speaking country in the Americas.

Amity Institute
www.amity.org
Amity Institute was founded in 1962. It is a non-profit educational exchange programme that gives young people around the world the opportunity to represent their countries, by sharing their languages and cultures in language classrooms of all levels. Amity tries to encourage and enhance international understanding and friendship through the study of world languages and cultures.

Christians Abroad
www.cabroad.org.uk
Provides advice and information for volunteers of any faith who are considering working abroad as a volunteer. It provides job vacancies through a monthly listing newsletter – the majority of its postings are to Asia and Africa. Also visit www.wse.org.uk for online information packs.

Colorado China Council
www.asiacouncil.org
The primary focus of CCC is to send people to teach English in China, as well as other academic subjects, at universities and secondary schools throughout the country. The Council has placed over 200 teachers, making it one of the U.S.’s largest non-religious providers of teachers to China.

Cross-Cultural Solutions
www.crossculturalsolutions.org
Cross-Cultural Solutions offers short-term and long-term programmes that give volunteers from all over the world the opportunity to come face to face with global issues and become part of productive solutions. CCS has close partnerships with social service pioneers in our host countries. The focus of CCS’s work is health care, education and social development

Friends of World Teaching
www.fowt.com
Friends of World Teaching helps teachers find jobs around the world. Friends of World Teaching works
with English-speaking schools and colleges throughout the world that offer employment opportunities to American and Canadian teachers. There are some student teaching programmes as well.

Global Routes
www.globalroutes.org
Global Routes is a tax-exempt non-profit, is a non-governmental, non-sectarian organization whose aim is to strengthen the global community. It has designed community-service/cross-cultural-exchange programmes that bring people with different world-views together.

i-to-i
www.i-to-i.com
School and agency that provides TEFL training and manages extensive volunteer placements around the world (specialising in South and Central America and Asia). The agency provides accommodation, travel and support in-country. If you have never taught, it also offers courses for trainee-teachers.

India Literacy Project
www.ilpnet.org
India Literacy Project is a US-based non-profit, volunteer organization that focuses on literacy in India. Its aim is to empower every individual we serve with functional literacy and an understanding of their basic rights and responsibilities. India Literacy Project’s goal is 100% literacy in India.

Intl. Foundation for Ed. & Self-help
www.ifesh.org
The International Foundation for Education and Self-Help (IFESH) was established as a non-governmental, nonprofit, charitable organization. IFESH aims to reduce hunger and poverty, empower people through literacy, train and place the unskilled and unemployed in jobs, provide preventive and basic health care to individuals in need, deal with population and environment problems, develop employment through economic development activities, foster cultural, social, and economic relations between Africans and Americans, particularly African Americans, and others.

International Rescue Committee
www.intrescom.org
International Rescue Committee was founded in 1933. The IRC is a nonsectarian, voluntary organization that provides relief, protection and resettlement services for refugees and victims of oppression or violent conflict throughout the world.

Intl. Schools Internship programme
www.tieonline.com
A TIE subscription gives you immediate access to the most prominent schools looking for staff: from 90 to 150 schools are always on the Job Ads web page. And the TIE Resume Bank means over 200 headmasters of International schools can access your file; and from there they can contact you through email, phone, your website, etc. Schools can, and often do, change their vacancies weekly at so you can be the first to know when a vacancy in the country you want opens up!

Laubach Literacy
www.laubach.org/home.html
Laubach Literacy Action (LLA), the U.S. programme Division of Laubach Literacy, is the largest
volunteer-based literacy organization in the United States. We provide a full range of literacy services to more than 175,000 students annually through more than 1,000 local member programmes, 45 state organizations. Instruction is provided by a national network of more than 80,000 volunteer trainers and tutors .

Literacy Volunteers
www.literacyvolunteers.org
Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. has served adults at the lowest levels of literacy and their families since 1962, and has assisted more than half a million people to acquire literacy skills. LVA offers a professionally designed and field-tested workshop that enables volunteers to tutor adults in English for speakers of other languages. After being matched with an adult learner or a small group of learners, tutors receive regular support and opportunities for additional training through the local LVA affiliate.

National Adult Literacy Database
www.nald.ca
The National Adult Literacy Database Inc. (NALD) is a federally incorporated, non-profit service organization which fills the crucial need for a single-source, comprehensive, up-to-date and easily  accessible database of adult literacy programmes, resources, services and activities across Canada. It also links with other services and databases in North America and overseas.

PeaceCorps
www.peacecorps.org
As an English teaching volunteer, you will help expand the horizons and opportunities of students and teachers alike in Peace Corps’ largest programme. There is no other experience like helping a middle school, secondary school, or university. More than 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers are serving in 76 countries. They are working to bring clean water to communities, teach children, help start new small businesses, and stop the spread of AIDS. Since 1961, more than 161,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps, serving in 134 nations.

VolunteerMatch
www.volunteermatch.org
VolunteerMatch, ImpactOnline’s main service, uses the power of the Internet to help individuals find volunteer opportunities posted by local non-profit and public sector organizations.

Volunteers in Asia
www.volasia.org
VIA is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian organization whose aim it is to increase understanding between the United States and Asia. Its Volunteer Programs in Asia have provided young Americans with an opportunity to work and live within an Asian culture while meeting the needs of Asian host institutions, since 1962.

VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas)
www.vso.org.uk
The VSO is one of the biggest and best-known of the volunteer agencies. It works in over 70 countries around the world, with a current majority of postings to China and Africa. The VSO offers volunteers a complete package, including basic training (volunteers are expected to have a degree or be experienced TEFL teachers), airfares and, importantly, in-country support centres.

VSO Canada
www.vsocan.com
People are what VSO Canada is all about– and you just might be one of them. VSO’s people share their skills in developing countries.

WorldTeach
www.worldteach.org
WorldTeach is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based at the centre for International Development at Harvard University which provides opportunities for individuals to make a meaningful contribution to international education by living and working as volunteer teachers in developing countries.