Go TEFL was founded by Ishbel Dickson (known online as Ishbel Rose) a British teacher and TEFL specialist with four years of classroom experience across four countries.

After graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, Scotland, with a first-class BDes in Textile Design (equivalent to a Bachelor of Fine Arts with distinction ) Ishbel took a path that surprised almost everyone who knew her. Instead of heading into design, she went to Thailand.

She spent her first year teaching English to primary and kindergarten students in Thai classrooms, learning from the inside what works, what doesn’t, and what first-time teachers actually need to know before they walk through the door. That hands-on experience with young learners shaped everything that came next.

From Thailand, Ishbel moved to Budapest, where she spent two years working at an international school as a TEFL teacher and teaching assistant. Living and working in central Europe gave her a completely different perspective on what it means to teach English abroad: The classroom culture, the student profiles, the expectations, and the realities that no online guide prepares you for.

Switzerland came next, followed by a return to the UK, where she continued teaching and eventually made the decision to build something of her own.

Go TEFL is the course Ishbel wishes had existed when she started. Not a generic certification factory built around a brand, but a properly accredited, 120-hour online TEFL course designed by someone who has stood where you’re standing now: excited, a little nervous, and full of questions nobody seems to be answering honestly.

Every lesson, every resource, and every piece of guidance in this course comes from real experience. The classroom moments, the planning challenges, the culture adjustments, the wins, all of it is in there.

If you’re thinking about teaching English abroad and want training that was built by a teacher, for teachers, you’re in the right place.

Ishbel Rose
Founder and CEO, Go TEFL