You've survived the four weeks of extreme highs and lows that make up the Cambridge, English Language Teaching Awards (Celta) or Trinity Cert Tesol course, just about caught up on your sleep, and your certificate is on the way. What's next?

For many people, a job abroad is not an immediate option. It may be that your student debts are still plaguing you and a move to more exotic climates is not a viable option.

Perhaps you intend to work overseas, but feel you need more experience, especially if you are competing for work with more experienced professionals.

Or it could simply be that the prospect of moving to a new country, adapting to a new culture and starting a new career all at once is too much to contend with and you feel that at least some practical classroom experience beforehand would make it a less daunting prospect.

Whatever your reasons, another option, particularly for newly qualified teachers, is to find work in one of the hundreds of summer schools in the UK.

Summer may seem a long way off if you look out of the window, but schools start to recruit in March and April for placements later in the year. So it's time to get cracking.

Before you embark on summer school teaching, however, there are certain things to bear in mind: Forget the three-hour lesson planning sessions; forget the resource library with enough books for everyone and no queue for the photocopier. Most importantly, forget those perfectly behaved students you taught on your Tefl course.

A group of 200 teenagers in one place tends to spell trouble at the best of times. With the added excitement of being miles from home (and away from the watchful eyes of parents) the chaos becomes 10-fold.

Summer schools can be notoriously hectic, but they can also be great fun, as well as a highly beneficial addition to your CV.

The usual format for summer schools is a teaching session in the morning and then supervised activities or excursions in the afternoon. For the less sporty, the prospect of playing indoor volleyball with 10 gangly and scarily energetic 14-year-olds can almost be more challenging than tackling the finer points of English grammar, but it certainly makes for a more interesting and varied experience.

The same goes for those excursions to Cambridge, Oxford and London, where you will probably find yourself pleading with your students not to walk in the path of giant red buses. But it will be an exciting way for them to put their English to good use, asking for train and bus tickets, or how they get to Trafalgar Square, for example.

There are usually plenty of staff at UK summer schools, which creates a lively atmosphere in which to work, and could provide you with useful contacts for future Engish Language Teaching (ELT) travels. For anyone who doesn't wish to go abroad, it can also provide a way into a language school.

Summer schools tend to prefer staff in their 20s and 30s, although this does not apply to the more senior managerial roles.

Schools tend to start recruiting for summer positions now, usually via internet recruitment sites. Many of the jobs are with large organisations that have centres all around the UK, but you will usually be able to specify your first choice of location.

You can expect to earn around £300 per week and accommodation is generally provided for teachers who are not local to the area. If you get on well, it is also worth remembering that it can provide guaranteed work for you every summer, should you want it.

· Laura Harrison works for Cactus worldwide