The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Lendak.

My terrible The TEFL Academy (TTA) experience.

I chose to do the TEFL with The TEFL Academy because of all the good reviews online. I couldn’t find any negative reviews! So, I enrolled in their flagship Level 5 TEFL/TESOL course.

The first problem began right after I’d paid for the course. I paid and the money was taken from my bank but I didn’t get the payment received confirmation from TEFL Academy and I didn’t get any access to the course.

The first thing I did, after checking the payment had gone through successfully, was to contact TEFL Academy to let them know I’d paid and to ask if I could start my course because I only had a 3-week window to complete the course.

I tried phoning them but nobody answered so I sent off an email and got an instant bot reply that my email was in the queue. ONE WEEK LATER I finally got through to someone and then ONE WEEK AFTER THAT I finally got access to the course.

When I did get the course access I had to steamroll through the course and luckily the course is quite light on content so I was able to complete it in a couple of days. It took another TWO WEEKS to receive the digital certificate!!!

It was then that I began questioning all of the positive reviews and this lead me to trustedteflreviews.com where I was able to see the truth staring me in the face. So, I left a review on a website where TEFL Academy has about 1,000 positive reviews and my review wasn’t published, even though I showed them my course certificate and proof of payment.

I tried again with another reviews site and they basically said they can’t publish the review because they are worried about being taken to court by The TEFL Academy.

So the moral of this story is not to believe the positive reviews of this program because any negative reviews have been refused publication. Just believe the reviews of this program on trustedteflreviews.com because, as you can see, this reviews website doesn’t suppress freedom-of-speech reviews.

February 17, 2026, update:

Trusted TEFL Reviews only publishes verified student reviews, and articles containing true facts.

Examples:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2025/09/09/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2025/09/09/fake-accreditation-warning-theteflacademy-com/

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2025/09/09/tta-the-tefl-academy/

TTA The TEFL Academy has tried every possibility to have all three links deleted.

They appear to have a penchant for stopping free speech.

Notice the comments sections on their YouTube channel.

Example:

Read more The TEFL Academy reviews

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

Essential TEFL Tip!

Are you worried about being scammed? TEFL course scams are becoming more sophisticated, and (TTA) The TEFL Academy has been proven to be a scam!

Protect yourself from TEFL scams.

We strongly recommend choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs in 2026:

The 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Courses in 2026

By choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Certification Course Programs, you are guaranteed not to be scammed.

Choose a fully accredited and internationally recognized online TEFL/TESOL certification course that you can use for all online and abroad teaching English jobs.

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

The post “My terrible The TEFL Academy (TTA) experience.” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Bruce.

I wrote a review of The TEFL Academy on another review website but it was deleted by the website moderators. They claimed it was because they couldn’t verify whether I was a TEFL Academy student or not, even though I presented my course certificate and copies of emails between the TEFL Academy and myself. I’m unsure if I can name that website here but it’s not too hard to find. The TEFL Academy has 5-star reviews after 5-star reviews on there and the website earns money from advertising its courses. I think Trusted TEFL Reviews is the only believable review website I’ve found so far when it comes to reviewing online TEFL and TESOL courses. The rest seem as though they are in the pockets of the TEFL and TESOL course programs. It’s shocking.

I bought into the lies that The TEFL Academy has published on their school website. The lies about them being accredited. They lie about all their happy grads teaching around the world. And the big lie is that they give amazing support and help you find a job. Yep, all of the above is not true. what is true is that the course is excellent, minus the odd spelling mistakes here and there in the content.

I can only give 2 stars because although the course was very good, The TEFL Academy lies about their accreditation and support services.

Essential Tip!

We (Trusted TEFL Reviews) have had enough of the few rogue Online TEFL/TESOL companies that have been coordinating a sustained smear campaign against trustedteflreviews.com and managing to scam students by presenting themselves in a more professional light than they are.

You can read all about this scam in the following article:

Online TEFL/TESOL Course Review Scams in 2024

If you are concerned about becoming a victim of an Online TEFL/TESOL course scam, we strongly recommend choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs in 2024:

The 5 Best Online TEFL TESOL Courses in 2024

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

Read more The TEFL Academy reviews

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

The post “The TEFL Academy lies about their accreditation and support services” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

This ‘The TEFL Academy certification review’ article uncovers the extremes that this program will go to, to present and maintain a positive public image. Fake Reviews | Affiliate Links | Ambassador Program | False Accreditation Claims.

The TEFL Academy certification review. This article was last updated on September 14, 2025.

The TEFL Academy (TTA) is not a legitimate online TEFL/TESOL certification company.

The TEFL Academy (TTA) is not a fully accredited online TEFL/TESOL certification course program.

Despite its website claims, TTA The TEFL Academy is Unaccredited. This is a TEFL scam.

Trusted TEFL Reviews recommends avoiding The TEFL Academy (TTA).

Think about it. Would you employ someone who presents a TEFL certificate at a job interview that isn’t accredited?

After reading this article, we recommend reading:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/05/19/tta-the-tefl-academy/

Trusted TEFL Reviews’ advice is to invest in a Fully Accredited TEFL/TESOL certificate that will be recognized for all online and abroad teaching English jobs.

Essential TEFL Tip!

Are you worried about being scammed? TEFL course scams are becoming more sophisticated, and (TTA) The TEFL Academy has been proven to be a scam!

Protect yourself from TEFL scams.

We strongly recommend choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs in 2026:

The 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Courses in 2026

By choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Certification Course Programs, you are guaranteed not to be scammed.

Choose a fully accredited and internationally recognized online TEFL/TESOL certification course that you can use for all online and abroad teaching English jobs.

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

8th June 2022 UPDATE:

TTA The TEFL Academy – Fake TEFL Accreditation | Fake TEFL Awards | Fake TEFL Reviews | False TEFL Advertising:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/05/19/tta-the-tefl-academy/

The main reasons for this Buyer Beware Warning:

1. This program has attempted, on several occasions, to get reviews written by their staff employees published on Trusted TEFL Reviews. Trusted TEFL Reviews only publishes verified Online TEFL/TESOL customer reviews – we don’t publish fictitious reviews, self-written by Online TEFL/TESOL programs.
2. The TEFL Academy (TTA) claims to be accredited by a bunch of “external bodies” but these are only regulatory bodies – AQC | DEAC | OfQual | QUALIFI. The TEFL Academy (TTA) is only regulated by the bodies that it claims accredit them.

The TEFL Academy (TTA) provides unaccredited Online TEFL/TESOL certification courses, that are only recognized within the United Kingdom and Ireland. This is further backed up by the poor The TEFL Academy (TTA) verified student reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/the-tefl-academy/

Instead, we recommend choosing to take your international TEFL/TESOL certification course with a program offering a fully accredited course that is far more recognized internationally than The TEFL Academy’s.

The four highest-rated TEFL Academy TTA fully accredited alternative course options, listed in order of customer review ratings:

1. TEFL Online Pro – https://teflonlinepro.com/
2. OISE Toronto TEFL – https://teflonline.teachaway.com/
3. CIEE TEFL – https://www.ciee.org/
4. Maximo Nivel TEFL – https://maximonivel.com/

CIEE TEFL, Maximo Nivel, OISE Toronto TEFL, and TEFL Online Pro are Level 5 and CELTA-equivalent Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs.

TEFL Online Pro verified customer reviews:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-reviews-in-2025

OISE Toronto TEFL verified customer reviews:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/oise-university-of-toronto-tefl/

CIEE TEFL verified customer reviews:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ciee-tefl/

Maximo Nivel verified customer reviews:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/maximo-nivel-tefl/

CIEE TEFL, Maximo Nivel, OISE Toronto TEFL, and TEFL Online Pro certificates are Fully Accredited and internationally recognized. The TEFL Academy TTA certificates are not fully accredited and are not internationally recognized.

TEFL Online Pro has won the Teachers’ Choice Award in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/teachers-choice-award-winner-2019-2/

All 56 Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs are currently listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/

More on The TEFL Academy scam: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/07/26/common-tefl-scams/

The TEFL Academy certification review.

19th May 2021 UPDATE:

The TEFL Academy has been exposed by The TEFL Watchdog, for falsely claiming to telephone inquiries from prospective students that The TEFL Academy is accredited by Ofqual. When further questioned on this false claim of Ofqual accreditation – in two separate telephone calls – both TEFL Academy sales reps put the phone down on The TEFL Watchdog.

It does need to be clarified that the TEFL Academy sales reps assumed that they were having a conversation with real prospective students, and had no idea that they were speaking with members of The TEFL Watchdog.

Further details can be read in the ‘X TEFL Watchdog’ section of Trusted TEFL Reviews:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/x-tefl-watchdog/

Trusted TEFL Reviews would like to repeat that The TEFL Academy (theteflacademy.com) is not a fully accredited and internationally recognized TEFL certification program.

If you telephone The TEFL Academy and ask who accredits them, they will reply that they are accredited by Ofqual. This is a lie. Ofqual is a regulatory body and not an accreditation body.

If you press The TEFL Academy further on this bogus accreditation claim, they will likely put the phone down on you.

The TEFL Academy Level 5 TEFL certificates are only recognized within Ireland and the United Kingdom. Try using the certificate anywhere else, and you will likely be met with puzzled looks by school employers and government work visa officers.

25th April 2022 UPDATE:

A distraught customer sent Trusted TEFL Reviews a carbon copy of an email from The TEFL Academy, which explicitly states that TEFL Academy certificates are not recognized in Ireland. They also state that its certificates are not recognized in Malta.

Given that the TEFL Academy’s main office is in Dublin, Ireland, it puzzles us as to why its certificates are not recognized in the country in which it is headquartered.

Go figure!

The TEFL Academy Certification review.

This is a long, informative article that we recommend reading through from start to finish before purchasing a TEFL Academy/TTA ‘Level 5’ Online TEFL/TESOL course.

We will be looking at this program’s “accreditation” claims, how this program floods the internet with fake reviews, this program’s ‘Brand Ambassador’ program, and the dirty tricks that The TEFL Academy employs to inflict damage on its competitors.

The TEFL Academy certification review.

The TEFL Academy Certification Review Part I: Fake Reviews and the Spreading of Misinformation.

1. The TEFL Academy (TTA) brought in a new Marketing Director, Thomas Gibbons, in 2021.
2. Not long afterward, Trusted TEFL Reviews (TTR) began receiving a lot of unverified TTA reviews, supposedly written by students of TTA. None of the reviewers could prove course participation. TTR took the correct decision not to publish the reviews because there was no way of knowing if TTA graduates had written the review, or whether employees of TTA had.
3. These reviews have since been published on other TEFL review websites, where there exists little or no verification process. Such websites include TrustPilot and Reviews.co.uk
4. Thomas Gibbons contacted TTR to ask if we could delete a (verified) TTA negative student review on TTR. When we said that we wouldn’t, Thomas began pressuring TTR for a face-to-face video call. TTR politely declined the request.
5. In March of this year, an individual left a review for TTA on TTR. The review was flagged for containing commercial content, and we soon discovered that the individual works for The TEFL Academy as one of their ‘Brand Ambassadors’ – earning 20% of all TTA courses purchased through their website. When we took a look at their website, we saw a website set up to sell TTA courses and a website full of exaggerated promises and misleading facts – such as the claim that teachers can earn $100 per hour teaching English online, and the claim that teachers don’t need a college degree to teach in South Korea. This Brand Ambassador has since branched out – reviewing TEFL programs that they have zero first-hand knowledge or experience of and earning a 20% affiliate’s fee on each referral in the process.
6. In response to our refusal to publish the aforementioned reviews, TTA decided to attack TTR. They have done this in two different ways:

1. Through Black Hat SEO. As a direct result of our refusal to publish the aforementioned reviews, TTR has been receiving a large number of spam emails from x-rated websites. We know that this is because of TTA because we began receiving these emails exactly from the time just after we exposed their Brand Ambassador for submitting commercial content to TTR.
2. TTA has begun spreading the lie, via one of their Brand Ambassador’s websites – the Brand Ambassador whose review was flagged for commercial content – that TTR is run by TEFL Online Pro. This is a blatant lie and is one more inaccuracy on their commercial website. With regards to this second point:

Ian Leahy from ESLinsider was the person who first started spreading the lie that TTR is run by TEFL Online Pro. ESLinsider has also claimed that TTR is run by OISE University of Toronto.

Ian is notorious within the TEFL world for spamming the internet with his conspiracy theories. Pick any Online TEFL program – Ian will have written some trash about it in the past.

This is likely the reason why Ian Leahy and his ESLinsider TEFL program have been banned from Facebook.

Ian Leahy from ESLinsider is also famous in the TEFL world for his scams and deception. Just Google ‘ESLinsider Scams Asia’ and you will discover a treasure trove of complaints and warnings.

This, btw, is the same (Ian Leahy) ESLinsider that has been exposed for making illegal purchases with the credit card details of some of his clients and being indirectly responsible for the imprisonment of Western teachers in China.

You can read all about Ian Leahy’s ESLinsider well-documented scam here: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/03/eslinsider-reviews-scam/

It just makes us feel so frustrated when TEFL programs behave this way – spreading false rumors about TTR online – because we originally established TTR to be a genuine source of trusted TEFL reviews. Some TEFL programs are so used to being able to manipulate the review websites, where they have affiliate marketing agreements, that they don’t seem to know how to behave when they are faced with an authentic review website.

TTR has noticed a pattern in behavior: A TEFL program asks for a (verified) negative review to be deleted from TTR, TTR refuses to delete the review, and the TEFL program responds with attempts at reducing the credibility of TRR – thereby, hoping to reduce the credibility of the negative review.

A few TEFL programs have chosen this path: ESLinsider, Henry Harvin Education, ITTT TEFL, MyTEFL, TEFL Fullcircle, The TEFL Academy, World TESOL Academy.

TEFL Online Pro seems to be the favored target of these attacks, given that TEFL Online Pro is an award-winning program on TTR. OISE University of Toronto TEFL, CIEE TEFL, and Maximo Nivel TEFL have also been the targets of similar claims. What do all these programs have in common? They are the highest-rated Online TEFL TESOL programs on TTR.

It is rather coincidental that when some Online TEFL programs receive negative reviews on TTR, they claim that the site is biased against them. And it is rather coincidental that the top-rated Online TEFL programs are the ones that are claimed to be the owners of TTR.

TTR is an independently run Online TEFL/TESOL reviews website. We are not affiliated, in any way, with any of the Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs listed on this site.

If an Online TEFL/TESOL certification program has a high rating on TTR, it means that they are doing something right when it comes to the product it offers and how it treats its customers.

If an Online TEFL/TESOL certification program has a low rating on TTR, it means that they are doing something wrong when it comes to the product it offers and how it treats its customers.

The TEFL Academy Certification Review Part II: False Claims Regarding Accreditation and the Recognition of The TEFL Academy Courses.

TTA TEFL boldly claims that their Level 5 TEFL courses are Ofqual and TQUK accredited. They also claim that they are ‘Accreditation Partners’ with QUALIFI, DEAC, and AQC.

QUALIFI, DEAC, and AQC are organizations that simply confirm that a course meets certain criteria, whereby the student can be assured that they are receiving the education that is advertised by the course provider, i.e. they check if what TTA claims they are teaching in their courses is what TTA is providing to their customers. So whilst TTA claims that they are accredited by these organizations, they are not. At most, they should state that they are loosely regulated by them.

TTA also claims, on the TTA school website, that TTA is accredited by Ofqual and TQUK, and that a ‘Level 5’ TEFL certificate is the same as taking the 4-week, in-class CELTA certification course.

Ofqual and TQUK are often (incorrectly) claimed to accredit Online TEFL programs offering a ‘Level 5’ certificate. Some Level 5 programs even go as far as to claim that the Level 5 TEFL certificate is the same as the CELTA certificate. ‘Level 5’ refers to one of the levels on the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In other words, it’s a United Kingdom qualification that means very little to anyone outside of the UK. Furthermore, a qualification assessed at Level 5 doesn’t mean that it is “equivalent to the CELTA qualification”. Instead, it means that the level of education, knowledge, and skills required to complete the course is the same as that required to complete the CELTA, i.e., to be over 18, and to have a level of English and education that is equivalent to the average UK high school graduate.

Ofqual and TQUK are regulatory bodies, not accreditation bodies.

A TEFL program can be regulated by Ofqual and be accredited or fully accredited by an external accreditation body, but this is not always the case.

Several Ofqual-regulated TEFL programs blatantly lie to their customers by claiming that they are Ofqual accredited, or lie and claim that they are Ofqual regulated and fully accredited by another body that only regulates courses.

The TEFL Academy is a good example of this.

The TEFL Academy – https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/the-tefl-academy/ – claims to be accredited by Ofqual, QUALIFI, and DEAC.

All three of these bodies are regulatory, not accreditation bodies. The TEFL Academy is neither accredited nor fully accredited. They are Unaccredited.

Ofqual and TQUK-regulated courses should provide you with a high level of TEFL training (although this is by no means guaranteed) but Ofqual and TQUK are by no means of the stretch of the imagination accreditation bodies.

The TEFL Academy, though, carries out its business practices in such a shady manner that we can see that they fail to follow the most basic of the strict guidelines that you would expect an Ofqual-regulated course should follow.

More information on Online TEFL/TESOL accreditation can be found in The Accreditation Guide: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-accreditation-guide/

Part III: Affiliate links/Brand Ambassadors.

Since the arrival of Thomas Gibbons, TTA has aggressively adopted the affiliate’s marketing model.

Like some other Online TEFL programs, such as MyTEFL, TTA also uses ShareASale to gain an advantage in the market.

If you Google search ‘The TEFL Academy reviews’ you will find unverified reviews on the reviews websites that we have already mentioned at the beginning of this article, and you will also find websites that have been created solely to sell TEFL courses through affiliate marketing.

There are two types of TTA affiliate marketing websites:

1. A travel blogger writes articles about many different TEFL course providers and agrees to also write an article about TTA. This person has never been a TTA customer and, therefore, knows nothing about the TTA customer experience. This person writes an article about TTA, and included in the article is a promo code – where the reader can get a TTA course discount when they use the promo code at checkout. The blog owner receives a commission on each sale when their promo code is used.
2. A TTA Brand Ambassador – a sales rep for TTA – creates a website in the guise of someone wanting to help people with useful teaching tips and other TEFL/Teaching-related information. They begin reviewing other TEFL programs and also some online teaching platforms. The sole purpose of the website is to get people to click on a link, where the ‘Brand Ambassador’ receives a “small commission” for recommending TTA courses. This small commission is 20% of the sale. This means that if you pay €448 for your TEFL Academy course, you are paying The TEFL Academy €358 and you are paying the Brand Ambassador a finder’s fee of €90.

The big problem with people writing about a product that they may or may not have taken when they are motivated by the money that they could be receiving from what they have written is that they tend to exaggerate what the product or service can do for you. We have witnessed this with posts and websites created for TTA courses – unrealistic claims, and outright lies, about the results of taking a TTA certification course.

TTA’s Brand Ambassadors have two roles:

1. Sell TTA courses through affiliate links and receive a 20% commission on every sale.
2. Write negative things about the TTA competition, and in doing so strengthen the brand awareness of TTA courses and earn a 20% commission if someone believes what has been written and decides to buy a TTA course through the Brand Ambassador’s website. The Brand Ambassador knows that by writing a critical post about a TTA competitor, it will show up in search results for that competitor. And TTA helps the post climb to the top of the search results by asking all of their affiliate partners to link to that particular post in their travel blogs. This is what is known as ‘link farming’. And this last point now leads us to the final part of this article – the part where we dish out some karmic justice.

Trusted TEFL Reviews recently published a TEFL Affiliate Marketing Scam article:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/02/07/tefl-affiliate-marketing-scam/

Part IV: The TEFL Academy vs. TEFL Online Pro.

Since The TEFL Academy insists on carrying out a prolonged attack on Trusted TEFL Reviews – claiming that we are owned by TEFL Online Pro – we thought it only fair to dish out a bit of karmic justice and briefly compare TTA with the TEFL program competitor whom they are currently spreading false information about online.

Having extensively looked through both The TEFL Academy and TEFL Online Pro school websites, we can conclude that:

1. Both programs offer identical courses in terms of what is included in each course syllabus. This means that the information taught in TTA’s ‘Level 5’ 168-hour course is equal to the information taught in TEFL Online Pro’s 120-hour TEFL/TESOL course.
2. Both programs appear to offer identical support services.
3. The TEFL Academy is ‘Unaccredited/Regulated’ and TEFL Online Pro is ‘Fully Accredited, and internationally recognized’.
4. TEFL Online Pro has won the Teachers’ Choice Award seven years in a row – 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |2024 | 2025.
5. The TEFL Academy relies on affiliate marketing to win new customers. TEFL Online Pro doesn’t use affiliate marketing.
6. TEFL Online Pro is a more affordable option than The TEFL Academy.

If we had to choose between The TEFL Academy and TEFL Online Pro, we would choose to take our international TEFL/TESOL certification course with teflonlinepro.com.

Visit the TEFL Online Pro school website

TEFL Online Pro reviews on Facebook

Read TEFL Online Pro verified trusted TEFL reviews

Part V: The TEFL Academy and it’s close business comptitors

You can tell a lot about a person by the friends they have.

The TEFL Academy acts more like a cartel than a professional online TEFL certification program.

It’s sicarios are its affiliste marketers; two of which are Caitriona McTiernan and Megan Boroccoli.

This ‘The TEFL Academy Certification Review’ article was brought to you by Mia Williams at Trusted TEFL Reviews.

Related article: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/6-tefl-red-flags/

Read more The TEFL Academy reviews

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

The post The TEFL Academy certification review appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The TEFL Academy review, submitted by A.H.

Wow! I definitely wasn’t ready for how intense the course was! I thought it would just be multiple choice quizzes, but you will find yourself needing to submit essays and lesson plans and reading a whole load of material. If I had to give the actual course materials a grade, they would get a big juicy five-star from me.

I just thought the feedback was a little too generic and once the course is over, it’s over. Not a whole lot of support after the course.

But for anyone looking for an online tefl course that you won’t just fly through in a matter of a few days, then this should be the choice of course for you.

The TEFL Academy Warning! Before you decide whether to choose to take your TEFL certification with this company, we strongly urge you to read the following TEFL Academy/TTA Scam article:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/03/25/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/

Read more The TEFL Academy reviews

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

The post Review of The TEFL Academy Online TEFL certification course program appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

Accreditation Watchdog: The TEFL Academy vs. TEFL Online Pro, submitted by The Trusted TEFL Reviews TEFL Watchdog.

Yesterday afternoon, The TEFL Watchdog decided to contact, via telephone, both The TEFL Academy and TEFL Online Pro, to see how their (virtual) face-to-face customer service support measures up against the scrutiny of some basic questioning.

We took the role of prospective students, interested in what each course has to offer.

We chose these two particular TEFL/TESOL course providers because one is the highest-rated program on Trusted TEFL Reviews, and the other is notorious for misleading its customers with regard to false accreditation claims and is notorious for launching clandestine attacks on its TEFL TESOL business competitors.

The former: teflonlinepro.com

The latter: theteflacademy.com

1. TEFL Online Pro.
In under a minute, The TEFL Watchdog was connected with a TEFL Online Pro office staff member – willing and able to answer any questions that we had. At the end of our conversation, they asked us if we had any further questions for them. The entire conversation was polite, knowledgeable, and professional.

2. The TEFL Academy.
After waiting for more than 5 minutes, we were finally connected to a TEFL Academy staff member that seemed like it was their first day on the job. When they were unable to answer any of our questions – the exact same questions that we put to TEFL Online Pro – they then redirected our phone call to a second TEFL Academy staff member, that also came across as clueless. Both staff members apologized for not being able to sufficiently answer our basic questions – basic questions that any prospective TEFL student would consider rudimentary.

One of our questions asked was, “Are your courses accredited?”

TEFL Online Pro answered in the affirmative.

The TEFL Academy also answered in the affirmative but provided us with false information.

The TEFL Academy stated that its courses are accredited by Ofqual and TQUK. They also mentioned a few other organizations which apparently accredit them. When The TEFL Watchdog noted that the organizations quoted are only regulatory bodies and not accreditation bodies, the second TEFL Academy staff member put the phone down on us!

Conclusion:

1. In the event that something goes wrong with your TEFL/TESOL course, or if you just need some support, our money would be on TEFL Online Pro to fix the issue and/or find a solution. If you are wanting to take a fully accredited and internationally recognized TEFL/TESOL certification course program, TEFL Online Pro provides this service.

2. In the event that something goes wrong with your TEFL/TESOL course, or if you just need some support, our money would not be on The TEFL Academy to fix the issue and/or find a solution. If you are wanting to take a fully accredited and internationally recognized TEFL/TESOL certification course program, The TEFL Academy does not provide this service. If you ever needed to contact The TEFL Academy directly, via telephone, our first-hand impression is that you will likely be lied to and likely locked in a never-ending telephone loop – passed from one uninformed staff member to another.

Final assessment:

TEFL Online Pro: 9/10

The TEFL Academy: 3/10

TEFL Online Pro is a Fully Accredited and internationally recognized TEFL TESOL course provider – accredited by ACTEFLC – Accreditation Council for Teaching English as a Foreign Language Courses: https://www.acteflc.com/

TEFL Online Pro clearly and transparently note this on their school website:
https://teflonlinepro.com/accreditation/

The TEFL Academy claim that they are accredited by a bunch of regulatory bodies, but we couldn’t find any examples of actual accreditation.

Final thoughts?

TEFL Online Pro came over as approachable and professional.

The TEFL Academy came over as evasive and disorganized.

TEFL Online Pro answered all our questions in a polite and detailed manner.

The TEFL Academy dodged questions and ultimately put the phone down on us.

Perhaps this explains why TEFL Online Pro is the highest-rated TEFL TESOL certification course program, and why The TEFL Academy is the 55th lowest-rated TEFL TESOL certification course program:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/

More TEFL TESOL program comparisons will appear sporadically throughout the remainder of 2025.

Read more about TEFL TESOL accreditation in the TEFL Accreditation Guide, and in TEFL TESOL Accreditation 101:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-accreditation-guide/

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/28/tefl-tesol-accreditation-101/

Accreditation Watchdog UPDATE: 18th May 2021.

Trusted TEFL Reviews (again) tried reaching The TEFL Academy, to ask basic questions which TEFL Academy students would likely need to ask, should things go south with their TEFL Academy course.

Again, after waiting on hold for approx. five minutes, we were put through to a company sales rep, that failed to answer any of our questions.

When we persisted in our questioning, we were duly informed that The TEFL Academy would no longer be answering our questions.

All we asked, was which accreditation body accredits the TEFL Academy courses.

When we did eventually get through to somebody who was willing to answer our question, the young gentleman on The TEFL Academy switchboard relayed to us that The TEFL Academy is accredited by Ofqual.

When we confirmed for this particular gentleman that OfQual is a regulatory body and not an accreditation body, he decided to put the phone down on us.

It was a straightforward question, responded with a less than straightforward response.

Extremely shady behavior.

Try it for yourselves: contact The TEFL Academy’s main customer line (+353 1554 62 27) and see how you feel about their customer service experience. Oh, and please ask them about their accreditation. They begin by claiming such and such accreditation, but the moment you question the legitimacy of those accreditation claims, they hang up on you and block your telephone number.

If you are wanting a personal TEFL TESOL course experience, and one that is fully accredited, Trusted TEFL Reviews recommends avoiding The TEFL Academy.

We also (again) contacted TEFL Online Pro – teflonlinepro.com – and they came over as transparent and ready to answer all of our asked accreditation questions.

Why is this so?

theteflacademy.com is regionally accredited (within Ireland and the UK) but is not fully accredited; nor internationally recognized.

teflonlinepro.com is Fully Accredited and internationally recognized.

Accreditation Watchdog, in association with The TEFL Watchdog

Related article: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/6-tefl-red-flags/

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TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

The post Accreditation Watchdog: The TEFL Academy vs. TEFL Online Pro. appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

TPR Teaching Caitriona Maria

This is (sigh) yet another example of an online TEFL company behaving badly, and is yet another reason why The TEFL Academy (https://www.theteflacademy.com/) remains on the Trusted TEFL Reviews scam list (https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/x-online-tefl-course-scams/) of online TEFL/TESOL course providers that act unethically and misrepresent themselves to TEFL students.

Back in March 2021, Trusted TEFL Reviews received a TEFL Academy review that contained a lot of marketing language. When it was decided that the review was in direct contradiction to our review submission guidelines, we took the decision not to publish the review.

The review had been submitted by Caitriona McTiernan, who likes to go by the online alias “Caitriona Maria”.

When we decided not to publish Caitriona’s review, due to the fact that she works for The TEFL Academy, that should really have been the end of the story.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Caitriona took offense. Was seemingly outraged. Acted as though it was our obligation to publish her keyword-packed The TEFL Academy review.

Intrigued, Trusted TEFL Reviews took a look at Caitriona’s blog, and we noticed a few important elements:

1. The homepage of the website has been designed to give the impression that TPR Teaching is a source of basic information for English teachers, looking for handy teaching tips.
2. The website strongly recommends The TEFL Academy online TEFL course, which, btw, is not a fully accredited TEFL program.
3. The website recommends some very shady online TEFL courses which are similarly not accredited or internationally recognized.
4. Caitriona writes about TEFL locations around the world, but a lot of her information is either inaccurate or misleading.

One more thing that we noticed, a few weeks after Trusted TEFL Reviews declined to publish Caitriona’s The TEFL Academy review, was a scathing attack on Trusted TEFL Reviews by Caitriona “Maria” McTiernan.

When we looked closer, we saw that Caitriona simply copied the misinformation spread by Ian Leahy, from ESLinsider. Ian Leahy is notorious within the TEFL industry for publishing rubbish online about his business competition. More about Ian Leahy and ESLinsider:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/03/eslinsider-reviews-scam/

Of all the TEFL programs to aspire to, The TEFL Academy and Caitriona “Maria” McTiernan couldn’t have picked a worse one in ESLinsider TEFL.

Caitriona is relatively young and we initially didn’t feel comfortable publishing a post about her shilling of The TEFL Academy. However, over time, we have noticed how shrewd she is and how invested she is in promoting The TEFL Academy through outright lies.

Therefore, we feel that this post is a public service for any future TEFL students who may stumble across her blog and who will likely be unaware of the behind-the-scenes hidden agenda of Caitriona’s website.

Incidentally, Caitriona only began her website in early 2020 and it already enjoys quite a significant Google ranking presence. We assume that this is because The TEFL Academy clandestinely promotes it behind the scenes, through link farming techniques.

So, therefore, the TPR Teaching website, owned and operated by Caitriona “Maria” McTiernan, is simply an extension of The TEFL Academy’s business model.

Caitriona has been a TEFL Academy student and is completely welcome to write what she likes about her experience of the program, despite the fact that she mentions things like it is a “highly accredited course”.

However, she also earns money by recommending other TEFL programs that she has no direct experience of and which she earns an affiliate’s commission from each time an unwitting person buys a TEFL course through her website.

For example, Caitriona praises and promotes the MyTEFL online TEFL program.

MyTEFL has also been exposed for their fake accreditation and the way that they misrepresent their job placement services to their TEFL graduates:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/01/24/the-mytefl-com-scam/

The TEFL industry is full of individuals who see an opportunity of making some affiliates marketing money by recommending courses that they know very little about.

Caitriona is one of these people.

It is not positive for the industry, and it is not positive for the TEFL students who suddenly find out one day that their TEFL certificate course was a waste of money when an employer or government agency declines their job or visa application.

This is all that we are going to write as of this point because I personally feel that I have summed everything up already.

What I will do now is complete this article with images and comments, which further cement the fact that websites such as TPR Teaching are bad for the TEFL industry.

Incidentally, when Trusted TEFL Reviews tried to add a comment to the TPR Teaching website, our comment wasn’t published by Caitriona. We have received complaints from other people who have also not had their comments published on Caitriona “Maria” McTiernan’s website.

We would advise treading carefully and taking anything published on the TPR Teaching site with a generous dose of skepticism.

Caitriona and The TEFL Academy are welcome to add a comment to this article.

Mia Williams

trustedteflreviews.com

Related articles:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/6-tefl-red-flags/

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/03/25/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/

May 2022 Caitriona Maria McTiernan Update

This is a quick Trusted TEFL Reviews update, highlighting the continued harassment that I (Mia Williams) have been receiving from TTA The TEFL Academy, and one of its employees: Caitriona Maria McTiernan.

Trusted TEFL Reviews received these two messages from Caitriona Maria two days ago:

At first, we refused to delete the comments.

But then, we decided to delete these two comments from this article because we get how some people can act and say really dumb things when they are stressed out.

When we received yet another message, also from Caitriona Maria McTiernan – a message that we can’t publish on here because of the intense use of expletives and graphic threats – we made the call to publish the screenshot that we had taken of Caitriona’s previous two comments submitted to trustedteflreviews.com on May 17th.

TTA The TEFL Academy and its Brand Ambassador Caitriona Maria McTiernan are very good at marketing. However, I’m not certain how they are going to market themselves out of this one.

Mia Williams | Trusted TEFL Reviews

The post TPR Teaching Caitriona Maria appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.