TEFL TESOL Accreditation 101

TEFL TESOL Accreditation 101.

This article has been updated on December 21, 2025.

TEFL TESOL Accreditation 101.

(A list of institutions providing Online TEFL programs ‘Fully Accredited’ status appears towards the bottom of this article.)

This is quite a long article. It is an honest, factual, serious look at the question of Online TEFL/TESOL/TESL accreditation.

If you are researching which Online TEFL/TESOL/TESL course to take, this article should be essential reading for you.

For sake of convenience, and to avoid repetition, we will use the generic term ‘TEFL’ instead of mentioning ‘TEFL/TESOL/TESL’ each time these terms require a mention. These terms do have their differences in meaning, but for all intents and purposes, they essentially refer to the same type of training and this is why most teacher-training programs advertise their courses with one or more of these acronyms listed.

One of the most common misconceptions about Online TEFL courses, and one of the main areas that permit room for the peddling of misinformation, is the heated topic of accreditation.

Over the past few years, Online TEFL programs have discovered that it is much easier to sell their courses if they claim that their courses are accredited.

The result of this ‘accreditation fever’ has been the mushrooming creation of “accreditation bodies” that have been created by savvy business people with little or no background in education.

Some TEFL schools have also jumped on the bandwagon; creating fictitious accreditation websites, in order to make their courses seem more credible – all the while deceiving their customers and perpetuating the ‘accreditationspiracy’.

In addition to the above, some Online TEFL programs try to convince consumers that their programs are more credible because they are “accredited and regulated” by AQC, Ofqual, QUALIFI. These are not accreditation bodies, they are regulatory bodies. There is, a major difference, and the “Level 5” TEFL course brand (which was only recently created) is just another marketing gimmick to try to convince the consumer that you should take their Online TEFL program.

The truth of the matter is that there isn’t one international accreditation body for Online TEFL courses.

Therefore, we begin this article with the plain unadorned fact that the Online TEFL industry is completely unregulated, and the term ‘accredited’, when applied to Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs, is purely a marketing gimmick. This, in turn, has created a snowball effect, whereby most people who are looking to take an Online TEFL course now place accreditation status high on their tick box list that a TEFL program must include.

Some government visa agencies, and some language schools, have also bought into the accreditation fallacy; stipulating that their teachers must hold an accredited TEFL certificate if they want to work for them and if they want to be able to legally teach in their country.

I have been teaching for over ten years now, and I have not once been asked whether my TEFL certificate is accredited or not. I have also never been asked whether my TEFL certification was taken online or in-person. I live and work in Austria, where the authorities are sticklers for correct documentation.

So if accreditation means relatively very little, is it completely worthless?

And which accreditation bodies are more trustworthy than others?

Accreditation is important when it provides the customer with an extra layer of consumer protection.

Accreditation can be divided into four main camps:

1. An Online TEFL program simply chooses not to capitulate to the pressure of being accredited and remains an Unaccredited provider.
2. An Online TEFL program creates an accreditation website itself, for the sole purpose of convincing consumers that they are a credible institution. This is usually a short-term fix because no amount of convincing can hide a subpar product and poor customer service. Trusted TEFL Reviews classes these Online TEFL programs ‘Unaccredited‘ and such programs should be avoided. They should be avoided because the training will be poor, you will have very little (if any) consumer rights, and you could become a victim of fraud.
3. An Online TEFL program capitulates to the pressure of being accredited and pays an annual fee to an accreditation body, and in return, they can claim that they are an accredited Online TEFL program. The accreditation body may, or may not, follow through on their promises that they maintain high levels of accountability regarding the Online TEFL programs that they accredit. Trusted TEFL Reviews classes these Online TEFL programs ‘Accredited‘ and such programs should be chosen after due diligence is carried out regarding their (verified) customer reviews on trustedteflreviews.com.
4. An Online TEFL program capitulates to the pressure of being accredited and pays an annual fee to an accreditation body, and in return, they can claim that they are an accredited Online TEFL program. The accreditation body ensures high standards of culpability and follows through on their promises that they maintain high levels of accountability regarding the Online TEFL programs that they accredit. Trusted TEFL Reviews classes these Online TEFL programs ‘Fully Accredited‘ and such programs tend anyway to receive consistently positive student feedback. This is not always the rule, though, so always check the (verified) customer reviews on trustedteflreviews.com.

Institutions providing Online TEFL programs Fully Accredited status include:

ACCET – Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training | https://accet.org/

ACTEFLC – Accreditation Council for Teaching English as a Foreign Language Courses | https://www.acteflc.com/

OISE – University of the Toronto Faculty of Education | https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/

TESL Canada | https://tesl.ca/

University of Cambridge’s English Language Assessment | https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/

Online TEFL courses that are directly accredited by a Ministry of Education also enjoy Fully Accredited status.

The following Online TEFL/TESOL programs (in alphabetical order) are Fully Accredited and internationally recognized:

Bridge TEFL | https://bridge.edu/tefl/ | Bridge TEFL verified trusted TEFL reviews.

CIEE TEFL | https://www.ciee.org/ | CIEE TEFL verified trusted TEFL reviews.

Maximo Nivel TEFL | https://maximonivel.com/ | Maximo Nivel verified trusted TEFL reviews.

ontesol | https://ontesol.com/ | ontesol verified trusted TEFL reviews.

OISE University of Toronto TEFL | https://teflonline.teachaway.com/ | OISE TEFL verified trusted TEFL reviews.

Oxford Seminars | https://www.oxfordseminars.com/ | Oxford Seminars verified trusted TEFL reviews.

TEFL Iberia | https://tefl-iberia.com/ | TEFL Iberia verified trusted TEFL reviews.

TEFL Online Pro (Teachers’ Choice Award winner, 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025) | https://teflonlinepro.com/ | TEFL Online Pro verified trusted TEFL reviews.

TEFL/TESOL online programs that win the Teachers’ Choice Award are granted the ability to enjoy a whole year’s free exposure on Trusted TEFL Reviews, where they may post, for example, any current course discounts or promotions on the Trusted TEFL Reviews website.

You can check to see whether an Online TEFL/TESOL Program is Unaccredited, Accredited, or Fully Accredited by clicking on their category in the sidebar. The mention of which accreditation status they hold is clearly stated at the top of their category page, above the program’s review(s).

Unaccredited courses are identified with the statement, ‘Is [Online TEFL Program] accredited? No.‘

Accredited courses are identified with the statement, ‘Is [Online TEFL Program] accredited? Yes. The certification awarded is Accredited.’

Fully Accredited courses are identified with the statement, ‘Is [Online TEFL Program] accredited? Yes. The certification awarded is Fully Accredited and internationally recognized.‘

If you are having difficulties locating a program’s category page, you can easily locate it by clicking on their live link in the TEFL Course Directory: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/

Important information about Ofqual and TQUK-regulated courses:

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.

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.

A number of 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.

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.

One final point is that the accreditation industry in itself is highly competitive.

An argument that we often see is that a certain accreditation body should be taken more seriously than another simply because they have been in operation for longer.
This is absolute hogwash.
It doesn’t matter if an accreditation body has been in operation for one month or ten years.
What matters is whether the main accreditation members of the body are master’s-degree educated (in the field of Education), have years of credible experience in the field of TEFL and whether the accreditation body honors the rights of consumers.
Too many self-proclaimed “established” accreditation bodies have been set up by private individuals, with no university education and little to no experience in TEFL, and with just one mission: to make money and to hell with standards.

And our last (important) point:

When you apply for an English teacher job, online or abroad, IF your employer does ask whether your certificate is accredited, they sure as hell won’t ask WHICH company accredited your certificate.

What DOES matter, and what is ESSENTIAL, is that the Online TEFL course that you took actually taught you how to teach English.

Help with finding teaching work after the course should also be a priority, but NEVER pay any company to help find you a job. And NEVER accept a job placement agreement. There is so much work available and an Online TEFL program that will help you find work, as a free service when you pay for the course, is the preferential route.

Yes, you can save your money and buy a 120-Hour Online TEFL course for under $100 US, and you can enjoy the short-term-lived, feel-good emotion that you “got TEFL certified”, but the real proof of the pudding comes when you are sat in front of an experienced interviewer or stood in front of an actual class of students, and when you will very quickly realize that the course you completed in under a day has, in no way, whatsoever, prepared you for any of this. And then, inevitably, you won’t hear back from the school and you will, inevitably, have to begin a new search for another Online TEFL course to take – one that will properly prepare you for the job you want to train for.

Therefore, in conclusion to this TEFL TESOL Accreditation 101 article, always aim for a fully accredited Online TEFL program.

Quality 120-Hour Online TEFL courses begin from around $150 US. Pay anything less and you will be selling yourself and your future students short.

This ‘TEFL TESOL Accreditation 101’ article was written by Mia Williams, co-owner of Trusted TEFL Reviews (TTR) | Best Featured TEFL Articles

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

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MyTEFL review, submitted by Anonymous.

For fear of possible retribution from MyTEFL, I would rather my name was not published with this review. If this isn’t possible, please ignore this message and don’t publish it.

Well, I guess I’m another person in a long line of people who have fallen for the clever MyTEFL marketing trap.

MANY promises were made, but few were delivered.

I chose MyTEFL because of their OTTSA accreditation and the low price, at a 35% discount at the time.

I’ve since found out, through trustedteflreviews.com that OTTSA is a creation of MyTEFL and their “TEFL friends”.

You know what. This actually doesn’t bother me so much. No one ever asked me about accreditation when I applied for jobs, so if MyTEFL wants to keep on peddling its fake accreditation credentials then that’s their costly choice for themselves.

What DID bother me was that despite being promised all the support in the world in finding work, the line of communication went dead as soon as the certificate arrived in the post.

The course is OK. Nothing amazing Not terrible either. I guess it’s your standard online TEFL course. And the certificate does look good. I must admit that. Costs a fair penny for it though. Yes, there are hidden costs.

If only MyTEFL would ditch its fake accreditation, cut back on the hidden fees, and live up to the promises they make, it could be an excellent outfit. But I have read the warnings. I have seen how they pay people to write nice things about them in return for an affiliate’s bonus.

It just isn’t right.

We are talking about someone’s life dream trip abroad. Perhaps a once in a lifetime experience. You need to choose wisely when making such important decisions.

I’ll give MyTEFL a couple of stars for the course. But that is all I will ever give them again.

Read more MyTEFL 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

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The OTTSA – Online Tefl and Tesol Standards Agency – Accrediting Professionals scam.

December 9, 2023 UPDATE:

It appears that OTTSA has now closed down and the TEFL companies that partnered with this fake accreditation website have flown over to other fake TEFL accreditation websites.

A fine example of this is MyTEFL, which now claims to be accredited by the International TEFL Accreditation Council (ITEFLAC) and by the International Council for Online Educational Standards (ICOES).

ITEFLAC is a fake accreditation body – one red flag being the stock images on the website that hope to allure the unsuspecting into thinking it is an organization located in an office building, and full of suited men and women whose only care in the world is TEFL and TESOL accreditation.

ICOES is, putting it kindly, a dodgy accreditation company. Its list of companies that it boasts of accrediting includes ‘Permanent Jewelry Bestie’ and ‘spray tan class’. Oh, and MyTEFL and International Open Academy – two TEFL companies with a terrible reputation.

ITTT, on the other hand, has gone rogue and teamed up with an accreditation body that can’t even spell the word ‘Accreditation’ correctly on its website:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/03/23/ittt-tefl-accreditation/

Essential TEFL Tip!

Are you worried about being scammed? TEFL course scams are becoming more sophisticated!

Protect yourself by reading about the latest TEFL scams in this article:

Online TEFL/TESOL Course Review Scams in 2026

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 2025:

The 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Courses in 2026

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

In a previous scam article, we wrote about being defamed online, and it became quickly crystal clear to us that the company orchestrating the spreading of the false allegations online about trustedteflreviews.com, was MyTEFL.com.

We would advise reading the MyTEFL.com scam post before coming back to this post, as then you will have a clearer picture regarding why we have chosen to expose MyTEFL and their rather dubious business practices.

Both MyTEFL and ITTT TEFL claim to be accredited by OTTSA.

‘OTTSA’ btw, is an acronym for ONLINE TEFL & TESOL STANDARDS AGENCY.

And at first glance, it looks impressive.

It was created by an individual who happened to travel to Thailand to become an English teacher, and who then happened to create his accreditation website.

His name: is Simon Godwin.

Here you can read about the creator of OTTSA:

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/560086.tourists-urged-to-return/

There are three levels of accreditation:

Unaccredited

Accredited

Fully accredited, and internationally recognized.

Online TEFL/TESOL programs that are accredited by OTTSA are categorized as ‘Accredited’.

This means that the certificate awarded is not necessarily internationally recognized.

Further information here:

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

On the OTTSA main page is what appears at first glance to be a professional statement:

Again, it looks impressive.

The one issue with this though, is that it is an outright scam.

What is particularly painful here is that this fake accreditation website has been developed to pull the wool over people’s eyes and to get them to make that course purchase because they will probably assume that OTTSA is an internationally recognized accreditation body.

This couldn’t be further from the truth, and, only this week, trustedteflreviews.com received a scathing MyTEFL.com review where the reviewer’s employer refused her a teaching position because their school didn’t want one of their teachers to be associated with a fake accreditation scheme:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/13/needless-to-say-i-shall-be-contacting-my-credit-card-company-for-a-full-refund-on-the-mytefl-purchase/

But how can we know that this is a fake accreditation website?

1. If you contact OTTSA, you will never receive a reply. They are not in the business of encouraging more members to join their fat cow laid out to graze.
2. The website connection is not secure:

3. Their “Accredited courses” page gives the game away

The companies that OTTSA claim went through a vigorous accreditation application process, and was successful in being accepted to such a prestigious accreditation organization are:

1. ITTT TEFL

2. XploreAsia

3. MyTEFL

4. CultureRoute

5. TESOL Coach Master Inc. by The American Global TESOL Association, LLC:

6. Promise Opens Doors

7. TEFLMaster

8.TESOL Professional Teachers Global Limited

9. TEFL Tycoon by Chelsea International Education LLC

Now, besides ITTT TEFL being the only Online TEFL school listed with a live link to their website, we thought we would take a look at a few of the other (unknown) Online TEFL schools (besides MyTEFL.com, which are now very well-known to us.)

And what a shock!

When we checked last week, the remaining 7 websites looked very different than they did when we checked again this afternoon.

Last week there were ridiculously high course offers for 120-hour Online TEFL courses, such as $2,000, but we know how quick the MyTEFL.com Asian team can be in manipulating websites and they have now made the remaining 7 look almost plausible Online TEFL course options.

But of course, again, if you look closely, you can recognize immediately that these are hastily-created websites, without any other significant presence on the web.

Now they spell their accreditation company in capitals all of a sudden

What does OTTSA do?

OTTSA is a fake website that attempts, rather well, to scam money from people searching online for accredited Online TEFL courses (which by definition don’t exist.)

Now, we would love to be wrong. As we would have loved to have been wrong about the MyTEFL and Footprints Recruiting scams.

Everything we have written is non-defamatory. It is the truth.

Perhaps that’s why the only responses that we have received so far have been vulgar, private comments – threatening us with further online defamation and online attacks if we continue down this path of exposing this well-established corrupt corner of the international Online TEFL certification industry.

I was even insulted by an insinuation that I am a “dike”. The comment received read: ‘Your website is a disgrace and payback is coming your way. You’re just a dike with brains about the TEFL world.

My response was that the correct spelling is, “dyke” and that whatever my sexual preference, it is my business only – and my boyfriend’s too if you want to know

I then laughed when I signed my comment response as Mia Williams – “just a dike with brains about the TEFL world”

Btw, as a quick thought and a message that I feel is important to all readers: don’t ever give a fuc* about what someone says about your choice of sexuality. It’s none of their business, and it’s SO 1990 even to bring up the theme.

Again though, not all Online TEFL programs behave in such an appalling manner to get a hold of your hard-earned cash.

If you are reading this and are searching for honest, reputable Online TEFL certification companies then may we suggest you view our Online TEFL Courses Directory:

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

We welcome any comments in the reply section below.

If and when we are notified of shady practices or even outright scams, we will post details of them in the Online TEFL Course Scams section of this website.

Written by Mia Williams for Trusted TEFL Reviews.

WARNING! We strongly recommend that readers are made fully aware of MyTEFL’s violation of the international TEFL/TESOL Code of Professional Conduct:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/02/mytefl-a-code-of-conduct-violation/

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

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

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