Fake Accreditation Warning The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Mia Williams.

Fake Accreditation Warning.

The TEFL Academy – TTA (https://www.theteflacademy.com/) claims to be accredited by Ofqual, TQUK, QUALIFI, DEAC, and AQC.

This is intentionally misleading because these are regulatory bodies and not accreditation bodies.

TEFL students are reporting to Trusted TEFL Reviews that when applying for jobs outside of Ireland and the UK, their TEFL Academy certificates are often not being accepted – both during the job interview process and during the work visa process.

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

Concerning TEFL students reporting that when applying for jobs outside of Ireland and the UK, their TEFL Academy certificates are often not being accepted: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/03/25/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/

It also appears that The TEFL Academy is employing graduates of their program to act as ‘Brand Ambassadors’ – pushing the notion that only a TEFL Academy certificate will suffice and that other TEFL TESOL programs are inferior products.

If you stumble across any blog or other website that is critical of any Online TEFL TESOL program other than the TEFL Academy – offering The TEFL Academy as an alternative, better option – we recommend taking the contents of that blog or website with a healthy helping of salt.

It will simply be a front for directing readers to an alternative TEFL course: The TEFL Academy.

In conclusion, The TEFL Academy certificate will be fine if you plan on teaching English in Ireland or the UK. However, for international teaching jobs, we would recommend choosing a Fully Accredited and internationally recognized TEFL TESOL certification course program.

April 25, 2022 update:

As it turns out, a TEFL Academy (TTA) certificate is not even accepted in Ireland as a teaching English as a foreign language qualification.

Trusted TEFL Reviews received a carbon copy of an email, from a worried TTA TEFL certificate holder, in which The TEFL Academy clearly states that its certificates are not valid for teaching English jobs in Ireland.

This news comes as quite a shock because the TEFL Academy’s main headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland.

Not even the country where the company is located will accept its certificates.

A TEFL Academy certificate should be fine for some low-paid teaching English jobs.

For better-paid teaching English online and abroad job opportunities, we recommend choosing a Fully Accredited TEFL/TESOL program.

Institutions providing Online TEFL programs with 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 the 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.

Trusted TEFL Reviews recently tried to reach out (twice) to The TEFL Academy, for a clear answer to their bogus accreditation claims. For reasons of fairness, we also reached out to a competing program of The TEFL Academy – TEFL Online Pro – and the results of our telephone conversations can be read in this article:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/05/01/the-accreditation-watchdog-the-tefl-academy-versus-tefl-online-pro/

Learn more about TEFL TESOL accreditation:

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

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

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 Fake Accreditation Warning appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

TTA The TEFL Academy | Fact-checked

Written by Mia Williams – co-owner of trustedteflreviews.com

It is said that a magician’s best friend is a drunk audience.

Well, please allow me to sober you up to the reality of the magic tricks of TTA The TEFL Academy.

FYI, this program also operates as Everything TEFL Ltd.

This article will peel away the facade of its accreditation claims, will question the legitimacy of its philanthropic work in the Nepalese community, will highlight its ongoing business operations in Russia, and will expose how this TEFL company uses its vast marketing budget to perpetuate the illusion that it has hundreds of thousands of TEFL graduates teaching all over the world.

There is, of course, also the question of its fake reviews – also covered in this article.

Let us begin this sobering-up process by looking at a few screenshots from its company website.

Btw, those reviews in the screenshot, listed under “Accreditation Partners”, are from reviews.co.uk. That site is infamous for deleting negative reviews in return for payment and letting fake positive reviews remain published without any quality control verification oversight.

Fake TEFL Accreditation

It claims that QUALIFI, DEAC, and AQC are its “Accreditation Partners”.

QUALIFI is a UK-based organization that APPROVES courses and institutions.

It approves hair, beauty, wellness, and aesthetics courses, and it also approves TTA The TEFL Academy’s courses.

“Approval” is not the same as “accredited”.

Even if it did (in another dimension somewhere in the universe) accredit its courses, would any employer really take its accreditation seriously when it also accredits hair, beauty, wellness, and aesthetics?

If an organization had the authority to accredit courses and institutions, don’t you think that it would use the term as often as it could on its company website?

QUALIFI uses the term “accreditation” zero times on its company website.

Instead, it uses the word “approved”.

“Approved” is NOT the same level of authority and recognition as “accredited”.

Are you sobering up a little now?

Let’s proceed!

DEAC DOES accredit courses and institutions.

I can sense that you are thinking that there may be a catch here because this article is exposing TTA The TEFL Academy for (among other infractions) false accreditation claims.

And, yes, you would be correct to be suspicious.

Two in a row!

All it takes is a few clicks to confirm that it is not accredited by DEAC.

Here is a screenshot from the DEAC website – its directory of accredited institutions:

The TEFL Academy is not in the directory, and is, therefore, not accredited by DEAC.

If it were, it would be listed in the directory.

AQC appears to be a sister organization of DEAC.

How can I know this?

Well, DEAC devotes a chunk of its website footer to AQC.

Does AQC accredit courses and institutions?

No.

How do I know this?

It is stated on the DEAC/AQC website:

And here is the listing for TTA The TEFL Academy, as an approved center, on the AQC website:

Three out of three strikes.

Bingo!

Trusted TEFL Reviews reached out to QUALIFI, DEAC, and AQC for comment.

DEAC promised to get back to us. This was two weeks ago.

AQC failed to respond to our request for further information.

QUALIFI had the gall to write that approval is the same as accreditation.

We had an email back and forth with QUALIFI for a week and we discovered that it could be very probable that QUALIFI and TTA The TEFL Academy are connected companies, which would be, if true, a textbook example of a clear conflict of interest.

When we asked whether QUALIFI is a sister company of the TEFL Academy, we were warned that no further emails would be answered.

Let’s now take a look at some more screenshots from the homepage of the TEFL Academy’s website:

Fake TEFL Awards

It is a bit ironic that the TEFL Academy has spent the latter half of this year complaining that teflonlinepro.com has won the Teachers’ Choice Award seven years in a row – 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 – and then miraculously, the TEFL Academy also (very recently) began promoting its “award wins” for the same years.

You should now be almost sober, so this explanation will be easier to digest – despite its underlying complexity.

goabroad.com and gooverseas.com are two TEFL course and TEFL travel websites that earn revenue by promoting TEFL programs and TEFL job placements on their websites – rarely can you trust any of the reviews published on either platforms.

Some Trusted TEFL Reviews reviewers have complained that their negative review of the TEFL program they took was deleted from either goabroad.com or gooverseas.com, so they chose to have it published on trustedteflreviews.com instead.

trustedteflreviews.com is a non-profit website and we publish every positive and negative TEFL course review that has been verified as having been written by a real TEFL course student/graduate.

goabroad.com and gooverseas.com are for-profit websites, and it is in their business model interests to publish positive reviews and hide negative reviews.

It, therefore, logically follows that any awards dished out by both these websites have a monetary motive – for both of the websites and for the TEFL program that won the award and which likely paid a substantial amount of money to “win” the award.

The Teachers’ Choice Award (https://trustedteflreviews.com/2023/12/04/the-teachers-international-online-tefl-tesol-certification-course-choice-award-winner/) on the other hand, is a non-profit award that is based entirely on merit.

Trusted TEFL Reviews asks language schools, universities, current English teachers, and recent Online TEFL/TESOL course graduates to take part in the Online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award, by voting for their favorite Online TEFL/TESOL international certification course program.

TTA The TEFL Academy (https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/the-tefl-academy/) likely won its awards by handing over a large bag of unaccredited TEFL course cash.

We are 100% certain that TEFL Online Pro (https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/tefl-online-pro-teachers-choice-award-winner-2024/) won its awards by being voted the best Fully Accredited Online TEFL/TESOL certification course provider.

Fake TEFL Reviews

We know with absolute certainty that the TEFL Academy is involved in the mass faking of its company reviews.

How can I be so certain of this?

Last year, and a part of the year before that – just after the TEFL Academy brought in a new Marketing Manager (Thomas Gibbons) Trusted TEFL Reviews began receiving an unusually large amount of reviews for this program.

In one week, we received something like 30 reviews for the TEFL Academy.

Out of those 30 reviews, just one (1) was verified as being written by someone who had taken the course.

The remaining 29 all came from the same IP address in Dublin, Ireland, where TTA The TEFL Academy has its headquarters.

The remaining 29 reviews were written by school staff and by its Brand Ambassadors.

This appears to be a pattern in TEFL Academy’s marketing campaigns online.

They show photos of people who work for them and claim that they are, instead, English teachers living the best time of their lives.

Btw, when you read a review that states that the TEFL course was “amazing” or “extraordinary”, you must know that it is a fake review or that the person writing the review has been paid for writing the review.

TTA The TEFL Academy incentivizes its graduates to write positive reviews – sending out a mass email each week to its recent grads – with the quid-pro-quo offer of a free mini TEFL course, such as a Teaching Business English course.

Such an example of a review that has been written by the TEFL Academy, or written by a graduate of the program that has been offered a free course for writing a review:

Russia TEFL Money | TTA The TEFL Academy

Now that you are fully sober, it might be time to have a shot because what follows makes me feel angry and repulsed.

TTA The TEFL Academy still makes money from its business operations and partnerships in Russia.

This Google Ads screenshot was taken earlier today:

Spending money on Google Ads to maintain its business operations and partnerships in Russia.

The Google Ad takes you to these pages on the TEFL Academy website:

As of May 19th, its Russian Jobs page and its TEFL Fact-Book Russia page are still live on theteflacademy.com site.

I have sent TTA an email, today May 19th, imploring them to take down both pages from the website.

May 20th, 2022 UPDATE

TTA The TEFL Academy has stopped its paid Google Ads for its TEFL courses in Russia.

It is, however, still promoting Russia as a teaching destination on its school website, where it states that it has a school located in Moscow.

TTA The TEFL Academy | Conclusion

Should this company be avoided for all of the above reasons? We will leave this up to you to decide for yourselves.

This is not financial advice, but we have received credible first-hand reports of TTA TEFL students getting full refunds on their course purchases because they were able to prove to their bank or PayPal that the course is not accredited.

1. You could contact TTA the TEFL Academy and ask to cancel your TEFL course and ask for a full course refund. It might take up to two weeks to get a reply from them, but you would need to provide proof to your bank that you have requested a refund. Take a screenshot of the refund request.
2. You could contact your bank or PayPal and instigate a chargeback. The reason you could give is that you didn’t receive the goods that you paid for. If pressed further, you can quote passages in this article and the financial institution could agree that the TEFL Academy is misrepresenting itself by claiming it is accredited.
3. You could choose a Fully Accredited TEFL/TESOL certification course that you can use for all online and in-person international teaching jobs.

Take a look at the Trusted TEFL Reviews TEFL Course Directory:

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

The top-rated programs are top-rated for a legitimate reason.

For all accreditation questions:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2023/12/03/best-tefl-accreditation/

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

June 10th, 2022 UPDATE

Who is your money going to when you pay for an Unaccredited TEFL course with this company?

Your money is, in large part, financing the lifestyles of two men who are originally from Brighton, England.

Andy Norman and Rhyan O’Sullivan.

Tom (Thomas) Gibbons is responsible for the day-to-day running of the business. I have read some of his online material – defamatory attacks against the TEFL Academy’s competitors – and I was immediately struck by just how badly written his posts were. Tom isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

I found this (two-page) press release online:

There is no evidence, whatsoever, that other TEFL companies “copied” Tom Gibbon’s TEFL webinars.

If you are convinced to take a course with this company, please do ask them exactly how much of your course fee will be donated to the charity that they promote so heavily on their program website.

Ask for proof (receipt) of the charitable donation.

Call me skeptical, but it is difficult to believe anything that is claimed to be true by this Unaccredited TEFL program.

August 23rd, 2022 UPDATE

Lo and behold! We stumbled across an About Me webpage for TTA The TEFL Academy, and it contains some very interesting information.

The TEFL Academy used to be “accredited” by WTEFLAC – a known fake TEFL accreditation website.

TTA The TEFL Academy has gone from having fake accreditation to having no accreditation.

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

Related 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 TTA The TEFL Academy appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

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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