The TEFL Academy (TTA) review, submitted by Jenny.

The TEFL Academy Pros and Cons (from my experience as a student on its 168-hour Level 5 course).

Pros:

1. The course was arranged and organized very well and had a user-friendly CMS learner system. I have studied some online courses before this one that had poor Content Management systems.
2. When you complete the course, you receive a substantial list of job offers that are online and also ones located in specific countries.
3. You are not completely alone in the course. Whenever you have a question, you email the school, a ticket is assigned to you, and I tended to get a response back within a few business days to a week. Overall, communication with the school was fairly good.
4. I have a teaching job (online) and my TEFL Academy certificate helped a lot in this process.

Cons:

1. As I soon discovered, every school I applied to for work asked whether I had the 120-hour TEFL certificate. When I answered that I had a 168-hour Level 5 certificate, they said it would do but the extra hours of tuition are meaningless.
2. After completing the course, I received an email from the TEFL Academy that asked if I would leave a review for them on (fill in the blank) websites, and that in return for my writing a review they would offer me a free Teaching Young Learners or Teaching Business English course. I think they mentioned Facebook, Reviews.io, Trust Pilot, and a few others. I wrote back that I might, but I wanted to see how my certification was working for me in my new job (and future job applications) before I committed to writing a review. I receive that same email each end of the week and I wonder how many of this company’s reviews are written by people who just want the free course.

If I were to take a TEFL course again, I would take a 120-hour course because that strongly appears to be the gold standard for what online and abroad employers are looking for.

I wouldn’t pay for a TEFL/TESOL certification course offering more than 120 hours, unless there are 10-20 teaching practice hours included. The 168-hour TEFL Academy course, in my opinion, is marketed to make it appear that you are getting more bang for your buck – you are not.

The TEFL Academy’s 168-hour Level 5 TEFL course was good, but it did raise many red flags.

Trusted TEFL Reviews notice: Jenny asked (January 7, 2026) that her The TEFL Academy Pros and Cons review be updated due to additional content requested to be included.

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 Pros and Cons appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

Is TEFL Academy Legit The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Bethany.

Is TEFL Academy Legit? The lessons are excellent, but the marking is very poor.

I want to start with what I liked about my TEFL Academy course.

It is a self-paced course, with some assistance along the way, and this was exactly what I was looking for in terms of flexibility and freedom of study. I was able to complete modules at home, in the park, anywhere where I had @, and where it was quiet enough for me to be able to focus properly. The course covers many areas of teaching English, and I liked how it was presented. I guess you could just steam through the course and finish it within a few days by not reading the texts and just answering the questions, but you would be missing out on a lot. As a caveat, though, I do need to add that this is the only online TEFL course that I have taken, so I can’t compare it with any others.

And what I didn’t like about my TEFL Academy course.

What did let the course down though was the feedback on the coursework. The feedback was copied and pasted material. At least it seemed obvious to me that it was. I felt demotivated by this because I hadn’t needed to work my butt off so much on them, thinking that a qualified moderator would fully read my work.

I recommend the course, but I don’t advise to take the coursework too seriously. As long as your lesson plan looks good enough, you will receive the same feedback that I received when I submitted mine.

As a final note, I can write that there wasn’t that much help with a job search, but I didn’t require this support anyway.

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 lessons are excellent, but the marking is very poor” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Anonymous.

This is my honest review of the (TTA) The TEFL Academy 168-hour Level 5 TEFL & TESOL course I paid for and completed last month (February 2025).

I chose this program because of the hundreds of 5-star reviews on the Go Abroad reviews website.

It seemed like it was obviously a legit program so I signed up without second thought, using the coupon code to get the discount.

I liked the practical ease of the user experience.

The login was straightforward, but I did see a number of grammar errors within the course content, and I didn’t like the time lags in the communication with The TEFL Academy.

Emails were responded to after day 4, while some of my emails never got a reply.

I steamrolled through the course because I already had a job lined up and I just wanted the course certificate.

I was taken aback by the additional high cost of the certificate (was it a hidden fee?), but it did arrive to my Inbox a week later. Not such a quick turnaround, but nothing really to complain about.

I thought my experience with The TEFL Academy was then over, until, two days later, I received an email from Megan Broccoli. She presented herself as the program’s post-course “Graduate Liaison Officer”.

Her email started off in a neutral tone, but quickly went south when she actually wrote that if I were to write a 5-star review for The TEFL Academy on Go Abroad, The TEFL Academy would say or write wonderful things about me as a graduate if an employer ever needed a character reference from them.

In other words, I was coerced into writing a 5-star review.

Against my inner moral compass, I did write the review, but then deleted it because it didn’t sit well with me.

I chose The TEFL Academy because of those 5-star reviews on Go Abroad.

It made me wonder how many other reviews on there were coerced.

Look, the program was fine and I got the certificate, but this stuff with the reviews left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth.

The way Megan wrote the email verged on the threatening, like if I didn’t do it they would say or write bad things about me for a character reference?

I did vent on the r/TEFL subreddit, but my comment wasn’t published, which also seemed very odd.

My comment was pretty lame in comparison with other comments for other TEFL & TESOL programs.

Seemed to me The TEFL Academy has some kind of agreement with that subreddit.

For these reasons, please label my review “Anonymous”.

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 “I was coerced into writing a 5-star review” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Carol.

The TEFL Academy (TTA TEFL) plus points:

1. This company has literally thousands of positive student reviews across the board on the many TEFL review websites which TTA TEFL self-promotes.
2. The payment process was quick and easy and I received my login keys almost as soon as my payment went through.
3. Help is on hand when needed. You create a ticket and the idea is that someone gets back to you within 48 hours with a helpful reply.
4. TTA TEFL is a company based in the UK, which I guess is where most of the more well-established TEFL companies have been located since the beginning.
5. The TEFL certificate looks wonderful! A true piece of art! It’s something that I would feel proud of presenting at a job interview.

The TEFL Academy (TTA TEFL) minus points:

1. I’ve come to the conclusion that the majority of positive reviews for this school, on the websites TTA TEFL self-promote, are more than probably fake reviews. There is a real disconnect between TTA TEFL’s reviews on trustedteflreviews.com and other websites, such as reviews.io, where TTA TEFL garner 10 or 20 5-star reviews a day from unverified reviewers. I’m much more inclined to believe the reviews written about TTA TEFL on trustedteflreviews.com.
2. Help is on hand and when it comes it is helpful. But, but, but, it takes a long time to receive a response. I often waited a week or more for someone from TTA TEFL to get to me. By the time they had, I’d just winged the part and hoped that my guesses were correct.
3. Feedback on assignments was very ambiguous. My friend and I submitted the exact same test answers and we each received a different grade for that test.
4. I chose the TEFL Academy because of its impressive list of accreditation partners. They are not accredited in the slightest. They are affiliated with a few education bodies that monitor the quality of distance learning courses, but these bodies don’t provide TEFL accreditation. It’s not within their power to do so. I’ve read numerous blogs and forum threads where people write that accreditation doesn’t matter and employers just want to see you have a TEFL certificate. This is fine, but I don’t like being lied to and I don’t like paying a premium for that lie.
5. Compared to CIEE TEFL, TEFL Online Pro, and Vantage TEFL, TTA TEFL is overpriced. I’d recommend going with one of these programs because you will receive the same product, except you will actually get a fully accredited TEFL+TESOL certificate at the end. It will work out cheaper too for you.

Overall, I’d give The TEFL Academy (TTA TEFL) 2.5 stars out of 10.

The course was very good, but the long waits for responses and the fact that they are dishonest when it comes to their accreditation claims have left me with a bad overall impression of this company.

In conclusion: The TEFL Academy program was on my to-do list for a long time, so when I finally got around to purchasing the course I wasn’t expecting the buyer’s remorse that immediately followed. I guess I’ll be able to use the certification in some form or another. It’s just annoying that TTA TEFL didn’t honor their refund procedure when I requested my money back; leaving me captive to the course and scrambling to find the reason behind all of the negative reviews written about this TEFL certification company.

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 lack of accreditation transparency is very worrying when you factor in the high price of the course and certificate purchase costs” 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 Mark.

I have been teaching for a few years now and needed to get hold of a TEFL certificate due to the recent clampdown over here in China-meaning all teachers are expected to have one now. Because of this, I chose the first one I saw which fit my budget, and the TEFL Academy just so happened to be the one I chose. Thought the course was alright (besides a poor decision to rely on Wikipedia and About.com for course content) and it was a good means to an end for me. Not really sure if I would recommend it to people starting out fresh, but it would be ideal for someone who just needs a cheap TEFL certificate. China accepted the certificate so don’t sweat about it being recognized or not.

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 “was a good means to an end for me.” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Stu. H.

I was thinking whether I would come on here to leave my review because i don’t want to go out of my way to give this program a bad review, but I just thought others would benefit from my experience of the tefl academy course so here is that review.

At first, I began liking the course, but very quickly realized how tedious and monotonous it was. the course is basically divided into modules with a test at the end of each module. but before the test, there is an assignment to complete and I hand down thought these were included to beef up the number of study hours. to make the course seem more in-depth. it really felt like overkill to me and totally unnecessary. without these assignments, I would have learned just as much as I would have without them and it wouldn’t have taken me so long to complete the course. really. it was like having my teeth pulled out at times.

my advice would be to take another online tefl course, or even a CELTA course, because this course through the tefl academy program just isn’t worth the investment. I’m sorry for having left negative feedback but it’s how my experience felt.

the only positive I gained from the course was that I now have the tefl certificate and have already used it to find work.

4 out of 10 from me.

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 “tedious and monotonous” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Damian.

This was a 6 weeks online course. One of the main reasons I chose the Online TEFL Program through The TEFL Academy was the 168 hours, which was more training hours than other courses I researched. It was important to me to learn the methodology knowledge for my new teaching English abroad career, but it was even more important to have support and guidance through the transition. The support wasn’t always provided to the standard I would have wanted, but at least there was someone around to help. It just took a while to receive it. This course served as a great overview of many important areas of teaching English and gave me a greater confidence level and skill level to enter the teaching job market. I did find their website jobs list helpful but felt a bit on my own when searching for work. They help you up to a point and then it is up to you to do the rest of the legwork.

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 “This course served as a great overview of many important areas of teaching English and gave me a greater confidence level and skill level to enter the teaching job market” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

The TEFL Academy review, submitted by David.

It’s been about 4 years now since I graduated from the (168-hour) Level 5 TEFL course and I can say that I still use some of the course materials in my classes to this date.

Sure, they charge you for your TEFL certificate, but I think most schools do that anyway.

I remember the course being very professionally run and communication with the school was always very good too. Taking my TEFL online meant that I could study at my own pace and also meant that I could continue working while I made my way through the course.

You will cover all the TEFL essentials while taking this course and it will properly prepare you for when you start teaching in a real classroom. It’s true that some teaching practices would have been a nice addition, and The TEFL Academy provided this service for an additional cost when I was studying with them, but I was a bit short on money at the time and decided to just take the written course. I think a lot of what you will learn anyway will be when you actually start teaching so I wouldn’t sweat it so much if you come out of the course without any actual teaching practice experience.

The only con of the course that I can think of (apart from needing to pay for certification) is that it took them a bit of time to issue my certificate. It wasn’t a major con, but it would have been nice if they had been a bit more involved once course completion had been reached. Otherwise, all in all, a very decent, well-rounded course that will prepare you for teaching in most English classrooms overseas.

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 TEFL Course Review for The TEFL Academy appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

Level 5 TESOL course certification The TEFL Academy review, submitted by Michele.

Level 5 TESOL course certification – The TEFL Academy.

On paper, this course looks great. It covers 168 hours, which is far more than most other TESOL courses, and it comes with a designated online tutor.

However, once you’re all signed up and raving to go the reality comes like hitting a brick wall at 90 miles an hour.

It’s a very basic course. So basic that I can’t imagine anyone really learning anything from it. I also can’t imagine how anyone could possibly fail a course like this.

The modules are very thin on anything that could be described as engaging. Everything just comes over as really simplistic. The syllabus looks impressive, but the modules just don’t address the content well enough.

And forget the so-called online tutor feedback. Instead, expect copied and pasted replies with little to no relevance to the question asked. There is also little to no guidance for the assignments, and the assignment feedback was pretty pathetic.

I didn’t learn much on this 168-hour course, which took me a little over a week to complete. I just can’t see how this course can legitimately get away with being advertised as a 168-hour course when in reality it is more like a 70-80 hour course. Very poor indeed.

Would give the course one star from five. Receiving the certificate relatively promptly at the end increases my review of The TEFL Academy Level 5 TESOL certification course to an overall two stars from five. And that’s me being generous.

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 articles:

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

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

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 “Level 5 TESOL course certification – The TEFL Academy” appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.