An “accredited 120 hour” TEFL certificate isn’t going to solve your problems

8 min readSep 16, 2019

Chances are you are in this for the wrong reasons and in this post I am going to show you why and it’s not totally your fault as you can blame part of it on the education system.

Do you think an “accredited” 120, 140, 168, or 250 “hour” TEFL course is going to solve your problems?

What’s your problem now?

Getting a job?

That’s what I’d guess. But the job is just the beginning.

“Accreditation is the carrot. Put up with the lectures and the tests and we’ll give you the certificate, the scarce piece of paper that is (supposed to be) worth far more than the effort you went through to get certified.” — Seth Godin

Here are some quick facts about TEFL accreditation and certificates:

There is no one TEFL accreditation organization. I actually found 23 different businesses or organizations that claim they offer accreditation.
There are only independent businesses that do accreditation — it costs money
Some of these so-called accreditations are fake
Unlike a degree certificates are rarely required for your visa

The problem is you are focused on an extrinsic reward and extrinsic rewards are usually the wrong thing to focus on.

They kill motivation
They kill long term interest

Learn more about rewards.

What are your motivations?

By focusing on a fancy sounding certificate you are focused on the end and not the process. This is the rat race. This is not the path to a meaningful life or even a happy one.

You are focused on the short term. The short term is the job.

The TEFL course industry like the education industry is partly built on lies. The education industry says go to college, get your diploma so you can get a job or a better job or make more money, etc.

And wait a second.

Here you are considering teaching English abroad. Was this the job you went to college to get?

If you think getting that certificate is going to make a difference in the kind of job you get I’ll tell you this — that’s unlikely to happen. It may be possible, but it’s unlikely. And the same goes with making more money.

What do employers actually want?

Well, that depends on the employer, but I did a little research where I looked at thousands of job advertisements for teachers in China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

And guess who was the most popular brand of TEFL?

There wasn’t one.

And was a CELTA or TEFL or TESOL the most prefered qualification?

No.

Was it second?

Well, according to the data it was only 2nd in one place (w/ no specific brand), but in the others it wasn’t 2nd, 3rd, 4th or even 5th.

It’s a lie and you should know the truth so here is the data.

If you have been looking into taking a TEFL course then you may have been brainwashed by claims like this:

“It’s important to do your research and make sure that the course you’re choosing is a quality, accredited program that will be recognized by employers all around the world.

So apart from accreditation and international recognition, how does one choose the right course for them?”

- Adam K, myTEFL

“Accredited” TEFL courses are a dime a dozen and you can get one on Groupon for like $20. And what about “international recognition”?

But what is an “internationally recognized” TEFL certificate?

Is there a stamp for this?

Internationally recognized implies that it’s something that employers are aware of and know around the world. But that is a BIG claim when in other parts of the world they speak different languages and have a different culture. Think of it like this, what brands do you know of in Taiwan or Kenya or Greece?

I could name a few in Taiwan because I lived there, but in the other countries — no idea.

Do you think language schools abroad are keeping track of all the different courses?

That’s not their business.

You’ll find a lot of TEFL course marketers out there say that their certificate is recognized and that employers want their certificate, but this is mostly BS.

They may have affiliations with some schools in some places, but across the board there is no brand of TEFL that is recognized by all schools around the world — not even CELTA.

CELTA is a brand of TEFL and it is generally more recognized than any other TEFL course (is actually accredited by a university), but even then it’s not recognized everywhere.

For example, based on my experience teaching in Asia I’d say CELTA or any other brand of TEFL is not that well known there. But you don’t have to take my word for it take hers as she actually took a CELTA and taught in Asia.

It’s like college.

Did your degree guarantee you a job anywhere?

So you fell for the education lie and are you going to fall for the TEFL lie?

Well, you might not think of it like that. But that was what your friends did and maybe what you were expected to do. It happened to me too, the system swept me along.

Modern industrialized education is like a job because, in large measure, it’s funded by the very same folks who offer jobs. It’s like a job because school was invented to train us to be compliant in our jobs. And it’s like a job because compliance is easy to scale. — Seth Godin

So how confident are you in your teaching abilities?

Do you think it will be easy?

Maybe if you are lucky or a natural, but most people aren’t.

Think that accredited course will help you with the teaching? Maybe it will some, but I took 2 “accredited” courses one in-class and the other online and neither one was very helpful or practical.

Why not?

That’s the education system for you.

Accreditation doesn’t ensure quality

I don’t want to give you the impression that TEFL accreditation is very official or some big thing because mostly it isn’t and this isn’t college, but one thing accreditation does is promote sameness.

“The accrediting body inappropriately inserts itself into the internal affairs of the institutions it accredits… and does so in a way that forces homogeneity, and conversely stifles innovation… — Why accreditation doesn’t work

Think of all those classes and courses you took in school. Algebra, calculus, geometry, chemistry, biology, you name it how useful were they?

“I downloaded the first assignment for one of the cheaper courses, and was welcomed with a pretty dense and boring academic article. While educational philosophy is nice, I was looking for practical skills that can immediately be utilized in the classroom.” — Dwayne M.

With many TEFL courses you will spend a lot of time on English grammar and teaching theory which based on my experience is useless.

Your real problems begin when you start teaching. Getting a job isn’t the solution. It’s just the beginning and it’s the easy part. Teaching isn’t easy and despite what many TEFL courses show (exotic beaches) you are not going on a vacation.

Your problems are just beginning.

It’s true.

But am I being Debbie Downer here?

Nope.

The problem is you are focused on getting the certificate (the carrot) so you can get a job. But then what? What do you do after you get the job?

You work.

Getting a job is a short term victory. But doing your job is day in and day out. And chances are you will be doing this for at least a year (most contracts).

What are the problems to come?

That depends, but you’ll likely have some of these as far as the teaching goes:

Students that ignore you
Students that don’t pay attention
Bored students
Difficult students
Students that speak when you speak
Students that speak Chinese, Korean, etc. in class
Chaos in the classroom
Students who won’t talk
Large classes
Students who don’t want to be there
Disrespectful students
Poor materials

All those things lead to stress, dissatisfaction, homesickness, and depression.

And if you choose a poor school then you can have interpersonal problems with the management, co-teachers or boss.

What do you know about the accreditors?

Probably nothing right?

You go to their website and read something like, “we believe in excellence in education” or “we are a leader in academic excellence”.

Which is quite similar to most TEFL course websites.

Blah, blah.

Who are you really?

Fake accreditation exists with TEFL courses and then most so-called “real” accreditations exist online only.

To often we assume that the word ‘accredited” means it is high quality. But that term can be used to scam you and just because a course is accredited doesn’t mean it’s a high quality course.

“…as long as it’s a 120 hours and accredited…”

And those reviews you might want to take with a grain of salt too, because many of those can be fake. For example, on Amazon some sources say that those numbers are in the millions.

So what do you do?

Change your focus and get out of the rat race. Learning is a long term strategy to success and happiness. Focus on the process and not the end.

What if I only teach English for a year or two?

Then you are like most people who teach abroad.

But I’d say if you really want to have a better experience teaching abroad then focus early on with becoming a better teacher because investing more time now will pay off later.

The classroom is most likely where you are going to be spending most of your time abroad — not on a beach or out exploring.

You don’t necessarily need to take a TEFL course to teach abroad. It depends on the school. Consider the age group that you will be teaching and focus on that.

If you find that your “accredited” TEFL course doesn’t produce the results you want and you teach English to mostly kids and you want to feel confident in that classroom then I recommend a practical course called TEKA.

Related to TEFL courses (here on Medium):