TEFL Accreditation and why it isn’t what it appears to be

10 min readDec 24, 2019

The idea behind “accreditation” to prevent scams and what not might be a good one, however is “accreditation” a sign of quality or all that it appears to be?

This post is going to focus on why accreditation doesn’t matter (in TEFL).

But before I share with you some things about “TEFL accreditation” I thought I’d share this new take on accreditation.

Why accreditation doesn’t work

I found an interesting PDF called Why Accreditation Doesn’t Work by ACTA (independent, non-profit organization committed to academic freedom, excellence, and accountability at America’s colleges and universities).

Here are a few points that it makes.

Accreditation:

does not guarantee educational quality.
contributes to overpriced education.
undermines institutional autonomy.
involves an exchange of money.
is mostly a secret process.

The article above refers to accreditation and higher education, yet I can see how these apply to TEFL accreditation as well.

1. Accreditation does not guarantee educational quality.

The thinking goes something like “Oh, it’s accredited then it must be fine”. Or maybe like this, “Nestle is a big company and this breast milk replacement looks good… I trust them…” Later on her baby dies.

Too often we assume, place too much trust based on outward appearances and actually know little of what is inside.

On the “rare occasion” that a course providers accreditation is suspended it’s usually because the institution failed to pay it’s bill rather than any educational flaw.

2. Accreditation undermines institutional autonomy.

As I was looking through the ACCET accreditation process I started to get the feeling why would I want someone like this to inspect my course and deem it worthy or not. I don’t think we share the same values, so why should I succumb to their values. Or try to fit into their mold and then pay them for it?

One size doesn’t fit all.

3. Accreditation contributes to overpriced education.

In-class TEFL/TESOL/CELTA courses can range anywhere from around $500 to over $3000 depending on the course. That’s a lot of money considering the fact that most people only teach English abroad for a year or two and have college debt to begin with.

I definitely thought that the course that I first took was way to expensive considering what I learned. Accreditation comes with a fee and that fee is only going to increase the cost of the course.

4. Accreditation is mostly a secret process.

These so called inspections of courses are done so privately.

5. Accreditation involves an exchange of money.

Accrediting programs need courses to continue. The TEFL/TESOL course providers are their customers.

“Keep in mind that “accreditation mills” also exist…” — parchment.com

You are not in college anymore.

99% of TEFL courses have ZERO affiliation with any college. Don’t be fooled into thinking otherwise. Many of these courses will try to look as if they are some prestigious institution, but it’s all for show.

Basically how I see it is that all courses model CELTA (affiliated with Cambridge University) on the surface.

Did that accredited degree you went into thousand of dollars of debt make a difference? Didn’t you get a degree to get a job? Is TEFL what you went to school for?

The whole point of accreditation was originally to act as a gatekeeper for financial aid and protect your investment.

There’s no financial aid in TEFL and did your investment pay off?

Here you are again looking for an ‘accredited’ TEFL course like it’s going to make a difference.

“Accreditation is still fundamentally a private non-governmental body that sets its own standards and membership rules.” — source

TEFL accreditation

First off you should know that…

Accreditation isn’t a requirement, because there is no ‘one’ governing accreditation for TEFL courses (in fact I counted at least 23 different TEFL accreditation bodies and some of those are fake).

Many of these accreditors are not even directly related to TEFL.

“What’s Accreditation Again? Like many of the government’s tentacles, accreditation is simply a process of colonization and control.” — source

BUT in TEFL…

Most of the accrediting bodies in TEFL (like 98%) are not governmental.

Aside from CELTA and Trinity TESOL most TEFL courses have no affiliation with universities or colleges (despite what these courses try to look or sound like). In TEFL most of the accreditors are often private businesses associated with education, but not strictly TEFL.

Are all TEFL courses accredited?

No.

Do they have to be?

No, there is no law for that.

It’s not standardized or regulated.

But I read that I should take an accredited course??? The person who probably told you that has an accredited course to sell. As you read above accreditation doesn’t guarantee quality.

To you it’s just a superficial label and no more.

My experience

I’ve spent around 8 years looking for jobs on ESL Cafe and other sites primarily in Eastern Asia. And I’ll tell you what. The majority of employers just take TEFL and TESOL certification at face value.

If it’s important to them they’ll only check your resume to see if you have it. And it usually doesn’t go any further than that.

I personally never had an employer ask me whether the TESOL course on my resume was accredited or not. Aside from images of the certificate sent in an email I also never had an employer ask to see my actual certificate. The only question that I did get about my course was about how many hours the course was.

If you look at the job ads what will you see? The main qualifications to teach in Eastern Asia are to be a native speaker and to have a degree. TEFL/TESOL certificates — if mentioned in the job ad are usually noted as preferences. I can’t recall a mention of accreditation or an accredited TEFL course.

Also let’s consider this from a different point of view…

Do you have a degree?

Has any employer ever ask you if your degree was accredited? I don’t think so, it never happened to me anyways.

So to whom does TEFL course accreditation matter?

It’s typically a marker of social proof. It can work in the same way that testimonials or reviews do. From my point of view it serves as a marketing tool in possibly helping people decide which course is “best”, but it’s superficial as most people don’t know anything about accreditation.

If it wasn’t important then some course providers wouldn’t fake it.

It matters to the sellers and to the buyers: TEFL course providers and to those searching for a course. To the TEFL providers it matters because they are competing for your money. For the buyers — probably you, it matters because you were told that it matters.

But who told you that it matters?

If not the employers then it must have been the TEFL course providers. And what was the reason why you wanted to get TEFL certified in the first place?

I think for most people a big part of it is to get trained and find a job.

So long story short the majority of employers (at least in Eastern Asia) are not going to inquire whether your course is accredited or not. It’s not their business.

Want to know what kind of teacher employers (in Asia) want?

And I hate to say it, but many employers in Eastern Asia are also not going to recognize the difference between a certificate that came from: “Frank’s TEFL”, “Oxford Seminars”, CELTA or the TEFL certificate you bought on Khoasan Rd. in Bangkok. If it’s on your resume then it’s good enough for them.

So if you just want a TEFL certificate as a job “qualification” then you can check out Groupon. But if you want to actually learn something from the course then I wouldn’t buy a cheap one I would get one targeted at teaching the students you are going to teach.

Most courses are just general courses and if anything they focus more on teaching adults, but if you are not going to teach adults then why take a course focused on that?

Here’s a course especially focused on teaching kids (young learners in Asia).

But if you want more than just a certificate

And you should because getting a job is just the beginning.

If you want more than a certificate and you want to learn what to do and how to teach when you step in the classroom then you need more than just a certificate. You might assume that any TEFL course online or not might teach you those basics, but that is not true.

Here is a quote from a couple on Youtube about their “accredited” TEFL course that they got on Groupon.

“It was a refresher course with all the rules to English. It didn’t actually teach you to teach English, but… (Other person laughing) Yeah it didn’t really teach you at all on how to teach English, but yeah a good refresher on all the English skills.”

Another “accredited” course…

“Just finished a 120 hour course from Groupon, found it completely worthless even for the price and full of grammatical and spelling errors. It appears to me, despite claiming to be accredited…”

Why don’t some have accreditation?

There can be different reasons why they don’t have it. Some of them may be:

They may not be able to afford it or have financial problems.
They can be a new provider and may not have attained it.
They may choose not to seek accreditation because they view it as a violation of their religious or academic beliefs.
They may prefer autonomy (here, here).

1. Money

As mentioned above accreditation involves an exchange of money. They may not be able to afford it or they may not want to pay for it. Some accreditation bodies (companies, lol) can charge $1–2000+ a year for accreditation.

2. They might be new

The whole process of accreditation can take a good deal of time depending on the organization.

4. They may choose NOT to seek accreditation

They could be a religious based TEFL course accredited by god himself, LOL or they may see it as a violation of their academic freedom.

Freedom?

Yes, more please.

As mentioned above accreditation undermines institutional authority.

So they may not believe in the system (amen brother) or have other religious/academic reasons. I have seen ads out there for “Christian” TEFL courses.

Accreditation can be used to ‘scam’ you

Since people assume that the word “accredited” equals quality or a good reputation then know that it can also be used to scam you for money.

The term “accredited TEFL courses” is frequently used by TEFL course providers. While many of them may have it others may lie about their accreditation or be both the TEFL course provider and the accreditation bureau themselves.

The blanket statement “internationally recognised TEFL courses” is similar.

Here’s something similar to that note about colleges.

“For example 83% of the board for Middle States Commission on Higher Education is comprised of people that work for institutions that they then accredit.” — The College Accreditation Scam

It’s similar in TEFL.

Accreditation is an inside job.

The term “accreditation” can also be used as well to market online universities.

Here is an example:

“With our high quality, self-paced degree programs you can get an accredited degree for around $6,000 #EndStudentDebt”

Maybe it is true and not a “scam”.

I guess in the USA we assume that higher education comes with a price. We assume the more you pay the better the degree and education that you’ll get. But in many other developed countries students spend less than that for a degree that’s not taken online.

Or in the TEFL world it may be:

“Accredited TEFL courses offering internationally recognized certification for just $49 on Groupon.”

How can you trust a company?

Basically you can suss out their website, their “About” page (most TEFL course all look the same here), reviews, etc.

And dig deep.

Typically crooks or frauds — whether they are a TEFL course provider or just a troll, do not offer any personal information and try to remain anonymous.

And I’ll tell you what in TEFL there is a lot of this anonymous behavior.

Conclusion

Accreditation isn’t all that it seems and doesn’t guarantee quality for the different reasons mentioned above. There is more to it than that.

A TEFL course is not required to be accredited and just because it isn’t doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a low quality course or a fraud.

I wouldn’t merely rely on TEFL accreditation as a marker of a good TEFL course or not. I would try to test it out and see if it fits your needs, research the company or perhaps see what people are saying about it.

“…For EFL in Asia, those accreditations don’t matter at all, but they are necessary in some Western countries…

If you want to teach in Korea/Japan/China/Thailand, etc. it really doesn’t matter. Busan through EPIK requires some in-class hours, but otherwise all certificates are pretty much equivalent in the school’s eyes.” — Tomli

Related to TEFL courses (here on Medium):