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 actually 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 past year complaining that teflonlinepro.com won the Teachers’ Choice Award four years in a row – 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 – and then miraculously, the TEFL Academy also (very recently) began promoting its award wins for the exact same years.
You should now be almost sober, so this explanation will be easier to digest – despite its underlying complexity.
goabroad.com (https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/10/25/goabroad-com-reviews-scam/) 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.
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/2022/05/16/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-2022/) 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 that 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 free 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 to Paypal that the course is not accredited.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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/2022/05/10/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 definitely isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
I found this (two-page) press release online:
There is absolutely 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.
Related article: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/03/25/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/
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Trusted TEFL Reviews welcome any comments.
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews
Wow! You really nailed it with this article, Mia.
Kudos to you for this investigative journalism!
Would I ever recommend TEFL Academy? No.
Will this article dissuade a lot of people from taking a TEFL Academy course? Yes.
Have forwarded a link to this article to all the language schools in my local area and asked them to forward it on to others.
Chris.
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, please pass the word on.
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews
I did a double-check and Mia is correct. TTA is approved but not accredited. It probably won’t matter if you just want to teach online but if you want to teach in another country I wouldn’t buy this course. It’s expensive and it isn’t accredited. There is more downside than upside with this program. They seem fishy and dodgy. Just my two cents.
Jennifer.
I’m just an English teacher living in Vienna, publishing verified TEFL customer reviews and calling out companies when they try to rip off TEFL students.
TTA The TEFL Academy doesn’t seem to like this and I have been a target for its attacks.
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews
I’m trying to find out if there is an equivalent of the Better Business Bureau in Ireland.
If there is, I will file a formal complaint about TTA The TEFL Academy.
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews
I’m going to cancel my course with TTA.
After reading this information and seeing how TTA targets a review website like that, I’m out.
I mean, who does that????!!!!
I was only up to the 4th module anyway. It isn’t like I have so much time committed to the course already.
Thought the course was good, but when it isn’t accredited it just makes no sense to continue.
Will look into another program.
I read that Bridge TEFL and TEFL Online Pro are recommended.
Does anyone have any experience with either of these programs?
Do you mean these two schools?
https://bridge.edu/tefl/
https://teflonlinepro.com
Both offer fully accredited TEFL/TESOL certification training and both run a 120-Hour TEFL/TESOL program that is Level 5/CELTA/Trinity TESOL equivalent and internationally recognized.
You can’t go wrong with either school.
I would check out their prices and go with the one offering the better deal.
Both offer identical services and certifications.
I thought that I should update this article because there have been some recent developments.
Trusted TEFL Reviews has been in regular contact with QUALIFI – one of the companies that TTA The TEFL Academy claims it is accredited by.
QUALIFI stated in an email to Trusted TEFL Reviews that TTA The TEFL Academy is accredited by DEAC and that TTA The TEFL Academy is accredited by QUALIFI.
When we asked QUALIFI why TTA The TEFL Academy is not listed as an accredited institution in the DEAC database, QUALIFI responded that it is because Americans have a different concept of “approval” and “accreditation”.
This is (obviously) simply not true.
There is a worldwide distinction between being “approved” and being “accredited”.
When we asked QUALIFI why TTA The TEFL Academy is not stated as being accredited on the QUALIFI website, we never received a response back and all communication from QUALIFI ceased.
We view this as being a major red flag.
The truth of the matter is that TTA The TEFL Academy is NOT accredited by the DEAC, AQC or by QUALIFI.
TTA The TEFL Academy is approved by AQC and is approved by QUALIFI.
“Approved” is NOT the same as “Accredited” or “Fully Accredited”.
This really is a case of the king having no clothes.
TTA The TEFL Academy is not accredited or fully accredited by the DEAC because it is not listed in the DEAC directory of accredited institutions.
TTA The TEFL Academy is not accredited or fully accredited by AQC because AQC only has the authority to approve institutions.
TTA The TEFL Academy is not accredited or fully accredited by QUALIFI because QUALIFI only has the authority to approve institutions.
QUALIFI claims that TTA The TEFL Academy is accredited by Ofqual, but this is also misleading. Ofqual regulates courses. It doesn’t accredit them.
TTA The TEFL Academy is fully aware of this article because we notified them of its publication.
They have had ample time to write a response, debunking our claims.
They have not.
Instead, TTA The TEFL Academy has continued to attack Trusted TEFL Reviews and has tried to have this article and other TTA The TEFL Academy articles on Trusted TEFL Reviews deleted.
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews
I would never recommend The TEFL Academy.
It’s not an accredited program.
Really don’t know for how long it can keep lying to its customers about its accreditation credentials when it has none to speak of.
The burden of guilt should also fall on AQC, DEAC, and QUALIFI because they obviously must know that TEFL Academy is misrepresenting itself.
I guess that as long as the money keeps flowing to them from TEFL Academy’s bank account, they have very little motivation to take a moral high ground stand.
Programs like The TEFL Academy give TEFL a bad rep.
It’s good to see that they have been exposed and have been given the opportunity to respond to the accusations.
It’s a shame that they haven’t, but this isn’t shocking to me.
If it were my company, I would have responded immediately.
If it were my company though, I wouldn’t be luring in TEFL Course buyers through false claims.
Choose a different TEFL provider folks.
I see that Mia maintains a current list of the top 5 TEFL/TESOL programs.
Not sure if I would have included Vantage TEFL on the list, but the other 4 IMO are solid TEFL course provider choices.
TEFL Online Pro, OISE University of Toronto TEFL, CIEE TEFL, and Maximo Nivel TEFL are all fully accredited and you will be able to use their TEFL/TESOL certificates for all online and on-site international teaching jobs.
TEFLexpert.
Thanks for adding your comments to this article.
Vantage TEFL makes the list because it receives consistent, very positive customer feedback.
It is the only program on the list that isn’t Fully Accredited, but it is Accredited and it does provide an excellent online/in-person (combined) training course for people wanting to teach English in Thailand.
The 5 Best Online TEFL TESOL courses to take in 2022 list is compiled based on verified customer reviews.
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews
I also noticed the fake reviews.
Just don’t know why this company thinks people are so stupid not to see that getting 10 5 star reviews in one day is fishy.
And that’s just on reviews.co.uk.
I had another check and it has about the same number on other review sites for the same time period.
Someone posts a negative review and 10 positive reviews are added to hide the 1 negative review.
I thought the course was ok.
2.5 out of 5.
I actually don’t care that it isn’t accredited.
My plan is to volunteer and I just needed any TEFL certificate for this purpose.
Nick.
Thanks for adding your comment.
We had the exact same experience with TTA The TEFL Academy.
One week we received something like 30 reviews of its program.
We were only able to verify one of the reviews and some of the reviews came from the same ip address.
We traced the reviews back to Dublin, where TTA The TEFL Academy has its company headquarters.
When we refused to publish the reviews, TTA The TEFL Academy began attacking me and Trusted TEFL Reviews.
The abuse and harassment has been prolonged and intense.
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews
Hello, i have just completed module 5 of the TTA level 5 top-up course. After reading these articles on TTA should i continue? Have i been scammed? I need to earn money so studying a course which will get me nowhere is kind of worrying as it will delay time in which i could be working or studying something else. Can anyone else give me advice as to where to go from here or if i can get a refund. Please help. Thank you
Myles.
Thanks for your comment.
Trusted TEFL Reviews has researched and presented the facts and it is up to you to make up your mind for yourself.
We recommend taking a look at the TEFL Course Directory to view the rankings of Online TEFL programs and to see whether a program is Fully Accredited or not.
https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/
The higher up a program is listed, the more legitimate that program is.
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews
There is a job vacancy in Istanbul advertised on TTA TEFL and other recruitment sites. Not only is this a fake job, but it’s a huge scamming organization as well! I applied and the more they took me through the recruitment process the more I got suspicious!! The people involved slipped up a few times within the email communication, errors upon errors, a huge red flag. Now, the advert has changed this week offering $1000 more! They are offering $6000!! Very unrealistic anywhere in the world let alone Turkey!!!
The school name is posted as Soma Kars Private school, Istanbul. I have ran some of my own checks on this and have a long list of red flags! WhatsApp communication only was another one! From the application to the interview to the hiring to the ‘immigration application WAS ALL TOO FAST! I was hired within 4 days of making the application! Pictures of my apartment were sent, referred to an ‘immigration company’, etc. etc. Last but not least, My friends in Turkey checked out the address as they have family living in Istanbul and guess what?? NO SUCH SCHOOL at the address they provided!
As soon as I asked them to provide identification, passports and school registration details, they backed off a bit!! Now, they wont answer my emails or whatsApp messages!!
This is the school’s website! I am so surprised that TTA didn’t verify the ’employer’!! The URL even looks dodgy!
https://www.soma-karsprivateschool.co
Please pass this onto as many ESL teachers that you know because obviously some have been conned already!!
Be safe when planning to work abroad!
Zia
Zia.
Thanks for the TTA job placement warning.
TTA (The TEFL Academy) have time and again proven that they only want to take your money and provide very poor post-course services.
There are three reasons why TTA is a popular TEFL program:
1. A big marketing budget.
2. A band of affiliate marketers.
3. Silence of any critical material.
Regarding this third point, TTA The TEFL Academy had a Prague lawyer contact me in July 2022 – threatening to sue me if I did not delete all mention of TTA The TEFL Academy from trustedteflreviews.com.
Of course, I ignored the threat because they can’t sue me for publishing true information.
I also don’t know why they paid a Prague lawyer to hassle me when they full-well know that I live in Vienna, Austria.
With TTA The TEFL Academy, you pay for a heavily marketed course and then you tend to wonder what all the fuss was about and why you are not getting the course and the post-course services that are meant to be so “amazing”.
Trusted TEFL Reviews recommends avoiding TTA The TEFL Academy (https://www.theteflacademy.com/) and, instead, choosing one of the Top 5 Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs in 2023: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/12/01/best-online-tefl-courses-tesol-2020/
Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews