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 Tip!
You must choose a Fully Accredited TEFL TESOL online international certification course program.
Such courses will open more employment doors for you, ensure your certificate is work-visa-friendly, and provide you with better teaching salaries – for both online and in-person English teaching jobs.
If in doubt, choose from one of the Top 5 Online TEFL TESOL certification course programs in 2023/2024:
The 5 Best Online TEFL TESOL Courses in 2023/2024
Concerning TEFL students reporting that when applying for jobs outside of Ireland and the UK, their TEFL Academy certificates are often not being accepted, Read More: 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) | 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:
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
Due to the significant number of recent poor customer reviews for The TEFL Academy TTA (https://www.theteflacademy.com/) Trusted TEFL Reviews has placed this online TEFL company temporarily on the TEFL course blacklist.
The TEFL Academy TESOL certificate is a UK-only recognized TEFL/TESOL certificate – meaning that the certification is difficult to use outside of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and N. Ireland.
Despite this essential detail, The TEFL Academy claims that their TEFL/TESOL course is the numero uno of international TEFL/TESOL certification courses. This is a lie – i.e. a scam.
For a company, offering an unaccredited TEFL/TESOL certification course, this claim is a rather big stretch of anyone’s imagination. Yet, despite the claims by The TEFL Academy that they are accredited, if you look closer, you soon discover that they are only REGULATED by the organizations that they claim to be accredited by – NOT ACCREDITED.
As a far better TEFL/TESOL course alternative, Trusted TEFL Reviews recommends choosing one of the following (fully accredited) international TEFL/TESOL certification course programs:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/04/02/best-online-tefl-courses-tesol-2020/
As a final note, The TEFL Academy has continuously tried to undermine the authority of trustedteflreviews.com by claiming that this website is biased towards certain online TEFL/TESOL certification programs. They have mostly enacted this through third-party websites, operated by their ‘Brand Ambassadors’. The motivation for doing so, is to reduce the credibility of this review’s website – thus reducing the credibility of their poor customer reviews.
The TEFL Academy, with its current management, should be avoided.
Mia Williams
Hi TTR. I was intrigued by this so I did a bit of my own research and yes, TTA is not accredited. The certificates The TEFL Academy issues are not accredited. Only “recognised”. I’m not sure whether this falls under the definition of a “scam”, but I think it comes pretty close to it. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to take a TEFL course through this company.
What you are saying does not make any sense. Their certificates are accredited by OFQUAL . The Cambridge Celta certificate and the Delta diploma are also accredited by OFQUAL and recognized Internationally.
Neau.
Thanks for chiming in.
Actually, it makes perfect sense.
The TEFL Academy is in no way accredited by Ofqual. They are only regulated by them.
Being recognized by Ofqual only means that the level of study that you do on the course has been registered at level 5. Ofqual level 5 is a sign that the course provider has had the content of the course checked by an Ofqual regulated examination board to make sure that it is at the right level.
It does not follow that the TEFL program is accredited by Ofqual.
Regarding your comparison of the TEFL Academy with the CELTA and DELTA qualifications, this is similarly misleading.
CELTA and DELTA are Ofqual regulated AND accredited by the University of Cambridge – Cambridge Assessment English.
The TEFL Academy’s courses are regulated by Ofqual and accredited by no one.
Sorry to bring you this bad news, but it is true.
You can check it yourself by contacting Ofqual.
Another point worth noting is that the quality control standards of Ofqual are a lot lower than those of Cambridge Assessment English.
There is just no way of credibly comparing The TEFL Academy with either CELTA or DELTA.
You can read more about TEFL accreditation in the TEFL Accreditation Guide:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-accreditation-guide/
Mia Williams.