Accreditation tells you whether or not the course provider is legitimate and will help you take your career forward.
If you’re looking for a TEFL or TESOL course, one of the first things you’ll be asked to check is that it is accredited, but why is it so important, and how can you trust any accreditation mark you see?
What is accreditation?
TEFL accreditation provides quality assurance about any provider. The accreditation body comes up with a set of standards that it believes all course providers should be able to meet. Whenever a company applies to be accredited, the accreditor should fully review its business and determine how it stacks up against the criteria.
The process varies from one organization to another, but will generally involve reviewing course literature, marketing materials and checking the qualifications of the people providing the training. It also often includes a site visit in which the accreditation company will go to the provider’s location and observe it in action.
These visits can include sitting in on lessons or checking the location to make sure it exists and the company is everything it claims to be.
Some accreditors are stricter and more thorough than others. Some may demand training providers achieve more than a minimum level of quality. It is not enough simply to be compliant with all regulations, the content of the services must achieve a level of quality to place them among the top in their class.
Others take a looser approach. They recognize that providers may vary in cost and the nature of the courses. One provider may offer a more basic service suitable for people on a lower budget. What matters is that the company is legitimate and that course will have value for its customers.
About the accreditor
An accreditation mark, though, is not much use unless you know the accreditation organization is itself reputable and undergoes a thorough verification process. That’s why it’s important to know as much as possible about each accrediting organization, how they worked and how they reach their decisions.
At the World TEFL Accrediting Commission (WTEFLAC) all providers were assessed on the basis of the code of practice. This was displayed on the website and included details such as the qualifications of the company, the expertise of the staff.
Decisions were reached by an accreditation board which reviewed all applications submitted. Companies would have to provide a full description of their operations, company details, staff qualifications, and set out how they believed they met each of the criteria within the code of conduct.
The board would use the code of practice as a guide to reach their own decisions about all providers. This provided a framework to make sure all decisions they reached were consistent and based on clear facts about the company. Where necessary they would also schedule a site visit to gather further information.
The WTEFLAC has now ceased operations, however, the code of practice still provides a good template on which anyone can make their own assessments.