The World TEFL Accrediting Commission’s code of conduct laid down the minimum standards each training provider was expected to reach.
TEFL and TESOL training providers are there to provide students with a route to achieving their career goals. They vary in the length of the course, the overall costs, and the way training is delivered. For example, some require students to attend a course in person at a specific location while others are held online. However, regardless of how they work, they all have to meet minimum standards. That’s why the World TEFL Accrediting Commission (WTEFLAC) drew up its code of conduct, so it could establish a baseline all providers would have to achieve.
The WTEFLAC Code of Practice
The code of practice was drawn up by experts after extensive consultation to identify the key areas in which each company should be assessed. It included:
- Transparency: One of the first questions they looked at was the marketing material. Any promotional information put out by the company online or offline should provide an accurate representation of the course contents. The accreditation board assessed this by comparing marketing material with the actual courses.
- Course structure: All course content should be laid out clearly and sequentially and involve a high element of peer learning. This ensured that, even when courses were conducted entirely online, students could expect valuable practical experience that would lead to a worthwhile qualification.
- Experience of staff: All teachers employed by the institution would have to be fully qualified and have at least three years of practical experience teaching English as a foreign language. That practical experience would help communicate the skills needed to teach people in a classroom setting.
- Company values: Each company would have to maintain a clear commitment to equal opportunities and to regularly review its content to ensure it continued to meet best practice requirements. This would ensure an ethical and positive company that not only met expected standards in the short term but was determined to do so into the future.
- Worthwhile qualifications: All students should be given a reasonable timeframe in which to complete the required course. This might vary depending on a student’s situation and whether they were carrying out their studies in person or online. Expectations should be communicated clearly to students and they should be given a full understanding of how they would be assessed. If they successfully met those expectations and passed the course they should receive a full certification.
The code of conduct laid the foundation for the application process in which the accreditation board reviewed all applications. It ensured that no matter how a course worked or how lessons were delivered students would receive a recognised qualification that would help them achieve whatever career goals they had set themselves.
It also provided a set of criteria that could enable prospective students to carry out any due diligence. Meanwhile, the course providers could use it to carry out self-assessments to audit their own services and identify any opportunities for improvements.