The World TEFL Accrediting Commission adopted a rigorous accreditation process to ensure all providers met minimum standards.
The WTEFLAC Accreditation process was crucial in making sure course providers could deliver the quality they promised. In doing so they helped to raise overall standards across the industry and give students the information they needed to become the best EFL teachers they possibly could. In a world in which quality could be variable, that oversight was critical in helping the best providers stand out from the crowd.
Unfortunately, in today’s fast-paced online world doing that can be extremely difficult. The number of providers rose dramatically, but while that brought choice it wasn’t always clear which providers would offer the best teaching experience.
The main purpose of an accreditation process, therefore, was to give customers the information they needed to make an informed choice.
The WTEFLAC provided much needed oversight but sorely missing within the sector. The accreditation board took a detailed look at each provider’s course offering to make sure they met best practices.
The intention was to ensure that customers could expect a highly quality course that would lead to an industry-recognized qualification regardless of the price or the way in which the course was delivered.
Understanding the criteria the WTEFLAC looked for can help you, as a student, make your own choices.
The key to a good course, according to the WTEFLAC code of practice was:
Experience of the teachers: in work, as in life, there is no substitute for actually doing. As well as having qualifications the WTEFLAC wanted teachers to have a minimum of three years’ practical teaching experience.
- Ongoing improvement: it was not enough for a course provider to show that they met the standards in the present. They had to provide confidence that they would continue to do so in the future. That’s why the WTEFLAC looked for evidence of a commitment to quality control and ongoing improvements to ensure the company would evolve with the wider industry.
- Honesty: Marketing material could easily be manipulated. One of the first things the WTEFL checked was the quality of the marketing material to make sure it provided an accurate reflection of the course content.
- Course structure: courses were expected to be laid out clearly and with a strong element of peer-to-peer learning. Students had to be given a clear set of expectations before the course and, assuming they met the required standards, should receive a recognized qualification at the end.
In addition to accreditation, the World TEFL Accrediting Commission (WTEFLAC) also provided advice and information in blogs which helped students move forward in their careers and provided tips to improve their teaching.
As a whole, therefore the WTEFLAC not only provided a valuable accreditation service but also provided advice and information to students and course providers which helped them make improvements. By doing so, they sought to raise overall standards across the entire TEFL and TESOL sector.