What does the closure of the World TEFL Accrediting Commission mean for the TEFL and TESOL industries?
The World TEFL Accrediting Commission (WTEFLAC) has closed. From start to finish it was committed to creating a framework that can help teaching providers achieve excellence and improve overall standards. Although the WTEFLAC is no more, that framework still exists and can help to raise
standards further in the industry.
How it worked
The WTEFLAC established a set of standards via its code of conduct. This was the criteria against which all providers should be assessed. It covered key components such as:
Course advertising:
Students must be given enough information to allow them to make an informed choice. Pricing must be clear and transparent and marketing should accurately reflect the contents of each course.
Selection of students:
All course providers should have a clear admissions policy. Students must have competency in English and the admissions policy should come with a clear commitment to equal opportunities.
Courses:
Teaching must follow clear, methodological principles with peer-to-peer learning forming a strong part of the course. Each course should be delivered by a professional with at least three years’ experience of teaching English as a foreign language.
Feedback and assessment:
Students should be given a clear framework against which they will be assessed and continual feedback about their progress. Assessment must cover all components of the course.
Staffing: All staff should be given comprehensive training and also given the opportunity for further professional development within the organization.
Evaluation, culture and continuous improvement:
The company would need to provide a clear commitment to quality control. An independent person should be appointed to oversee and assess course standards. The company would have to put in place procedures to ensure continual monitoring of courses so that improvements can be made when necessary. If the same course is offered over a prolonged period of time, methods should be in place to update it to make sure it meets evolving standards and requirements.
The code of conduct was shaped in such a way that it would not only provide an evaluation of a course provider at the time of assessment but that the provider would continue to meet high standards. It avoided the pitfall of having a course provider that starts out as meeting the guidelines but lets courses stagnate and deteriorate.
For that reason, even though the WTEFLAC has shut down, students can be confident that course providers who were accredited through the process will continue to offer high-quality and professional course content. Not only were the courses found to be high quality at the time, but they were shown to have robust sets of procedures in place that would ensure they continue to offer value into the future.
This is the flexible, and intuitive approach to accreditation that served the WTEFLAC well during its time and can serve it well moving into the future.