Job Discussion Forums

[Burke]

I just want to make sure teachers - both current and prospective know the truth about TEFL Certificates in China (and most everywhere else too!). Contrary to their slick and sly sales pitch, YOU DO NOT NEED A TEFL CERTIFICATE TO TEACH IN CHINA! There are over 19,000 schools operating in China and almost 15,000 employ one or more foreign teachers. Less than a dozen of them (mostly private international schools in Beijing & Shanghai) actually even ask about TEFL training. TEFL Certificates are NOT mandatory. Anyone who has ever taught in China knows this. But maybe if they told the truth they would sell less TEFL Training courses eh? See this link:

http://internationalteflreviews.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/beware-onlinetefl-com-is-a-sophisticated-scam-in-progress-targeting-work-abroad-teachers/

Further, even if China did require a TEFL certificate (playing devil's advocate here) the onlinetefl.com certificate would be as useful and valuable as toilet paper since it is not internationally accepted nor recognized - even in China! So unless you have money to burn, don't waste it on a company that relies on lies, a flashy web site, and self-created "review" sites to peddle a piece of paper and a "course" that relies on automated software that you use online. The below excerpt is from a 2010 article found at the below link that talks about TEFL training "accreditation". Anyone lured by the lies of onlinetefl.com, should read the entire article...

6. Accreditation
It is difficult for anyone to understand the confusion that is TEFL accreditation, especially when the main guarantees of quality of the Cambridge CELTA and Trinity CertTESOL are their own names. This means that it is very difficult to be able to work out which other courses are of a similar standard. It is, however, possible to spot the dodgy courses by what they say about accreditation. Some courses don�t mention it at all, which is never a good sign. Others claim to be accredited by organisations that do not ever accredit TEFL courses, e.g. IATEFL and TESOL. In fact, any mention of organisations like these is just smoke and mirrors to convince you of quality which doesn�t exist. Other tricks include claiming to be accredited by an organisation that doesn�t list that school on its website, setting up their own accreditation organisation that only or mainly accredits themselves (look for how many schools the accreditation organisation website lists), using organisations that will say that they accredit anyone for a fee (look for lots of unconnected qualifications or qualifications like online degrees on the accrediting organisation�s website), and even listing accreditation organisations that don�t seem to exist at all! Any links to online universities or those apparently based in obscure island nations should also of course be avoided.

http://edition.tefl.net/articles/training-articles/avoid-tefl-course/

I am going to guess that onlinetefl.com is not the only scam using this "Mandatory" bullshit to sell their online course, but it is the only one that I spent time with on the phone. Yesterday, I got an email from one of their former employees "suggesting" that I do my own "investigation on line" and I did. What makes these people most hideous is that their telemarketers are targeting unemployed people who are desperate for work with even more horseshit - "If you can speak English you can teach English". Anyway just wanted to clear the air as these clever cons wasted about 4 hours of my time on the phone.

[choudoufu]

you mean i didn't have to pay for the undercoating?

[johntpartee]

When I showed the administrators at my current position my certificate they asked me what it was.