Job Discussion Forums

[Atricks]

I was looking into different online TEFL certification sites.
While I was at intesoltesoltraining.com I noticed it says:

"Please note: Employers requiring TESOL/TEFL Certification will not consider candidates with non-accredited courses that are less than 150 hours in length."

It's worded kind of tricky, because yea, it's apparent how employers would not accept non-accredited courses period, no matter what the amount of hours. But if the courses are accredited, and say 60 hours, like at onlinetefl.com, would that be a barrier to landing a job because it's under the 150 hours that's recommended at the intesol site? Or is that just a way to try to get you to buy their particular certification course(which is 3-6 months vs. the 4-6 week course at the onlinetefl.com site, and a whole lot more expensive)?

Or do employers just see a TEFL certificate, and treat all the accredited online ones the same?

[Sheep-Goats]

Online TEFLs are laughed at by anyone who knows anything -- and none will be accredited by any reputable body. But many employers don't know this.

Any reputable TEFL certificate will last for about 120 hours. That's a month or so of five days a week, at eight or nine hours a day. The reason for this 120 hour benchmark is probably because this is one of the standards Cambridge sets for those places wishing to be issuing bodies for its CELTA certificate, which is generally the certificate that has, for whatever reason, established the standards that most other courses adhere to these days.

A good TEFL program will have 1) face to face practice with real students, 2) accredation from a reputable body (usually a major univeristy somewhere) and 3) at least 120 hours of combined classroom / practice teaching time. Any program that doesn't have these three things could be shot down by those 10% of employers who know the difference. Unfortunatly for those looking for an easy way around a TEFL certificate, those 10% of employers are often the good ones. The employers who let themselves be fooled and take whatever they can get often pay peanuts and/or abuse workers -- but finding a good guy who'll accept your lesser certificate is by no means impossible.

I have a CELTA -- sort of the flagship TEFL. I've gotten a bit of a raise by waving around in the personnell office and saying "Cambridge! Look! Cambridge!". So sometimes it does make a difference. The drawback is that it's overpriced -- but that's always the case with a name brand. The Trinity Ceritficate (so called because Trininty University in Dublin accredits it) is the other sure-fire recognizeable TEFL certificate. And there are some TEFL certs out that that offer very good educations, usually better than a CELTA or Trinity, but often their students still don't get recognized to the same degree.

The difference between a namebrand TEFL and a generic TEFL and an online/fake/crap TEFL varies from country to country. In Thailand there's little difference in what kind of salary/position bump you'll recieve, in Japan almost none, in Europe it's much more pronounced.

So, as they say in Thailand, up to you.

[Atricks]

Thanks for your response. I've decided against an online certification. I have signed up for the on site course of TEFL International in Phuket.