Job Discussion Forums

[Gawain]

Any New World Teachers grads out there? Big TEFL college in San Francisco, satellite schools in 5 countries and thousands of grads in 1990�s. Then it disappeared without a trace in 2001, leaving grads like me wondering if my $1,500 TEFL certificate is now worthless. Can you relate?

I posted this before and got flamed with a dozen �SCREW TEFL� flamers until the moderator deleted the entire posting! Please respond only if you can stay on topic!

Anyone been asked to take another TEFL course because NWT disappeared? It was a good school with Cambridge Total Physical Response games I found very useful. I intend to show job interviewers my TEFL cert, but it is hard to explain my college disappeared without a trace! I can only shrug my shoulders and mumble, �these things happen....� Anyone in similar situation? Did it make a difference? Did you take the trouble to get another TEFL or just forget it?

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

I know absolutely nothing about the training you did, but yours is one of the problems with private chains offering TESOL certificates.

Private training can be great. Or it can be useless. Just like university or college training (that's at least part of why everyone says to make sure whatever training you get has a substantial supervised practicum). One difference is that universities are not likey to go under and even if a programme is cancelled or changed, employers can easily find out what the training consisted of (another is that on-campus programmes through universities have entry requirements, programmes require actual work, and the instructors have PhDs. With private training you never really know).

Another issue is that the turnover rate for careers in ESL is often very quick. People who went through a private TESOL training centre a decade ago may very well not be in the field any more. And if they are, they may have a situation that they like and so are not looking for new jobs (ie they are not in the applicant pool any longer). This lowers name recognition for your programme.

However, there are more than a few private TESOL certificate providers out there and so most employers haven't heard of them all.

[eslHQ]

Hi Gawain

I am a NWT grad. I went through their program spring, 1999. I found out they disappeared when I was trying to make a link to their school for an online resume.

I think I've only had one person ask about it. I just said they were gone. And that was the end of it. Since 2001, I have gotten nearly every job I applied for with never a word said about my TEFL certificate.

On a side note, a girl i met at my course stayed in SF to help them out in the office. She mentioned at that time they were having financial problems. I wonder if they were bought out by another larger company.

On a reminiscent side note, they turned the old (dorm)house in to a hostel.

Anyway, you really shouldn't have any problems. But if you want to be sure, try contacting an organization that can give you records of NWT actually being a business and what happened to them.

Good luck

[jenjen]

I'm an NWT grad. SF '99. I just found out it is now defunct.
argh. Anyway, I was wondering about the validity of my very expensive cert.! How could they have gone under? Are they under a new name?

[Gregor]

I'm an NWT grad from 1996, Puerto Vallarta campus.
A few things about TEFL, as an industry/field -
* The certificate is entry level. Once you've finished one, maybe two contracts, it doesn't matter where the certificate came from at all.
Another thing, and this is speaking from experience, is that if the course was legitimate, you can describe it to someone and they'll know it was good enough.
* People in the know can tell by talking to you whether you did a legitimate course. You can describe it very well, in the right details, if you didn't do the course. It should be 100-120 hours at least, with at least ...6? hours of teaching practice. From there you can talk intelligently about what went on in the course and so on.

I have no degree and only a TEFL cert. from the long-defunct NWT and I was still accepted by Trinity College, London on a TESOL diploma course (a diploma I have since earned, woo-hoo!) on the strength of my certificate (and a description of the course) and got out of the first degree requirement on the strength of my eight + years' experience teaching.

NWT offered a valid and legitimate TEFL certificate on a program more or less stolen from Transworld Teachers (which I believe is back in business), which I believe was very strongly based on the RSA CELTA (I could be wrong about that last bit but I don't think I am).
Basically, you have a good certificate. No worries. You paid a lot for it - do NOT let anyone tell you that you have to recertify. Hell, there are still tons of NWT grads out there. This ought to be validation enough.

[Gawain]

SOLUTION TO NWT TEFL CERT:
I did research and traced New World Teachers San Francisco California license. NWT was not officially accredited by college board but they did have legit college license. All you NWT grads out there, I suggest this format for your resume: My resume now has this:

TEFL Teaching English as Foreign Language Certificate, 1996
TEFL-C Children, 1996, TEFL and TEFL-C total 160 hours, see letter
New World Teachers College, 605 Market St, San Francisco, CA, Licensed by California State Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education 916 574-7720 www.bppve.ca.gov/

Hope above helps you NWT grads. If you or employer calls that CA number, this CA government office confirms NWT San Francisco was licensed, opened Feb 1995, closed Jan 2001