Novelty TEFL Certificates
The race to the bottom in ESL is unlikely to be won for some time. While the debate about the quality and validity of online training goes on, we had a spammer on the site recently trying to plug novelty TEFL Certificates.
The last time I looked at a site offering forged certificates, they were charging a hundred dollars, but this lot were offering a batch of no fewer than eight certificates (i-to-i probably) for €100. I have no idea how many people are buying these things, but some must or they wouldn't be around.
I'm not sure how much they add to the debasement of education and qualifications, but the people daft enough to buy them will only be able to get jobs in places that would take them anyway- the schools that are looking for someone with a pulse and will happily rip off people with or without novelty TEFL certificates.
Categories: General
I imagine this particular bottom-feeder used the word 'novelty' to give him 'plausible deniability' - 'Who, me? Can't you take a joke?' (I can't imagine anyone being fooled by this defence, but I can imagine people trying it on.)
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I love the idea of a novelty ESL certificate- it sounds like one of those Private Eye Christmas gifts- astonish your friends...
These companies like i-to-i, TEFL Express, Cactus, TeachEnglish, TEFL England, all of them are rubbish. The only certification worth it is CELTA, and that's the truth!
CELTA's position is so dominant that I can't see why people starting out now would consider taking other courses. Whether this is healthy may be debatable, but it's the course employers are looking for. No other course comes near it. I don't know whether all are rubbish as you say, but there are plenty of shockers out there, and as more and more courses start, employers are playing it safe by asking for CELTA. The only other course that gets a look-in is the Trinity, and that is always in adverts asking for one of the two.
I did their course, the online 120 hour one, and have been accepted to teach high school students in Beijing. I'm not the most confident of people but I've a friend over their already, she says it's great fun teaching and houses are only 400 pounds a month, really nice, and you can eat out every day of the week if you want. She's having a blast and I want to as well.
They don't offer courses- just ways of cheating.
You might want to sort out the differences between there/their/they're before you go out to teach.