If you are new to TEFL and are looking for a TEFL course then you will see a lot of people (usually the course providers themselves) recommend that you take an accredited TEFL course. But TEFL accreditation ranges from totally fake to somewhat fake and still kind of questionable since even the self-proclaimed best ones are not actually affiliated with TEFL or colleges.
Like there is one large well-known older company out there that boasts that they are accredited by a government institution which sounds impressive, but if you actually look up that accreditation they actually accredit all kinds of programs ranging from welding to banking to fashion to pastoral training. So they are not experts in TEFL and that accreditation comes with a price tag of $2500 a year.
You can learn more about TEFL accreditation here, but this following post is going to focus on fake TEFL accreditation.
So what is fake TEFL accreditation?
A common fake one is when one course creates their own accreditation. They will set up a new website with a different url and often come up with a fancy sounding acronym and make it appear anonymous and unrelated to the course that they are selling.
This sort of deception is very easy to do online.
And I think TEFL is a pretty deceptive industry in general. But some sites take the cake. Here's an example.
So if you look above at the url being pointed at in the photo you will see a fake review site that was created by a man who writes fake reviews, fake comments, uses multiple fake id's, created fake awards and a fake accreditation called ACTEFLC to get you to buy his course.
Are there other fake accreditations out there? I am sure and as I mentioned there is a range of fake from totally like the one above to lesser so.
And even if it's a so-called "legit" accreditation (in the eyes of some) there are non-profit organizations out there that state why college accreditation doesn't work and TEFL is not college. It's not even close! Any college accreditation is far more official then some TEFL accreditation.
Knowlingly or not I'd say all courses out there try to copy the industry leader in TEFL and that is the CELTA course.
Any other examples of fake accreditation?
The next step up from the example above is when two courses contact each other and create their own accreditation.
Accreditation in TEFL is rarely transparent just like the courses themselves. What does that mean? It means you rarely kno who is behind the course or the accreditation. Here's an older list about fake accreditation.
Related:
- TEFL accreditation
- Don't judge a book TEFL course by it's cover
- How to spot fake news and reviews
- TEFL course scams