Accreditation

There is currently NO independent board of accreditation or assessment for TEFL Certificates. This means that each institute, school, or organization recognizes their own Certificate and accreditation comes from good practice, professional standards and reputation.

There are a number of organisations which have been set up nationally. And there are a number of orgnaisations which have been set up by schools as supposedly independent accreditation agencies to accredit their own courses. These latter fall under the banner of scams.

The simple truth is that unfortunately, many TEFL courses which claim to be accredited are not.

Accreditation Agencies

The following are commonly cited as accreditation agencies by courses. Not all of them are reputable or trustworthy.

ACTDEC - accredit a small number of schools and were originally set up to accredit their own school; their independence is often called into question.

IATEFL - this organisation does NOT accredit any school; if a school says they're IATEFL accredited they are lying.

ODQLC - private organisation which accredits different courses (not just TEFL).