Who did the World TEFL Accrediting Commission Support?
The WTEFLAC was created to support anyone looking to undertake TEFL or TESOL courses worldwide.
The World TEFL Accrediting Commission was an accreditor of TEFL and TESOL courses. It was set up to provide information and guidance to all potential students looking to find a reputable provider. However, its influence extended further as it attempted to raise overall standards within what could sometimes be an unpredictable sector.
The TEFL Sector
The pandemic saw a dramatic rise in the number of people looking to teach English as a foreign language. In the work-from-home era, many people saw it as an opportunity to find an additional income stream. Others used it as an opportunity to study abroad.
With that rise came a similar increase in the number of TEFL and TESOL courses. TEFL courses (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) provide the skills and qualifications needed to work as an English teacher.
However, not every provider was created equal. Some were more expensive and offered more comprehensive courses than others. A few could even be fraudulent with providers taking customers’ money but offering very little in return.
The question for potential students was ‘how could they trust that any potential course provider was reputable and would help them obtain a recognized qualification?
Getting a clear answer to that, unfortunately, was pretty difficult. Creating a convincing website is pretty easy. All sorts of organisations can claim to offer high-quality, reputable courses without necessarily being able to back up their claims.
The aim behind the WTEFLAC was to create an accrediting service that would assess providers, and make sure they met minimum standards of quality and reliability.
Valuable information
To do that they created their own criteria which assessed providers on the expertise of their staff, their experience, and the content of their courses. They also scrutinised the marketing material of each provider to make sure it represented a realistic picture of the courses on offer.
Any provider that met the criteria would be permitted to display the WTEFLAC’s logo on their websites and marketing materials. This helped to give potential students an independent guide about how much they could trust the quality of the course material. It removed much of the uncertainty from the process and allowed them to have faith that the course was reputable and would help them pursue their future career aspirations.
However, the service didn’t stop there. The WTEFLAC website served as an information hub providing customers with information and advice that would help them choose the right path.
This could include blogs or guides offering tips about teaching or information about the options available once a qualification has been achieved. Whether people were actively seeking education opportunities or were just doing some initial research, this site armed them with the key information they would need to make the best possible decisions for their needs.