What Obligations Do TEFL Course Providers Have?

I think the fact that the good ones say “If you do not have a degree you may have difficulty getting a job in some countries” or the like means that more probably should say at least that.

I’m just checking the site of the place where I did my CELTA (which I feel sure is good!) and they don’t mention that…but they also don’t go into great detail about how the CELTA helps you find a job anywhere and everywhere, whereas some course providers do just that. I guess I’m thinking that if they attempt to go above and beyond describing the job market, they should include that.

I’m a strong proponent of TEFL and CELTA course providers making every effort to describe the job market. The nature of an intensive or short course such as these is get people working right away, and I think that’s the expectation most have when signing up. Students are likely to be moving directly from a course and into the workplace.

Job placements are a different story of course. Where I work, job placements are part of the course package, so it’s that much more critical to provide correct information.

There might be a difference here in where a TEFL course is taken. A course taken abroad should be better networked locally to provide accurate job market info and/or job placements. A course taken at home (an English speaking country), may find themselves at greater pains to provide the information correctly.

This raises an interesting point…I guess an organization which does include placement is kind of more “answerable” for the info it provides. And in fact - it may just make a better situation in some sense for teachers because an organization that realizes a teacher is unlikely to find a job (given whatever criteria, no degree, etc)is also unlikely to advise that person to take (register, pay for) their course anyway…because they have an incentive to help that person find a job.

I’m kind of currently looking at this from a specific perspective - and just read through a site which seems to give an overview of information about the job market … in the whole world, apparently…but you could read it all and not realize that if you don’t have a degree, you will not be able to work anywhere in the world you want…but that is how they frame their course.

In the end it probably comes down to “buyer beware” and people need to realize that they need to investigate opportunities abroad thoroughly…

There have been continuing problems in Korea with Canadians showing up to work with a TESOL certificate, but no degree. In some cases, people were caught with forged degrees. In one highly publicized case in 2005 (or early 2006?) a local recruiter was found to have been forging degrees and offering them to Canadian teachers. He was arrested and several dozen teachers were detained, fined, and deported.

I’d wondered if that story went far enough to throw a spotlight on the course providers in Canada, on how much information was provided or withheld, as the recruiting network for Korea runs deep in Canadian cities.

Yikes…I’m aware of hearing every once in a while about teachers caught with fake degrees, but to be honest never really looked at it much deeper than thinking “Hey, you shouldn’t use a fake degree”. But - it does seem quite a bit more organized and sinister when there is that level of planning is involved as far as recruiters. I will keep my eyes open for more stories like this.

Managed to dig up an October 2005 story covered by the Globe and Mail in Toronto, Canada on the incident I mentioned above.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051010.wxkorea1010/BNStory/National/

Scary stuff.

Guy, I’m sorry to say that seems to be subscription only, so I can’t read the whole thing. It does sound like particularly nasty recruiter behavior, though, and know I know to be more aware to look for what else articles say when they report teachers caught with fake degrees.

Strange…I was able to see the whole article yesterday, and today no.

Found it reprinted on a Korea blog…no subscription fees!

http://korealisting.blogspot.com/2005/12/globe-mail-article.html

That’s funny that it was free the first time…I bet its because it’s a Canadian paper, and the Canadian government keeps track of its citizens IP numbers - they gave you one free viewing. Wait a minute, that sounds more like the antics of another country’s government…

All kidding aside, I have read it, and it does seem like those people are in quite a fix - likely to be caught if they just try to leave. I’m still kind of thinking that they had some idea that buying a fake degree was not really correct, but it’s very possible that they didn’t really know what consequences it would have…and it’s easy to see why a recruiter would want to convince them that it was all fine…