How Accreditation with the WTEFLAC Helps

 


Having an accreditation body is crucial to the health of all participants in the TEFL and TESOL sectors.  

The TEFL and TESOL sectors have grown rapidly in the last couple of years. New training providers have flooded the market, giving customers a huge amount of choice. However, while that can be beneficial in many ways, the number of providers can make it difficult to ensure you get a good quality tuition that leads to a valuable qualification. Without a trusted accreditation body, the online world can be a bit of a wild west environment with no easy way to guarantee quality and safety.  

How WTEFLAC accreditation works  

The purpose of accreditation is to provide transparency and restore trust in the system by ensuring clear oversight of the sector. An accreditation company, such as the WTEFLAC, for example, would assess applicant companies against a standard criterion. In the WTEFLAC’s case, that was the code of practice, which was published on the website.  

Any company looking to become accredited could apply to the WTEFLAC by providing company details and setting out how it felt it met the accreditation criteria. If successful, that company would be permitted to display the WTEFLAC logo on its website and marketing material and would be listed on the WTEFLAC website as an accredited company.  

Benefits of accreditation for customers 

The most obvious beneficiaries of accreditation were those looking for a course. By checking a company’s website, they could instantly see if that company had any form of accreditation. If they did, it provided a degree of confidence that any course with that provider would at least meet minimum standards of quality.  

Equally, if there were no accreditation marks, it could be a bit of a red flag. There would be no way to know if that company’s marketing claims could be trusted.  

The code of practice also sets out the criteria customers should be looking for in a company that helps with their due diligence. It gave them the tools and information to make better and more informed decisions.  

Benefits for companies 

Legitimate companies also benefit immensely. In an unregulated environment, there is no way for reputable companies to differentiate themselves from less reputable alternatives. Anyone can claim anything they like on their website.  

By submitting to an accreditation company, they can demonstrate their transparency and prove the value of their product offering. The presence of an accreditation mark on the website gives them something that only legitimate high quality providers can replicate.  

The process can also be used for self-auditing and continual improvement. It forces companies to look at their service offering. Even for those that successfully meet the accreditation requirements, the chances are they will identify areas in which they could improve.  

Overall, the process is great if you’re a customer or a legitimate training provider. Less great if you’re a fraudster. Accreditation is critical to a safe and healthy market in which providers can be trusted to do what they say.   

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