Are you guaranteed to pass a TEFL course?

You might have seen some TEFL courses guarantee a pass, but is this legitimate and are these courses worth taking?  

It’s tempting. After all, if you’re going to spend hard-earned money on a course you want to get a qualification at the end of it. But there’s a difference between buying a qualification and earning it, which is why most reputable learning providers will never say that you’re guaranteed to pass their course. 

Let’s take a closer look at guaranteed passes in the TEFL course industry. 

Are you guaranteed to pass a TEFL course? 

Reputable TEFL course providers will not guarantee that you will pass their course. It’s unusual to see any kind of learning provider guarantee a pass since a qualification is something that should be earned, not handed out. You wouldn’t see a university claim that students are guaranteed to pass their degrees! 

Here at The TEFL Org we can’t guarantee that you’ll pass one of our courses. Why not? Well, that would devalue the hard work our course graduates have put in to gain their qualifications. Not only that, but it would compromise our reputation with employers - one that we’ve been building since 2008. Employers worldwide recognise that our teachers have been trained to a high standard and they actively seek out teachers who’ve trained with us. Check out our Jobs Centre to see employers currently looking for teachers with The TEFL Org certification!

While we can’t guarantee that you’ll pass, we can promise that you’ll have all the support you need to help you get through the course. More on that soon, so keep reading! 

Whether a guaranteed pass is simply a marketing ploy, an outright scam or indicative of a course that’s not up to scratch is hard to say. But we always recommend doing your research to ensure that the course you choose is one that will both get you a job and actually prepare you to do it. 

What qualification employers look for when hiring TEFL teachers

Most employers require teachers to have at least a 120-hour TEFL qualification from an accredited course provider. Because there’s no single accrediting body for TEFL courses, accreditation can get a bit murky. It’s not at all uncommon to see cheap TEFL courses claim to be accredited when they’re anything but. 

What you want to look out for is accreditation from reputable bodies. And the easiest way to tell if a TEFL course provider has reputable accreditation is if they are accredited by government or government-affiliated bodies. Here at The TEFL Org we hold accreditation from the Ofqual (England), the DEAC (USA), and the SQA (Scotland), amongst others. We’re the most accredited TEFL course provider in the world, in case you didn’t know! Read more about accreditation and why it’s important here . 

Not sure what course is right for you? Take our quick quiz , which will reveal the answer!

Why a course that guarantees a pass might not be a good idea 

Imagine this: you’re an employer and you have in front of you a stack of applications from newly-qualified teachers eager to land their first teaching position. You’re looking for a teacher you’re confident has undertaken training that will prepare them for the job. 

The first thing you need to do is sort out those who are qualified for the job and those who aren’t, so anyone who doesn’t have at least a 120-hour TEFL qualification is instantly eliminated. Now to check out the qualifications of those who say they are TEFL qualified. How do you spot the good from the bad? Those who’ve completed a cheap unaccredited Groupon TEFL course are put in the bin - why invest in a teacher who hasn’t themselves invested in proper training? 

And then you can see that some have completed a course that claims to guarantee a pass. What does that mean? If they’re guaranteed a pass did they just pay for a bit of a paper or did they actually undertake training? It’s hard to know, and you’re a busy person who doesn’t have the time to do more research, so those applications are dismissed as well. 

Don’t risk your application being tossed aside, make sure you complete a course with a provider that employers associate with quality! 

The support you get when studying with The TEFL Org

While a pass isn’t a guarantee, our students are provided with lots of support to help them through the course. Our team of extremely experienced and qualified tutors and our friendly TEFL advisers are always a message, email or phone call away. 

Thomas Kerr, our Online Courses and Academic Manager, explains more about the support our students get: 

All our students have a personal tutor who they can contact at any time with questions. You can also get support when you need it from our friendly staff by email, via live chat, or by giving us a call. 

All our tutors and support get back to you within 48 hours - usually quicker. You’ll have the full support of the whole TEFL training team, who are all very highly qualified with many years experience in TEFL training. As well as this, I am here to back up our tutors to help any student that needs extra support to pass. With this whole team behind each student and a little hard work, there is no reason at all why anyone cannot pass our course. And, when an employer sees The TEFL Org certification, they know that you got that with hard work, and excellent TEFL training.

Find out more about our courses or check out our guides for teaching English abroad and online for more information!