Tefl Cambridge - Time Out Offer - Good Idea?

[db3745]

Time Out Offers shows a 140hr TEFL Cambridge Scholar Level 5 online course including a TEFL Cambridge Scholar Level 5 TEFL Certificate on completion.
Says it is normally £399, now just £49.
Can I ask people's opinions on its suitability for my daughter who is ethnic British, has excellent language skills in three European languages, and had to curtail a promising university degree course in modern languages some years ago owing to illness. Now recovering, this advert caught her eye. Studying online has attractions.
We know little about the practicalities of obtaining a TEFL. Questions include:-
- Does one TEFL carry more weight than another in terms of value to an employer?
- What would you say about TEFL Cambridge?
- Where does level 5 stand in TEFL terms and does this seem reasonable for my daughter to go for.

I'm sure I could find out more eventually by ploughing through TEFL sites and so on, but I hoped here might give me some useful quick opinions from those more au fait than me.

Thank you in advance.

[ChillDoubt]

Of very little use I'm afraid, all I can say is that my sister did a TEFL course 20 years ago and subsequently worked in Prague and Japan.
I don't know of anyone who has done a TEFL online and would be sceptical about such a course/qualification as it's impossible for anyone to guage how a TEFL teacher will actually perform in a classroom environment.
That's just my opinion, hopefully someone on here can advise you better than I.

[buildersmate]

You are right to be suspicious. Learning organisations claiming spurious links to Cambridge, Oxford and (to a lesser extent) London abound, in the belief that people believe that they have some link to the prestigious universities in those cities. They don't and some are absolutely c**p.

TEFL has no national qualification awarding body (as far as I can find) so it sounds like it a pot-luck as to what you get.

Here's some useful Q&A with a link at the end to the website I got the info from. You might try Googling ‘CELTA TEFL’ BM

What TEFL certificate has the best name recognition?
The Cambridge CELTA. The Trinity CertTESOL is probably in second place, followed by the SIT TESOL Certificate, but that can vary depending on what country you want to work in.

Are there any international accreditation bodies for TEFL certificates?
No. The main guarantee of quality of the most well-respected courses (e.g. CELTA, Trinity CertTESOL and SIT) are the standards and reputations of the organisations that provide the certificates (e.g. Cambridge ESOL, which is part of Cambridge University and Trinity College London, a UK-based exam board).

How can I compare two (or more) different TEFL certificate courses?
The most important thing is recognition of the qualification. If you can find job ads that specifically mention one of the qualifications, that is probably the one to go for. If not, contact schools that you are considering working for (or random schools in an area that you are thinking about) and ask which they would recommend.

How can I tell if a course is really equivalent to a CELTA or not?
In terms of worldwide name recognition, no course is really a CELTA equivalent. However, when employers ask for "CELTA or equivalent" they mean a course with at least 100 hours of instruction and at least 6 hours of observed teaching practice. They are also likely to prefer a course that is well known (e.g. one that has been around for a long time and is offered by many course providers), and is accredited by a respectable university or exam board.

http://www.tefl.net/

[Tefler]

I have been working in British Council/ English UK accredited language schools in Britain since 1996 and am currently Assistant Director of Studies, with responsibility for staff recruitment, in a large one on the south coast of England.

A good language school in this country should be accredited by English UK and/or ISI (the Independent Schools Inspectorate). These organisations require teaching staff to be properly qualified. Thus, I would not consider anybody as a teacher at our school who didn't have, as a minimum, the CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults) issued by Cambridge ESOL or the CertTESOL (Certificate in Teaching English as a Second or Other Language) issued by Trinity College.

There may be schools in other countries which would accept somebody with the qualification you mention, but to be honest, I wouldn't consider working in such a school, as it is likely to be rather less than a professional institution.

There are a lot of organisations which claim to issue the 'equivalent' of the Trinity and Cambridge ESOL qualifications, but they do not. Online courses, for example, have no teaching practice, so cannot give the experience you need in the classroom.

For £49, the course might be an interesting introduction to the profession, but it won't lead to a job, I'm afraid. It would be much better to save up and do the CELTA or CertTESOL. There may be colleges which offer a 'blended learning' scheme, with some online work combined with teaching practice. That would be worth looking into - but only if the qualification at the end was one of these two.

I hope this is helpful.