There is a lot of debate at the moment on whether the Trinity College London TEFL (TESOL) Certificate courses offered by Windsor TEFL are accredited.
I emailed Trinity College to find out whether Windsor TEFL was an accredited provider and they told me that:
Windsor Schools as based in London and Windsor (and Madrid)
ceased to be validated for the Trinity CertTESOL on 31 December 2006. Any
course that started there since 1 January 2007 is not validated by Trinity, will not
be moderated by Trinity and trainees cannot be awarded a Trinity certificate.NB: The Windsor Institute Barcelona is a separate school and is fully validated
by Trinity College London for its CertTESOL programmes.
Windsor TEFL in London and Windsor do not offer an accredited Trinity Certificate, though at the time of writing they say they do on their website.
Prospective teachers might be advised to go to places that offer genuinely accredited courses. Mr Lowe may think that his critics might possibly be taking a slightly harsh line, but the accreditation he claims to have for his teaching courses expired at the end of last year and his continuing to claim to have the accreditation is being questioned.
(Screenshots and cached versions of http://www.windsorschools.co.uk/index.html, showing the Trinity College accreditation claim at the time of writing this blog entry, 8/2/07, are available.)
Mr Lowe asked for the right to reply, which can be seen here. The comments made in this post are Mr Lowe's.
i am an english students. i need several resources about english.
I am so glad I found this though disappointed at the same time. I submitted my application for my TEFL with them before the end of 2006, I was happy and under the impression it was a Trinity TEFL. Then of course I paid my fees, secured my place and the following July/August I went to do my TEFL, still under the impression it was Trinity. Once I received my certificate I was surprised and confused that it didn't say Trinity on it, but presumed it must be and didn't think any more about it. I'm quite disappointed to now learn it isn't. Is there anything I can do? After spending what I did, I could have got a Celta. The course was extremely expensive if it wasn't a Trinity or Celta! I'm not happy about this, but I suppose there is nothing I can now do :(
This site has some links, addresses and suggestions: http://windsortefl.blogspot.com/