DEAC Accreditation with The TEFL Institute

As a recognised TEFL provider, we are committed to providing you with nothing but the best regarding an ongoing TEFL education and ensuring you get the desired results. That said, we are pleased to announce that we are adding a new accreditor to our list of partners. We are, of course, referring to the DEAC accreditation. As one of the most recognised bodies in the US for accrediting courses, we are thrilled to get their approval because it means we are evolving to improve the service we offer you. 

So, we thought this might be a good opportunity to talk about what accreditation means, how it helps us, and generally teach you all you need to know about our new friends. Let’s get started. 

What is the DEAC?

So, to kick things off, let’s talk about what the DEAC is, and why getting accredited by them is such a good thing that we’re very proud of being able to accomplish. 

The DEAC is what we call the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, and it was founded back in 1926. The commission is an American group that gives accreditation to distance learning providers. As a provider, it is recognised by the US Department of Education and the Council for Higher Learning Accreditation. This means that the US and the UK acknowledge any courses that get this qualification. 

The assessment process that the DEAC uses is called the AQC, which is the Approved Quality Curriculum. We’ve gotten our 120-hour and 180-hour courses certified in this way. It has been a long process that required us to go through a tough assessment process over many months, which has given us that coveted AQC approval. 

The Importance of Quality

You might be wondering what the significance of this accreditation is for our team. It is more than just a new mark on the website – even if it IS a rather shiny stamp of approval. However, more than that, it is about our unwavering commitment to delivering you with a bespoke TEFL training course to help you reach your dreams and attain your goals. 

We firmly believe in the importance of growing and succeeding as a business. After all, if we keep providing you with the best experiences possible, you can grow, succeed and achieve all of your TEFL goals – whether teaching at an academy or running your own business in the countryside. We aim to deliver qualifications that will help you teach English anywhere, no matter what happens. We know how important it can be for you to get the type of qualification you can use anywhere – that’s why we’re here to help you.

This new accreditation means that we’re actively striving to do just that. It proves we’re doing well because it is an external assessment of our ability as a course provider. It’s not an internal review that we have any control over – it is a review with feedback and ideas about how we can improve, and it gives us the tools to ensure that you’ve got the best courses possible. 

To put it another way, it’s a mark of confidence. Now that we have this accreditation (along with our others), you can rest easy knowing that we’ve done everything possible to help you succeed and are here for you. 

How to Get DEAC Accredited

Suffice it to say, we had to go through a tough accreditation process to access our DEAC AQC status, which means that everything we do and everything we offer has had to go through an extensive evaluation process. It means that we’ve been carefully examined to be sure that what we offer is the best it can be. The process has included things like submitting evidence, evaluating the quality standards we offer, and multiple meetings with a committee which reviews the courses. It was never a case of getting some boxes ticked – we’ve gone through the process. 

Naturally, this was a pretty extensive process, and we’ve been so happy to finally get that letter which has approved us as being certified by the commission, especially for the online services we provide. We are also happy to report that we were able to pass the certification on the first attempt – this is something we’re very proud of. 

DEAC VS Ofqual

So, from the very start of our time as a course provider, we have been acknowledged and supported by regulatory bodies, because we know how important it can be for people to trust our processes. This means we have worked hard to undergo regular reviews and keep learning and growing to improve our services. 

To ensure that we are keeping compliant with some of the most current rules in the UK, we are registered and work with Ofqual, the official government body responsible for regulating qualifications provided by training providers. This means that the standards we hold ourselves to, and our assessment processes are regularly maintained and reviewed to ensure we’re doing things properly. We strive to deliver a certified qualification that is suitable for use everywhere, no matter where you want to go in the world. 

Considering that the number of people who are signing up for our courses are living and working in the US grows all the time, we think it is important to secure these certifications as they come because we know how important it can be to reassure learners of what’s on offer and how it can help. Furthermore, we welcome the chance for another internal review – integrity is one of our core values, so what we do is key to this. 

As one of the things that DEAC specialises in is distance learning, we were keen to get that accreditation because it made a big difference to what we do and how we do it. Their expertise is key for ensuring that you get the services you need and that you are confident in what we offer. For us, there’s never been anything more important, so we are keen to get our courses certified by experts.

Here’s the thing. It’s not easy to get accredited like this. There are a lot of strict criteria, and to help you understand, we’ll be talking a little bit about it in relation to school programs because it helps you to understand. 

If a course provider wants to get accredited, they’ve got to follow some fairly strict guidelines. These are as follows:

1 . The programs run by the institution must be mostly online. 

2 . The institution in question must have authorisation from the state, be financially sound, and have permanent physical property. 

3 . Students need to be enrolled for at least 12 months. 

4 . There needs to be qualified staff and other faculty members.

5 . Students get regular interactions and feedback from staff.

6 . There is provision of regular educational materials and a strong curriculum.

7 . There is a proper measurement in place for student success. 

8 . The reputation of the institution must be free of bad reputation or illegal activity. 

9 . There should be proper supplies in place to help people who need it.

There is a need for a distance provider to distinguish themselves from a correspondence program if they want to get financial aid in certain places, too. This is important because it defines the correspondence program as a self-paced course with fairly limited interaction with instructors. This is not what we offer. 

How Does the DEAC Accreditation Process Work?

So, it is important to note that the accreditation process can take between 12 and 18 months to complete. We’ve been working on this for a while now because we are committed to providing quality education.

We started off the process by completing the introductory course provided by the DEAC Online Training Center. This is called the ‘Preparing for DEAC Accreditation’ course, and we had to complete it within a year of submitting the initial application for the accreditation.

We had to pay a fee for the course and the accreditation process – to the tune of $4500. It also showcased that we met all of the eligibility requirements for the course through our application, and then we had to wait 30 days to get a letter which notified us of our approval. 

When we got approved, we had to submit a self-evaluation report, and then pay another $3000 fee, proving our readiness for the assessment. The report is what we use to verify that our institution meets all of the standards which have been laid down by the DEAC regarding accreditation standards. 

Within a period of 10-12 weeks, we got notified from the DEAC that an assessment report had been submitted and then returned to us. This showed that we were ready for a proper evaluation by the Commission. 

As we were ready to get guidance on moving forward, we got some tips and help creating a proper self-assessment report that evaluated us properly. After that, there was some evaluation on the next steps of the process. This involved having to submit a curriculum for review by the Commission.

A review of the curriculum would take three to six months and be completed with the help of many specialists who understand what we offer. We also had to submit a proper self-evaluation report which took place five weeks before we moved onto the next stage of the process – an on-site visit. 

The on-site visit was one of the most important parts of the process. It was where we got a visit from inspectors who came to our premises to talk to our team, observe what we do, and perform a comprehensive review of our processes. It takes about six weeks after that for the report from the team to come through to see how we did.

Final Thoughts and Observations

We knew we wanted to get accredited, but that didn’t change the fact that we had to go through one heck of a process to get it done. It was a test of who we were as an organisation and our values as a provider of distance learning. The standards we were judged by were tough, and it forced us to take a proper look at ourselves concerning the way we did things. 

Ultimately, we came away with even more appreciation for what we do as a provider and a stronger commitment to you, our learners. We want to keep working hard to offer a good education for people and want to see as many people succeed as possible. After all, it makes such a difference when people can gain a TEFL qualification, enabling them to go worldwide and teach English wherever they desire.

We’re keen to pursue more exciting opportunities to get accredited by other institutions and embark on a journey of ongoing growth and development. We want to expand and grow our courses, to ensure you can get the qualifications you need for your desired career. We are glad that we had an opportunity to explore this new accreditation. By taking the process apart and seeing what makes it tick, we can improve the services even more and deliver something which works for everyone. 

In the future, we hope to continue to push out more options for people and keep improving. After all, we’ll be subject to regular DEAC review if we want to keep our accreditation. We welcome more chances to prove that we can deliver constant growth and improvement – bring on the future!