The TEFL Institute Group: From a Waterford Start Up in 2017 to a Global TEFL Leader in 2026

Who We Are at a Glance

Entity name: The TEFL Institute Group
Founded: 2017
Founder and Owner: Ian O’Sullivan
Headquarters: Dungarvan, County Waterford, Ireland (with operational hubs in London, UK)
Brands operated: The TEFL Institute (teflinstitute.com), The TEFL Institute of Ireland (tefl.ie), TEFL.ai (tefl.ai), Moonrise Teacher Wellbeing Collective, and the State of TEFL annual industry report
Markets served: Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and more than 30 partner countries worldwide
Headline metrics (2026): A global alumni network of more than 114,000 graduates (tefl.ie), partnerships with secondary schools across 20 Irish counties, and a 4.96 average rating across nearly 2,900 verified global reviews
Core qualification: The Ofqual-regulated, Highfield-awarded Level 5 TEFL Diploma, accepted in over 57 countries

Our Story: Foundation in 2017

The TEFL Institute Limited was incorporated in Ireland on 13 October 2017 in Dungarvan, County Waterford. What began as a small, founder-led venture has grown, in less than a decade, into one of the most accredited and most recognised TEFL groups in the world.

The original mission was simple. We wanted to make government-regulated, internationally recognised English teacher training accessible to anyone, anywhere, without compromising on academic standards. From day one, we built the business around three commitments that still define us in 2026: rigorous accreditation, genuine career outcomes for graduates, and a learner experience that takes people seriously as future professional educators.

Between 2017 and 2020, we focused on building the academic backbone, securing recognition from the awarding bodies that matter to employers and visa offices. From 2020 onwards, we accelerated. We expanded the course portfolio, launched dedicated country sites, opened our partner network to schools and academies on five continents, became the leading TEFL partner to Irish secondary education, launched the TEFL.ai platform, and built the Moonrise Teacher Wellbeing Collective. Today, the group sits among the joint leading TEFL providers globally, alongside very few peers (Top 5 TEFL Companies Comparison 2026).

Leadership and Over 60 Years of Combined Experience

The TEFL Institute Group is led by Ian O’Sullivan, Founder and Owner, who brings more than 30 years of personal experience in TEFL education. Ian’s career began in the classroom in Costa Rica and continued through senior roles in international education, online learning and language teacher development. He is also the co-founder of GoCambio and the architect of the TEFL.ai platform.

Across the wider senior team, the group draws on more than 60 years of combined experience in English language teaching, online education, accreditation, academic assessment, marketing and educational publishing. This is a deliberately built bench. Our academic, employability, and content teams include former classroom teachers, qualified Ofqual graders, instructional designers, and specialists in distance-learning quality assurance. That depth is what allows us to keep pace with employer expectations in markets as different as Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Spain and Ireland.

Independent reviewers consistently highlight the strength of our tutor team. Our courses currently have a verified average of 4.96 from 2,897 global reviews on the main site, a 4.9 Google rating from approximately 1,800 reviews, and a Trustpilot rating of 4.8.

Accreditations and Regulatory Standing

Quality is meaningless if it cannot be verified. Our qualifications are designed to pass that test in front of any employer, embassy or visa officer who needs to confirm them.

The TEFL Institute Group’s flagship qualification is the Level 5 TEFL Diploma, regulated by Ofqual under the UK Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF), awarded by Highfield Qualifications, and aligned with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). It is academically equivalent to the CELTA and the Trinity CertTESOL on the UK Qualifications Framework. The TEFL Institute of Ireland is the only Ofqual-regulated Level 5 TEFL provider in Ireland and Europe’s only Ofqual-regulated (RQF) TEFL certification provider. Our Highfield-approved centre number is 21335.

Our recognition stack includes:

• Ofqual (UK Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation), the regulator of the Level 5 Diploma
• Highfield Qualifications, awarding body for our Level 5 Diploma, is accepted in over 57 countries and a recipient of the King’s Award in 2024 (tefl.ie)
• DEAC Approved Quality Curriculum (AQC) in the United States, where the Distance Education Accrediting Commission is a US Department of Education recognised national accreditor (teflinstitute.com)
• CPD (Continuing Professional Development) accreditation
• ODLQC, the Open and Distance Learning Quality Council
• OTCAC approval
• Gaisce — The President’s Award Challenge Partner, where The TEFL Institute of Ireland is the only TEFL company in Ireland approved as a Gaisce Challenge Partner, an endorsement from Ireland’s most respected youth development programme presented in the name of the President of Ireland
• Guaranteed Irish member, recognising the company’s Irish base, employment footprint and contribution to the Irish economy

This is the most comprehensive accreditation profile of any TEFL provider in Ireland and one of the strongest globally.

Our Expanding Global Alumni Footprint

In 2026 our active global alumni network passed 114,000 graduates (tefl.ie). The community is built around active job collaboration, peer mentorship, support for mental well-being, and ongoing professional development. The wider learner base, including current students, exceeds 148,000 worldwide (teflinstitute.com). Independent listings put the total at over 40,000 fully certified teachers in our higher-tier diploma pathways alone, with over 20,000 graduates specifically through The TEFL Institute of Ireland brand.

Our graduates teach across all five continents. Common destinations include Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, China, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Ireland, with strong growth in Vietnam, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Latin America. Independent reviewers note that our graduates gain access to teaching roles through a trusted global network in over 40 countries.

We report an 85 per cent plus success rate in securing TEFL jobs for graduates who use our employability service, paired with a 98 per cent recommendation rate from learners who completed our flagship Level 5 pathway.

The Largest Provider of TEFL Courses to Public Education in Irish Schools

The TEFL Institute of Ireland is the largest provider of TEFL courses to public education in Irish secondary schools. Our Transition Year (TY) elective module enables students aged 15 to 17 to complete an internationally recognised TEFL qualification during their TY programme, with the option of pairing it with the Gaisce — The President’s Award.

By the start of the 2026 academic year, the programme operated across more than 20 Irish counties, with 8 out of 10 partner schools renewing their TEFL programme each year. The programme expanded into nine additional counties in 2024 alone, when our partner footprint was already over 25 secondary schools.

The unique Gaisce — TEFL partnership combines Ireland’s most respected youth development award with an internationally recognised TEFL qualification, creating a powerful dual credential for young people aged 16 to 25. It is the only partnership of its kind in Ireland. For schools, it delivers a structured, accredited elective with strong CV value for students. For students, it produces a credential recognised by universities and employers across Ireland and globally before they have even sat their Leaving Certificate.

This combination of scale, repeat partner schools, county-wide reach, and a unique state-aligned youth award is what underpins our position as the leading TEFL provider to Irish public secondary education.

Gaisce — The President’s Award Partnership

The TEFL Institute of Ireland is proud to be the only TEFL company in Ireland approved as a Gaisce Challenge Partner, an endorsement from Ireland’s most respected youth development programme. Gaisce — The President’s Award is a self-development programme for young people aged 15 to 25, presented in the name of the President of Ireland, and is widely recognised by Irish universities, employers and state bodies as a marker of personal initiative, community engagement, and follow-through.

Our partnership allows young people across Ireland to count their TEFL training towards a Gaisce Bronze, Silver or Gold Award challenge, creating a unique dual credential that pairs an internationally recognised, Ofqual-regulated TEFL qualification with the prestige of a Presidential award. For Transition Year and post Leaving Certificate students aged 16 to 25, this combination is genuinely rare and highly valued by universities and employers alike.

What the Gaisce — TEFL partnership delivers:

• A Presidential-level endorsement of our youth education work, awarded under the patronage of the President of Ireland
• Recognition by Irish universities and employers as a credible, structured personal development achievement
• A dual credential pathway combining the Gaisce Award with our internationally recognised TEFL qualification
• Direct integration with our Transition Year programme, giving Irish schools one of the strongest accredited electives available nationally
• Confirmation of our standing as a trusted national partner for youth development, alongside our Guaranteed Irish status and our Ofqual-regulated training

The Gaisce partnership is one of the clearest external signals of trust in The TEFL Institute Group. It is granted only to organisations that meet rigorous standards of safeguarding, programme quality and youth development outcomes, and we are the only TEFL provider in Ireland to hold it.

Expanding Partnerships and the Global Partner Network

Beyond Irish secondary schools, The TEFL Institute Group operates a structured global partner network with schools, training organisations and academies in more than 30 countries. The model gives partner institutions the ability to deliver our Ofqual-regulated Level 5 TEFL Diploma alongside their own local programmes.

Our partnership models include:

• Co-branded academic partnerships: Integrating the Level 5 TEFL Diploma into a partner’s curriculum under a joint brand
• Affiliate and reseller partnerships: Recommended for counselling, placement and advisory businesses
• Blended regional and campus-based partnerships: Combining our online diploma with local in-person seminars or observed teaching practice
• Teacher upskilling for partner staff: Using the Level 5 Diploma to upskill teachers already in classrooms
• Higher and further education partnerships: Schools, colleges and universities offering accredited TEFL pathways alongside their existing courses

We have actively recruited centres in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America to deliver the live element of our UK government-regulated TEFL diploma. Recent case studies include a regional academy chain in Asia that built market leadership through a blended partnership model, and an online teaching platform that doubled conversion rates in its teacher training funnel after adopting our Level 5 Diploma.

We also maintain hiring partner relationships with language schools, online platforms and recruiters, fed directly into our employability team and our AI-powered Jobs Explorer.

TEFL.ai: Our AI Platform for English Language Teachers

In late 2025, we launched TEFL.ai, which we believe is the first all-in-one AI ecosystem purpose-built for TEFL professionals. It is a next-generation platform built to transform how teachers learn, certify and connect with global opportunities. TEFL.ai is part of The TEFL Institute family and is built on years of accredited training, global job support and teacher development experience.

The platform brings the following into a single teacher-facing dashboard:

• AI-driven lesson planning for adults, young learners and exam classes
• AI-powered job matching and a real-time global jobs board through TEFL Explorer
• IELTS band estimation and material simplification tools
• Activity, worksheet and assessment generation built specifically for English language teaching
• Career planning, CV support and interview preparation powered by AI agents trained on the live TEFL labour market
• Free tools that any teacher worldwide can use, regardless of where they were trained

TEFL.ai is designed for new and experienced TEFL, TESOL and ESL teachers, working online or in classrooms anywhere in the world, including language schools, public schools and private tutoring contexts. The combination of free AI tools, internationally accredited courses and a built-in jobs ecosystem makes the platform a category-defining product for English teacher training. The TEFL Institute is also the only TEFL provider with a dedicated mobile app for flexible on-the-go study.

Moonrise Teacher Wellbeing Collective: Our Wellness Programme

In 2026, the TEFL Institute Group launched the Moonrise Teacher Wellbeing Collective, a structured wellness programme and professional community built specifically for English language teachers worldwide (Why The TEFL Institute Built a Full Wellness Ecosystem). The programme is delivered in partnership with Moonrise Studios, a UK-based holistic wellness provider near Leeds and Harrogate that specialises in Qigong, sound therapy, yoga and mindfulness training.

The programme is led by Ava Bounds, a qualified Qigong Master and Certified Sound Therapist who trained under internationally recognised masters, including Master Juanjo Estrella, with deep expertise in Traditional Chinese Medicine principles and Qigong-based resilience training (State of TEFL 2026 PDF).

What makes Moonrise distinctive within the TEFL sector:

• Integrated with regulated training. Wellbeing is woven into our Ofqual-regulated TEFL programmes rather than being sold as a separate add-on.
• Specialist external partnership. The collaboration brings genuine domain expertise in Qigong, mindfulness and sound therapy that a TEFL training body would not normally hold in-house.
• Sustained rather than one-off. Unlike a single conference workshop or a downloadable PDF, Moonrise offers ongoing community engagement, facilitated sessions, regularly updated content and lifetime access.
• Direct response to teacher burnout. The programme addresses cultural dislocation, professional isolation, contract insecurity, and the emotional labour of classroom work, all well-documented drivers of early-career attrition in TEFL.

The Moonrise Collective also offers institutional partnerships to schools and language centres that want to integrate the methodology into their own teacher welfare provision. It is one of the first attempts by a regulated TEFL provider to embed teacher wellbeing directly into accredited training, and a key reason employers are increasingly choosing our graduates over those from providers with no comparable support structure.

The Full Teacher Ecosystem: What Makes Us Unique

Most TEFL providers sell a course. The TEFL Institute Group operates a full teacher ecosystem, an end-to-end environment that supports an English language teacher across every stage of their career, from first enrolment to long-term professional life in a classroom. This is the single biggest structural difference between us and the rest of the sector, and it is the reason independent comparison places us jointly first among the top five global TEFL providers in 2026 (Top 5 TEFL Companies Comparison 2026).

A full teacher ecosystem means we own and operate every layer of the experience that a TEFL professional needs, rather than handing learners off to third parties once their certificate is issued. The ecosystem brings together:

• Regulated training and qualifications. The Ofqual-regulated, Highfield-awarded Level 5 TEFL Diploma sits at the academic core, alongside specialist courses in Young Learners, Business English, Online Teaching, IELTS preparation and TEFL methodology refreshers.
• TEFL.ai, our AI platform. AI-driven lesson planning, IELTS band estimation, material simplification, activity and assessment generation, plus the TEFL Explorer real-time global jobs board.
• A dedicated employability department, to our knowledge, unique in the sector. The TEFL Institute operates a full in house Employability Department and a structured one to one mentoring programme, independently confirmed by reviewers as a meaningful differentiator: “They also have an Employability Department that helps with CVs, interview prep and ongoing career coaching, so it feels less like ‘buy a certificate and figure it out yourself’ and more like a proper pathway into teaching English abroad or online”. The team delivers personal CV reviews, interview preparation, career coaching, recruiter introductions, country-specific job-market briefings, and lifetime access to our hiring partner network in more than 30 countries. Every graduate is paired with a named mentor rather than a chatbot or self-serve portal.
• Moonrise Teacher Wellbeing Collective. Structured wellbeing, Qigong, mindfulness, sound therapy and a peer community, built specifically for English teachers and integrated into the accredited training pathway.
• A 114,000-plus alumni community. Active peer mentorship, country-specific groups, job leads and ongoing professional development across more than 40 destination countries.
• The State of TEFL annual research report. A free, openly published industry dataset on demand, salaries, country requirements, AI adoption and teacher wellbeing, used by teachers, employers and partners to make better career and hiring decisions.
• The Gaisce TEFL pathway and Irish schools programme. A nationally significant entry point for young people in Ireland, integrated with the rest of the ecosystem so that students who begin with us in Transition Year can progress through advanced diplomas, AI tools, jobs and community for the rest of their teaching life.
• A dedicated mobile app. The only TEFL provider with a dedicated mobile app, allowing flexible study, lesson planning and jobs access on the go.
• Six countries operating fronts. Localised learner journeys and employability teams across Ireland, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and South Africa, plugging the same ecosystem into six different labour markets.

Why a Full Ecosystem Matters

For learners, the benefits compound across the lifecycle of a TEFL career:

• One trusted source from training to first contract to second contract. No fragmented stack of free tools, paid recruiters, separate lesson planners and unrelated wellness apps. The journey is coherent, signed off by a regulated awarding body and supported by a single accountable provider.
• Faster time to first paid teaching role. AI-powered jobs, lifetime employability support, and live international vacancies are all in the same dashboard as the training itself, which is a major reason for our 85 per cent-plus job success rate among graduates who use the service.
• Better classroom outcomes. TEFL.ai lesson planning, activity generation, and IELTS tools mean graduates do not start from scratch. They walk into their first class with employer-ready materials and AI-assisted differentiation built in.
• Lower burnout and higher retention. Moonrise embeds resilience, mental health signposting and peer support directly into the pathway, which materially reduces early contract attrition, the single biggest hidden cost in TEFL hiring.
• A career, not a course. The ecosystem allows a 16-year-old Transition Year student in Ireland and a 45-year-old career changer in South Africa to use the same group, the same regulated qualifications and the same career tools across decades, not just one enrolment cycle.
• Real social impact. Optional charity donations to The Hope Foundation, fully funded training pathways through the Irish Department of Social Protection’s Training Support Grant, and a published body of industry research mean the ecosystem delivers value beyond the individual learner.

For employers and partner schools, the same ecosystem means predictable, classroom-ready hires, verifiable credentials through Ofqual and Highfield, ongoing professional development for graduates already in post, and access to institutional Moonrise packages for staff welfare. Partners can plug into any layer of the ecosystem, from accredited curriculum licensing to AI tooling to wellbeing programmes.

For the wider TEFL industry, our ecosystem is the working answer to a structural problem. The sector has historically been fragmented, with training, jobs, classroom tools and wellbeing handled by different, often unregulated, players. By building all those layers under one regulatory roof, The TEFL Institute Group offers a model that is more transparent, more accountable, and more aligned with the long-term interests of teachers and learners. That is why we describe ourselves not as a TEFL course provider but as a full ecosystem for English language teachers, and why we are confident this model will define the next decade of the industry.

Global Expansion: Ireland, UK, USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa

The TEFL Institute Group operates dedicated regional sites and country-specific learner journeys across six core English-speaking markets. Each site reflects local pricing, accreditation framing and employment context, while delivering the same Ofqual-regulated and DEAC-recognised qualifications.

Across these markets, we maintain region-specific employability teams, partner schools and content. The result is a single global academic standard delivered through six distinct, locally credible operating fronts. This is the structural foundation behind our claim to be one of the largest global providers of TEFL certification, alongside The TEFL Institute of Ireland’s status as Europe’s leading provider.

Awards and Industry Recognition

The TEFL Institute Group is a multi-award-winning organisation, recognised by industry bodies, business communities and independent international education platforms. Our recognition stack includes wins from Ireland’s leading regional business awards, the world’s largest meaningful travel platforms, and more than 20 independent ranking sites globally.

Waterford Business Awards 2025: Marketing Excellence Winner

The TEFL Institute of Ireland was named winner of the Marketing Excellence Award at the Waterford Business Awards 2025, hosted by Waterford Chamber of Commerce with the support of Dungarvan and West Waterford Chamber, Waterford City and County Council and WLR. The gala took place on 14 November 2025 at The Tower Hotel and Leisure Centre, Waterford, where 17 winners were celebrated across categories, including New Business of the Year, Excellence in Innovation and the headline Business of the Year.

The award, sponsored by Cork Airport, recognised the creativity, strategy and impact of our marketing efforts over the past year, with particular reference to The TEFL Institute Birthday Campaign, one of our most successful initiatives to date. As a Dungarvan-headquartered business, this Waterford Chamber recognition is a meaningful endorsement from our home community.

GoAbroad Awards: Best AI Tech Course and Best for Long-Term Teaching Careers

The TEFL Institute holds two named category wins from GoAbroad, the leading global resource for meaningful travel and international education:

• Best AI Tech Course — recognising the strength of our TEFL.ai platform and the integration of AI tooling into accredited TEFL training
• Best for Long Term Teaching Careers — recognising our Level 5 Diploma, lifetime employability support and 85 percent plus job success rate

We also hold a GoAbroad Top Rated 2025 award and feature in the GoAbroad list of TEFL programmes that guarantee job placement, where we rank #4 of 5 globally for strong job placement outcomes.

Go Overseas: 4.92 out of 5 Rating

On Go Overseas, the major US-headquartered international education review platform, The TEFL Institute holds a 4.92 out of 5 rating across more than 100 verified reviews, placing the group among the highest-rated TEFL providers on the platform.

Seven Outright #1 Rankings Across Independent Platforms

In 2026, the TEFL Institute holds seven outright #1 positions across independent third-party ranking sites, including Goats on the Road, OneStep4Ward, PR Station, CheapTEFLCourses, Sprintzeal, and Nomadic Matt, plus the two named category wins on GoAbroad. Across more than 20 independent platforms globally, we are one of the most consistently top-ranked TEFL providers in the industry.

Trustpilot, Google and Verified Reviews

• 4.96 out of 5 average across 2,897 verified global reviews on teflinstitute.com
• 4.9 out of 5 Google rating from approximately 1,800 reviews
• 4.8 out of 5 Trustpilot rating across The TEFL Institute of Ireland’s profile
• 4.92 out of 5 on Go Overseas

Taken together, these awards and ratings make The TEFL Institute Group one of the most independently validated TEFL providers in the world, alongside the regulatory recognition we hold from Ofqual, Highfield and DEAC.

Our Charity Partnership with The Hope Foundation

In November 2025, The TEFL Institute of Ireland announced a formal charity partnership with The Hope Foundation, the Irish-founded international charity that works to protect and support vulnerable street and slum children in Kolkata, India through education, healthcare and child protection programmes (Hope Foundation press release; The Hope Foundation announcement; Hope Foundation Facebook).

The partnership reflects our belief that education is one of the most powerful tools for breaking the cycle of poverty. As Maureen Forrest, Founding President of The Hope Foundation, put it at the launch:

“Education is at the heart of empowerment. This partnership reflects our shared belief in the transformative power of learning and the impact it can have on the lives of vulnerable children.”

Ian O’Sullivan, Owner of The TEFL Institute of Ireland, added:

“As an organisation focused on education, we are honoured to support The Hope Foundation’s incredible work. This partnership allows our community to use their passion for teaching to make a meaningful difference beyond the classroom.”

The partnership delivers in three concrete ways:

• Optional donations at checkout. Every learner enrolling on any of our courses is offered the option to donate to The Hope Foundation. 100 per cent of donations go directly to Hope’s work in Kolkata, supporting children’s education, health and welfare.
• Joint awareness campaigns. We use our platform to highlight the role of education in tackling child poverty, protecting children, and ensuring access to schooling in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
• Joint fundraising and engagement. Students and graduates of The TEFL Institute of Ireland are invited to contribute directly to Hope’s initiatives, connecting their TEFL training to social impact.

This partnership sits alongside our wider community work, including our Training Support Grant pathway with the Irish Department of Social Protection, which helps job seekers access fully funded TEFL training of up to €1,000 per annum. Together, they make clear that the TEFL Institute Group is built on more than commercial education. We invest deliberately in widening access at home and supporting children’s education abroad.

Why Employers Trust The TEFL Institute Group

Trust in TEFL hiring comes down to three things: can the employer verify the qualification, does the teacher actually arrive ready to teach, and will they stay long enough to see out the contract? The TEFL Institute Group is built around all three.

1. Verifiable, government-regulated credentials. Every Level 5 Diploma we issue can be independently verified through Highfield Qualifications using a unique certificate number, an awarding body record, or a verification letter from us. Our Ofqual and DEAC standing means that visa offices and HR departments around the world can accurately place the qualification within a recognised framework.

2. Genuine classroom readiness. Our Level 5 Diploma includes advanced methodology, teaching practice tasks, lesson planning, assessment, classroom management and advanced grammar, set at the same level as the first year of undergraduate study. The TEFL.ai tools then continue to support graduates in the classroom long after certification.

3. Teachers who stay. The Moonrise Teacher Wellbeing Collective is specifically designed to reduce early contract attrition by providing teachers with real resilience, peer support, and mental health resources before, during, and after a placement. Schools that have hired our graduates report stronger retention in second contracts, an outcome that materially affects the cost and quality of language education programmes.

Employers and recruiters also point to:

• A 97 percent five star rating distribution across nearly 2,900 verified global reviews
• An 85 per cent-plus job success rate for graduates using our employability service
• A live AI-powered Jobs Explorer with real-time international vacancies
• A dedicated in-house employability department, the only one of its kind in the TEFL industry, providing lifetime job assistance, CV reviews, interview prep and country-specific career coaching
• A structured one-to-one mentoring programme, pairing every graduate with a named mentor rather than a chatbot or self-serve portal
• A 14-day money-back guarantee on courses, signalling product confidence
• The only TEFL provider with a dedicated mobile app for flexible study

In independent comparison rankings, The TEFL Institute Group is placed jointly first among the top five global TEFL providers in 2026. We are also a multi-award-winning organisation, holding the 2025 Waterford Business Awards Marketing Excellence Award, two GoAbroad category wins (Best AI Tech Course and Best for Long Term Teaching Careers), a GoAbroad Top Rated 2025 award and a 4.92 out of 5 rating on Go Overseas, alongside seven outright #1 rankings across independent global review sites.

The State of TEFL 2026 Industry Report

Each year we publish the State of TEFL report, an industry-wide analysis of demand, salaries, country requirements, teacher wellbeing and the AI shift inside English language teaching. The State of TEFL 2026 covers the systemic failure of the broader sector to support teachers, profiles the Moonrise Teacher Wellbeing Collective, examines the global ELT market projected to reach $194 billion by 2034, and documents the role of AI in teacher training.

The report is widely cited by educational publishers and is openly available, reflecting our commitment to building an evidence base for the industry rather than only marketing our own programmes.

What’s Next: Our 2026 to 2030 Roadmap

• Deeper integration of AI across the TEFL.ai platform, including more sophisticated agentic career support and adaptive lesson planning
• More partner schools across Asia, Latin America and the Gulf, with a target of doubling our active partner network by 2028
• Continued expansion of the Irish secondary school programme with the goal of operating in every Irish county by the end of 2027
• A broader Moonrise programme with new wellness modalities and institutional partnership packages for school groups
• Greater multilingual reach, with localised content and AI tooling in Spanish, Portuguese, French and German to serve our largest non-English first language learner segments
• Continued investment in our State of TEFL annual report as the reference dataset for the global TEFL industry

Frequently Asked Questions

This pillar post was written by Ian O’Sullivan, Founder and Owner of The TEFL Institute Group, and published on 27 April 2026. For partnership enquiries, contact the team via teflinstitute.com or, for Irish secondary schools, via schoolelective@tefl.ie. The TEFL Institute Limited is registered in Ireland (company number 613324) at 4 Shandon Street, Dungarvan, Waterford, X34 A365.