UNCARING
- 2018-05-30
you get to see who you are dealing with and that gave me a real piece of mind.
Peace of mind, methinks!
For your sake, I hope that another respondent, if indeed there is one, doesn't give you a piece of his (or her) mind!
Thomas Sheers
- 2018-05-29
TEFL Heaven are not a scam. They are very professional and have sent thousands of people to learn their TEFL training and then to teach abroad. I'm replying to this because I am one of their Alumni. I went to South East Asia through TEFL Heaven and do not have a bad word to say about them. They require a Skype interview to be sure of your English speaking skills and to get a feel for your desires as to why you want to teach abroad. That is what I was told during mine anyway, it also makes it more personal, you get to see who you are dealing with and that gave me a real piece of mind.
Charlie
- 2018-03-29
TEFL Heaven is heavily promoted in Thailand. After finishing your TEFL training which should cost around 1500 Dollars on some idyllic island somewhere – Phuket/ Samui etc… After studying a little during the day and partying all night you will then be headed off with your brand new 3 week old TEFL certificate to teach in some government school in Thailand. Now most young people would jump at this opportunity. The unscrupulous agencies then get them in and pay their staff 30000 Baht per month, and they will jump at the opportunity. With the promise of guaranteed work after the TEFL anything will do. This allows the agencies to get rid of their current teachers or underpay them. You will then be thrust into a classroom and expected to come up with miracles yourself. Support from the agency will be limited but actually most care less. If you last for 6 months they would be happy. Four would do because then it is the break and they do not have pay anything and hopefully you will move to greener shores, so they can get the next group of unsuspecting, green newbies in to fill the shoes that no one else wants, and can underpay them. To be fair this is just a way to control the industry, just a money-making scam where they could care less about the result. Everyone makes money except you. The students suffer, the new teachers may last for 4 months or so. Hopefully they do not make any waves or ruffle any feathers in the 4 months that they are around until they have and enough and move on to greener fields. Everyone is happy – TEFL Heaven, the agency and maybe the school director after he got his hand back. The kids less so who realise after 2 months they have been short changed. But hey who cares – this is the land of smiles. If it does not work, smile a lot, play a game and all should be ok
Mike
- 2018-03-29
Not sure who you are or why you posted this... you are obviously not interested in our program, so perhaps a competitor.
If you want to read the Thailand salary guide, you can do so here:
https://teflheaven.clickfunnels.com/optin15152406
External reviews on our program are here:
https://www.gooverseas.com/teach-abroad/thailand/tefl-heaven/31446
No one lives on Samui... they only train there for one of our locations. They teach elsewhere. Read the salary guide and 30,000 THB per month is fine (which is 1000 THB a day...?) and as the salary guide points out, can go a long way in Thailand.
Mike
Mark
- 2018-03-29
If people want to pay a lot of money for an uncredited certificate that's up to them.....but you really should stop misleading folks with regards money and costs.....perhaps you can explain how those on the course can live 'comfortably' on 3000 Baht a month? Thats just over 400 a day by the way.....on Samui!
Mike Maitland
- 2017-03-13
Thank for the post.
I can see why you might have got annoyed, especially if you are looking for a good teaching position abroad, and already have TEFL training and then came to us and we said you can only do our programs if you do the TEFL training. I get how people could get annoyed at that. We are sorry for wasting your time in that regard.
We offer TEFL Training and a guaranteed paid teaching job to degree holders.
Job boards are not exclusive to TEFL trained teachers. There are people who are not yet trained who visit these boards. We get a lot of inquiries from these boards from people who haven't started their TEFL journey like yourself. And we do run a good program for newbies to the TEFL industry, with many good reviews to help us in the credibility side of things - just search Google. We will look at ways we can more quickly or clearly state that we pretty much can only currently serve newbies to the TEFL industry, so we do appreciate the feedback.
Lastly, being a TEFL teacher myself, You do need good training to get started. Online TEFL is not sufficient, and many have been lured by the cheap price on online TEFL certificates only to find it a hard slog and with the lack of teaching practice, not effective. If you already have TEFL where you learned face-to-face, then for sure there are jobs everywhere on the internet as you say - there are many routes to teaching abroad.
TEFL Heaven breaks you in gently to the country you want to teach in, helps you gain friends through 4 weeks TEFL training, and offer a guaranteed paid teaching job. We also offer support in the country. There is a lot of value to our services, which is one route out of many routes to teaching abroad. I can see why some might think that this is expensive, but it is an investment. After you are qualified, you are able to get jobs and an income. Some of our teachers are still teaching English 6 years on, and have done so in many countries. You get what you pay for. Check our reviews on external sites.
Thanks
Mike Maitland
Director
TEFL Heaven
mike@teflheaven.com
USTEFL2017
- 2017-01-22
I am a certified TEFL/TESL instructor with over a decade of work experience in teaching English at the university level. Last summer (2016), I wanted to travel and teach for a few years and found TEFL Heaven's ads all over the common ESL boards so contacted TEFL Heaven. Despite having a MATESOL, a 200-hr certificate (pre-MATESOL), and a decade of teaching experience, I was told by TEFL Heaven's representatives that I'd nonetheless have to pay for and complete their specific TEFL certificate in order to be placed with their programs in various countries. That effectively rules out TEFL Heaven for experienced language instructors as it would be redundant to add their certificate to an already internationally recognized certificate and accredited university TESOL/TEFL degree.
I don't mean to disparage TEFL Heaven, but they advertise their services on job boards, not academic programs for sale boards. And that strikes me as extremely disingenuous, especially given the number of already certified English language instructors visiting job boards. A legitimate certificate program ought to advertise itself as such, perhaps emphasizing that upon graduation students are eligible for the program's placement services.
If you already have a TEFL certificate, you can find very many excellent placement services all over the web that don't charge you for placement, and you may already be entitled to these services with the school that awarded you your certificate. I'm very wary of any kind of duplicity in dealing with companies that stand to gain so much financially (large incentive to obscure the truth). Also, consider doing a search online for recent TEFL graduates' (2010 onwards) experiences. As more and more expensive college degree graduates in the US and abroad are finding competition for work in our own countries extremely tight, the TEFL market abroad is being flooded with graduates and career changers, devaluing the TEFL certificate, as evidenced by consistently falling TEFL compensation packages and increasing credential demands. You'll notice TEFL schools downplay this if they mention it at all. Caveat emptor.
Good luck to you.
Mike Maitland
- 2016-02-16
Thanks Lisa.
We are not so big that our past teachers will be in various places on the web including this forum. I only found your comment because I have a Google Alert set up. If you want to hear from teachers who have used our service, email me and I will give you their contact details?
We are nothing to do with missionary work in any sense. We do support a Cambodian Kids School charity in Thailand every month, but we do not promote anything religious with our services. We promote teaching abroad and getting paid for it - we do not do any volunteering, etc.
Hope that helps your understanding and if you want to hear from teachers, please get in touch.
Mike
Lisa W.
- 2016-02-11
Thank you but I would prefer to hear from teachers that have used your service in those countries, not just Thailand. Are you some sort of missionary service? That is what I have heard that is a type of missionary work.
Mike Maitland
- 2016-02-11
Hi Lisa,
Google alerts me to every new page on the internet that has our brand name through Google Alerts - a very good service! I am a director of TEFL Heaven and we pride ourselves on giving answers to all your questions, so I am sorry you seem to not be getting the information you are seeking from my staff. You can email me personally at mike@teflheaven.com if you feel you are not getting what you need.
In regards to your questions though, we can give you all of the addresses, so email me and I'll give them to you.
In regards to the schools, the job guarantee is not that we have pre-sourced jobs in most cases (except our Paid Internships Thailand program) but that we guarantee that you will find a job within 30 days of finishing your TEFL. In most cases we give you all the tools you need to know where the good jobs are and give you more local knowledge and support than you going solo. Jobs are normally started within a week of finishing.
We can also get you in contact with past participants if you ask us?
Lastly, we do a Skype interview because some people are not suited to teaching - they do not have confidence or are seeking to teach abroad for the wrong reasons. We want to pass people but we fail those who do not meet our criteria and at the end of the day we are putting our name out to schools and need to keep a good reputation. We don't want anyone failing the course either so this helps reduce that, but of course not perfectly. Interviews are not a perfect measure of a persons intentions or character - but they help!
Also the Skype interview helps you get to know us as a company... If you have the Skype interview you are much more assured of our credibility.
I hope that helps answers your questions and I look forward to getting an email!
Mike
Hello,
Does anyone know if TEFL Heaven is on the up and up? They advertise heavily for so many countries and yet I cannot get any serious information from them such as addresses of the Institutes (other than Thailand or their office in the UK) or which schools the jobs are where they guarantee placement.
I find it strange that I need to do a Skype interview for a program I am paying for.
Let me know if anyone has any experience getting placed and attending their programs in the countries they list such as Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica and Antigua.