According to Cambridge ESOL, about 10,000 people successfuly complete CELTA every year in centres around the world. From memory, there have been two negative comments on this forum - certainly since I have been posting here. I don't accept, based on my own direct experiences of the course, that there is little room for autonomy. But as with any training course there will be certain requirements. One requirement is for good lesson-planning that makes it clear to the trainers exactly what is it the trainee is trying to achieve. So we need to detail what we are hoping to do and why, and then the trainers will will be able to assess if those objectives have been met. It's all fairly straightforward, and my own assessment stated that I was creative in developing interesting and engaging activities and based these on sound methodology.

I don't think creativity, humour or imagination is stifled in any way on the course, but there is a clear focus.