Island TEFL Thailand is a scam and Philip Dunne is a
scammer. This truth remains true as in
my original post two years ago. However,
we also need to add Camp Thailand and Philip Crabb to this. Camp Thailand and Island TEFL are the same
company, just as Philip Dunne and Philip Crabb are the same person. Don’t be fooled. Onlineteflexpress is one more component of
the Island TEFL scam. Please also check
out the Update tab and the list at the bottom of the page.
Originally, back in 2014, I posted to warn potential
investors off purchasing the fraudulent franchises Philip Dunne was selling,
because at the time that was Philip Dunne’s most blatant scam. I saw a lot of good EFL people lose large
sums of money and be completely humiliated by Philip Dunne in the process with
his clever legal nonsense. However, what
this blinded me to was how seriously he was also ripping off his own students
or TEFL trainees. So I’ve now shifted my
focus to what students can expect. I’ve
listed the main points under separate headings below.
No
Job Guarantee
Arguably the single most important point is that there
are NO job guarantees. Really, this is
just plain common sense. In fact, the
“guarantee” is a good example of sharp practice. On his website, Philip Dunne may say that there
are guaranteed jobs, but they could be for anybody. For example, let’s say the placement agency
has twenty places, OK there may be that many guaranteed jobs, but there’s no
guarantee any of them will be for you specifically. Always read the wording carefully. See also the section on Terms and Conditions
on the Update page.
No Accreditation
The second most important point to note is that the
Island TEFL courses are in no way accredited.
They certainly have no international validity. Their only validity is in
the limited world of teaching in Thai state schools, despite Philip Dunne’s
loud claim of international accreditation. Thai state schools are crying out for teachers
and consequently the standards are low, and they will accept even an Island
TEFL certificate. Yes, even an
Island TEFL certificate. Just the fact
you know something about EFL is enough.
More important for them is the orientation course given by the placement
agency (see below). Claims of
international accreditation by any university are completely
false. Incidentally,
a good TEFL/TESOL accrediting organisation is Accreditat. Check them out.
Unqualified
Teachers
As a corollary of this lack of official accreditation
is the unreliability of the actual course itself. It’s completely random who teaches it and
what they teach. I know this because a few years back I myself taught a
course. Luckily, I have fairly high
standards and taught what I thought was a pretty thorough course. But actually I
wasn’t qualified to do teacher training, other than having a couple of years’
experience teaching. Nor was there was
anyone checking on me at any stage. No
one come from any officiating or accrediting body to observe. I was given a course book to teach from, but stillI
could have taught whatever I felt like. I
also noticed that large sections of the book were plagiarized anyway. So any student signing up for an Island TEFL
course has no guarantee of even receiving proper training. The course will also fall well short of the
120 hours advertised. It’ll probably be
about three hours a day for three weeks.
The online course provided by Island TEFL, onlineteflexpress, is also
severely sub-standard.
No
Thai Students
As part of the training you should at some stage be
able to hone your skills and teach to real Thai students. However, Island TEFL’s main courses are held
in April and October, when all schools are on holiday. So where are any Thai young learners going to
be found? They might scrape together one
or two isolated students, but you certainly won’t get a full classroom to
practice on as implied in the advertising.
Online
TEFL Express
This is another great example of the scam. As mentioned above the course itself is
severely substandard. However, the way
Philip Dunne pulls you in is by getting you to sign up for the orientation or
placement course in Thailand as a follow up.
This is usually more expensive than the original online course, and is
again just as worthless.
Conclusion
People who pay $1,000 or more are being completely
ripped off. A better route is to do an online
course with a school with a proven track record (not OnlineTEFLExpress) and
then get the free orientation course most of the placement agencies give. Examples of two big placements agencies are
Media Kids and AYC. Google around for
others. Then try to make direct contact with them. Island TEFL itself is NOT a placement
agency. The $500+ extra you pay for
their orientation course is money straight into Philip Dunne’s pocket simply
for acting as a middle man. It’s also a
complete joke of a course with Philip Dunne often coming in drunk and trying to
pose as an expert on Thai language and culture, and EFL teaching. Most EFL schools would almost certainly turn
down a job application from Philip Dunne.
Below I’ve listed some links to other websites that
have commented on Island TEFL and Philip Dunne, as well as Camp Thailand and
Philip Crabb. Make sure you check them
out! Also check out the Update and
Philip Dunne tabs
https://travelinmarilyn.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/the-top-10-infuriating-mishaps-during-island-tefl-orientation/ read the comments too
http://presumablylost.blogspot.com/2015_03_01_archive.html scroll down to March 12, down to where you see the
skull in flames (it’s a fair way down)
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2753853 read all the comments
http://www.abroadreviews.com/island-tefl-thailand read all the comments
http://www.teflbusinesses.blogspot.com/2014/04/island-tefl-koh-phangan.html read the comments,
particularly Jen’s
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Island-TEFL-Bangkok/649955651690270 only one comment, but significant
http://summercampthailand.blogspot.com/ mentions Camp Thailand
in particular
Example of typical comment
I
had the unfortunate experience of dealing with Phillip Dunne last November
2013. Long story short. We paid a deposit, arrived in Thailand to find that the
school had closed two months earlier. Of course we were angry but wanted to get
on with things so flew from Chang Mai to Phuket to meet Philip and see his
school in Phuket. There was no school, he very ‘generously’ as he said, offered
to do the course in our hotel bedroom or a beach bar. There were no other
students. Needless to say we were fuming. Of course he refused to give our
deposit back. He is a gangster, incompetent, unprofessional, sly etc. The only
thing he is good at is fooling people. Since then we found and met various
people who have been treated awful by this ‘man’. My advice is keep clear. But
if you have paid a deposit I’d say don’t pay any more until you’ve been in the
school, met the other students and fully completed the course. I have received
ridiculous email correspondents that he sent to justify his actions. I know you
don’t want to hear this now, but if possible keep clear. I’d be happy to give
you further info if you wished.
Example of typical email
To a student trying to get a refund on her deposit.
To a student trying to get a refund on her deposit.
I am very disappointed that you have chosen to
misrepresent the facts. I wish to let you know that if you do not
immediately rectify these misrepresentations with your credit card company you
will leave me with no alternative than to file a lawsuit against you personally.
I suggest that you immediately seek advice from an attorney if this is
the route we are going to take because just to defend the lawsuit will cost
many more times than your deposit and when I secure a judgement against you,
even in the event that you are forced into bankruptcy because you don't have
the means to pay the damages, legal costs and penalties, your credit will be
destroyed for the next 7 years and rest assured I will seek to have liens
placed on any assets you own.
