The Company

Island TEFL is not a proper company.  It exists only on the internet as a web domain, and it is only one man working alone from a room somewhere, Philip Dunne.  It’s not registered anywhere for tax purposes and any mention of accountants, attorneys, secretaries, etc. is fabricated.  Philip Dunne does occasionally hire a secretary to help with placements, as well as trainers to actually deliver the courses.  But they all work freelance, short term and without a work permit.  Certainly, no one pays any tax anywhere, least of all Philip Dunne himself.  

However, this situation has only occurred since about four or five years ago, when the original Australian owners sold Island TEFL to Philip Dunne.  Up till then it was properly managed and was a reputable company with premises on Koh Samui. In fact, many of the website pictures come from that era.  Island TEFL’s decline has only occurred since then primarily due to Philip Dunne’s mismanagement.  He has decided to manage from the USA trying to sell branches as franchises, rather than relocate to Thailand and establish a permanent base and grow organically.  There are many reasons for this.  However, the main one seems to be that he may be wanted by the police for an alleged statutory rape case (see under Philip Dunne tab).

The course book for the Island TEFL course is quite good and comes from that earlier era.  However, the course is in no way accredited.  There will certainly be no visits or monitoring by any accrediting organisation.  None of the organisations Philip Dunne mentions on his website have any authority to accredit courses.  Philip Dunne uses the term only in the sense that they advertise or market together.  It's like New York Yankees accrediting Boston Red Sox or Manchester United accrediting Liverpool. They can't do it, only the Baseball League itself or the FA can do that. Any claims that it is internationally recognised are completely fallacious too.  Nevertheless, the certificate will probably be good enough for a job in a state school in Thailand, where standards are relatively low and controls are pretty lax.  Pay is low too, about 35,000 baht ($1,000) a month.  That’s about what Philip Dunne pays his trainers too.  Thailand is no longer a cheap country.

The liaison with the University of San Diego (USD) is another con.  It is only for placement purposes that they work together.  It is not an academic partnership.  USD do their own courses and then use Island TEFL as their “placement partner” for their students in Thailand.  Clearly USD have not checked out properly what Island TEFL is on the ground in Thailand, i.e. non-existent most of the time with occasional ramshackle courses being put on.  The reason they are using Island TEFL is almost certainly because Philip Dunne spends most of his time in San Diego, so they’re just following the line of least resistance. (see also under Trainees tab)

But make no mistake, Philip Dunne makes plenty of money out of all this.  Indeed, the very purpose of Island TEFL is to make money for Philip Dunne.  A major course in April or October can bring him in close on $50,000. 


Note:  Philip Dunne often claims that his company is registered and might use this link as "proof" http://website.informer.com/Philip+Dunne+English+For+Fun+Co.+LTD.+DBA+Island+TEFL.html   But this is nothing more than the registration of his website with the web-hosting company.  You can use any name for that.  You could register you web domain as "Monkeys selling banana skins" and have no problems.  DBA means "Doing Business As" by the way.  In no way does it prove that he is registered with the proper governmental authorities in Thailand and is paying tax, etc.  His main hope is to get a franchisee to register and then he will be able to use that person's data.