Buenos Aires TEFL Institute

Being part of the Buenos Aires TEFL Intensive course over 5 weeks has been a great experience. The 4 weeks TEFL training and curriculum was of a high standard and included a lot of valuable observations in different schools across the city. The school's teaching practice meant I gained the valuable experience to land multiple teaching jobs, both at the school and elsewhere at the school's partners. The 1 week Spanish course was a lot of fun and increased my command of the language. The staff have been amazing and on hand to help whenever needed.

I want to preface this by saying that I’ve never written a negative review, but I really felt that this was an exceptional circumstance. We attempted to provide direct feedback to management but were met with insults and direct communication that we may receive poor references. The course covered the necessary materials to teach English, however my concerns are as follows:

1) All online and course materials state the TEFL program is 4 weeks long. We were told in the fourth (and what should have been final) week that we would not receive our certification until we finished the Spanish classes. They scheduled me to teach during the week of Spanish classes and I received no financial compensation for the additional ten hours that I taught.

2) The school promises presentations and interviews with local employers during the professional development day - this did not happen. There is no job placement and you’re left to navigate the job search and interviews on your own. We were emailed a list of contact information for local employers, only after we asked to be provided with it.

3) We were never supervised or observed by Buenos Aires TEFL staff during our teaching practicum. When someone asked why we hadn’t been observed or received feedback, we were told “I never observe new teachers”.

4) An instructor spent approximately 1.5 hours of every TEFL class teaching intermediate level Spanish instead of the TEFL curriculum. This adds up to a significant amount of time and content over 4 weeks. They then told us later that we don't know enough to teach English online.

When we brought these questions forward, we were told we're entitled, unprofessional, and that they remember people who “complain” when employers call for references. After the program ended we were emailed an altered copy of the terms and conditions that had several additions, most notably “if you defame the school in whatever platform you use, the school has the right to sue you”. They claimed in the email that we agreed to these terms before starting the course. I can very confidently say that no, those were not the terms we agreed to. For the reasons I've outlined above, I do not recommend this program.

PS If you decide to do this program, don't stay at the school. The rooms are damp, musty, cold (there's no heating), and our bedroom had mosquitoes. I had a cough the entire 5 weeks I was there, which cleared up as soon as I moved out.

Was told legal action may be taken if I left a bad review. Was told I would receive negative recommendations to future employers if I left a bad review. The course promises a job fare with opportunities for employment and support - did not happen and was told I was ‘superior, entitled and not a good person’ for politely asking. I felt like the course was designed to exploit well meaning foreigners by cynical course coordinators. Best of luck should you choose this course.

First, the positive side of things: The actual instruction in this course is awesome! Our instructor was incredibly knowledgeable, creative, and clearly passionate about language and teaching in general. I always felt supported academically, but also felt challenged to step outside my comfort zone. I can’t recommend her enough. However, the organization and communication within the institute leave much to be desired. Important information was either never given or not well-covered. Communication with administration took ages, especially before the program began. Many people have had severe issues with their housing during the program—I wasn’t even told who I would be staying with beforehand, and was given no way to contact the person or anyone else who could help me. There is also no guaranteed job placement, though there is some assistance. Other people had their programs moved to different months, and were not told ahead of time that this would be happening. From what I can tell, many of the reviews listed here are not real and are absolutely fabricated, which is a shame. Again, the instruction was fantastic and I wish I could recommend the program for that alone; the other stuff, which was not the fault of the instructor, was often extremely frustrating and difficult to work with. Others’ experiences were far more difficult than mine.
Buenos Aires is an amazing city, and I’m thrilled to be here, but please do your research elsewhere about this particular program.

I loved my experience here. The classes are small and the course is well structure. I was placed at the right level of fluency. The system of Spanish instruction is very good, with 6 levels and a placement test. Had classmates from all over the world. Loved my time at Ibero. Everyone was nice and the teachers are excellent. Everything is taken care properly. Thank you for everything.I will and have recommend it to all my friends back home.