** BE WARNED ABOUT THIS COMPANY (Updated as of May 2024) **

If you are intending on teaching English abroad and gaining a TEFL/TESOL qualification, PLEASE do yourself a favour and do not go through Gotoco. I'm writing this review to make people aware of what you're getting yourself into if you decide to do a TEFL/TESOL program through Gotoco based on my experience.

I completed Gotoco's Vietnam program from October - December 2023 and purely speaking on the experience itself, I really enjoyed the opportunity to live and teach in Vietnam on a funded program. It was reassuring to be based with people in the same position, getting to travel and experience Vietnamese culture was amazing, and I am very grateful to have been a teacher to kindergarten/early primary-aged kids. However and though I cannot speak on behalf of other participants' experiences, I heard some really awful situations that participants had on my program (in terms of school placements, living situations, and other problems like visas not even being sorted before arriving in Vietnam).

The biggest problem I experienced is receiving my TESOL qualification, which has arguably been the worst and most problematic experience I have ever had with a company (not an exaggeration). To put it into perspective, I completed all of the TESOL requirements before my program ended (back in December 2023), and at the time of writing this review (May 2024), I still have not received my official TESOL qualification or remaining deposit.

Gotoco's is extremely unresponsive and their communication is the worst experience I have ever had with a company. They will take weeks and months to respond to emails. I even contacted Citizens Advice because this has gone on for so long and I genuinely did not know what else to do. Gotoco do not provide a phone number on their webpage and so the only method of communication is going through email. On my program, they did not provide ANY feedback to my TESOL assignments whatsoever and being a first time teacher, it would've been really helpful to have had feedback whilst I was teaching to get a sense if what I was doing for my assignments was on the right lines or not. Then in January 2024, Gotoco sent out resubmission requirements and I had to re-do and make amendments on almost every single one of my TESOL assignments. The feedback that they provided was incompetent and did not make sense, with little to no elaboration on their requirements, i.e. "We need you to change this, but we won't tell you why we need you to change it."

Furthermore, Gotoco will keep your £100 TESOL deposit until the Ofqual TESOL certificate has been issued. But despite having finished the TESOL during my program, completed their resubmission requirements in January 2024, and chasing them for literally 5-6 months to receive my TESOL certificate, they will still hold your £100 deposit. What's more, you most likely won't even receive your full £100 deposit as Paypal deducts a fee if your deposit was sent to Gotoco for more than a 180 day period.

If you're looking to do a TESOL/TEFL and teach English abroad, please do yourself a favour and go with another company.