What makes TEF different
From other online schools
- Variety & professionalism—teachers are professional, from different backgrounds and have different accents, etc. (many big online schools hire teachers who don't have a good educational or professional background because they just hire for quantity, not quality)
From brick-and-mortar schools
- Variety & professionalism—teachers are professional, from different backgrounds and have different accents, etc. (a lot of our teachers are actually living in different countries; sometimes, living in or having experience living in a student's country can be helpful, but other times, teachers can become too understanding. This can be a disservice because clients or new business partners may not have the same level of understanding)
- 24/7—flexibility with time zones (students can take lessons any time with us)
- Short, high-impact lessons—our lessons are 25 minutes, so they are easier to take for students who are busy. To learn English effectively, frequency is key. Learning 3 hours throughout many days in a week is much better than learning 3 hours one day a week. It also helps students stay motivated.
From in-house English programs (usually group lessons)
- Variety, professionalism, and choice—teachers are professional, from different backgrounds and have different accents, etc. (many teachers to choose from compared to in-house, so if there is bad chemistry or a student needs to learn about a specific field, culture, or dialect, they can)
- 24/7—flexibility with time zones (students can take lessons any time with us)
- Short, high-impact lessons—our lessons are 25 minutes, so they are easier to take for students who are busy. To learn English effectively, frequency is key. Learning 3 hours throughout many days in a week is much better than learning 3 hours one day a week. It also helps students stay motivated.
In general
- Behavior-based assessing—we are developing a TEF score that shows if the student has been taking classes regularly, showing up to class on time, etc. This will allow HR to see more (punctuality, study habits, etc.)
- Confidentiality—we protect our clients' privacy (as an organization and in our individual lessons). Students can talk about the specifics of their jobs in a safe and secure environment. This helps their English more because they can actually ask questions and talk about practical things they actually need to work on.
- Course flexibility—the broadness and specificity of our curriculum is a strength. We can keep working on building it by adding textbooks or courses for certain industries, too.
Courses we have besides the usual business, grammar, pronunciation, and general English courses most schools have:
- Speaking Test Strategies
- Business English for Consultants
- Expert Interviews for Consultants
- English for the Law
- English for Finance
- English for IT
- Transitions Course
- Logical Thinking
- Presenting in English
- Job Interview Practice - Students can take multiple courses (up to 3) in one term. Plus, it is pretty affordable since we have many online courses.
For HR
- We have live attendance reporting. HR can look at it whenever they want.
- Honest reporting - students will sometimes ask us to cancel their lessons for them so they won't get penalized by their HR, but we take a very strong stand when it comes to honest reporting and politely decline.
- We customize processes so that we can take the dull and time-consuming admin work off the HR person's hands (as much as we can with the resources we have).
- See "The 3 clients we serve" for more on HR.