Perhaps in the history of China there has never been a greater, more clever, or profitable scam than this scheme that nailed three of my associates and almost me as well. I cannot tell it better than the email I just got from China Scam Watch warning about this...

Come play the the China foreign teacher TEFL Carnival Game - Only $1,000 per play!

Step right up and believe the 8,376 spammed China job ads offering "great-paying" positions as China foreign teachers. Take special note that 90% of these ads contain a short sentence..."TEFL Certificate Required". But pay attention, because these bait ads were all placed by the TEFL training companies, and/or their China job recruiter friends fishing for a $100 referral fee (consider that on average, 8-10 people take the bait per recruiter per day and do the math) 75% of the China teaching jobs advertised online do not even exist! They were fabricated as propaganda to program you to believe you cannot get a job in China without a TEFL certificate! Quite clever eh?

THERE IS NO LEGAL OR OTHER REQUIREMENT TO HAVE A TEFL, TESOL, OR CELTA TEACHER CERTIFICATE IN CHINA.
(Read the below links and don't be bamboozled, snookered, fooled, nor swindled!) This is the biggest racket in the China education industry and it is a multi-million dollar fraud. In fact, according to the 2014 CFTU teacher survey only 8% of the expat teachers working in China today have a teaching certificate. I personally have been teaching in China for over five years and have never even once been asked by an employer if I had one!

http://chinasupersleuth.wordpress.co...ents-for-2015/

Mystery "News" Article About New China Foreign ESL & TEFL Teacher Requirements May Be Clever Scam Advertorial... - Beijing Stuff - Social Network, Events & Classifieds

China Foreign Teacher News, Updates, & Scam Alerts (scroll down to official requirements page)

http://scam.com.showthread.php?t=616386

http://chinascamwatch.org

IF teaching certificates were so important in China, the schools and universities would be demanding them - not the job agents. In fact, if the schools were so keen on them they'd be offering the TEFL courses as part of their OJT. To be fair, two of my 12 teaching colleagues at the China high school where I teach paid $1,800 for their TEFL course and they earn the exact same salary as I do. Give me a fricking break. Wake up people!