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Highland teaching firm in running for three business awards





Managing director Andy Healy says The TEFL Org has ambitious plans to grow further.
Managing director Andy Healy says The TEFL Org has ambitious plans to grow further.

A Highland firm that specialises in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is in the running for three awards in a month following major growth in 2022.

The TEFL Org has been nominated for two Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) Highlands and Islands Business Excellence awards, in the customer service and international business categories, as well as an award for outstanding business at the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards.

The firm, which was founded in a garden shed during the middle of the 2008 financial crisis, has experienced significant growth since Covid. Sales have gone up by 386 per cent in the past three years, increasing the proportion of overseas sales from 16 per cent to 49 per cent.

The TEFL Org surpassed 5000 website reviews and has garnered an average score of 4.5/5, while users coming to the website have increased by 90 per cent since 2018 to 1.3m in the last year.

Managing director Andy Healy says the three nominations are welcome recognition for the work undertaken by the firm following the pandemic.

He said: “As a small business operating in a heavily competed space, we have to challenge the status quo and be bold in our approach to stay ahead.

“Helping thousands of students every year to teach English around the world is a huge responsibility and we have cultivated a company mindset which values quality above all. That’s helped us become one of the largest providers of TEFL courses in the world and the most accredited in the UK.

Jennifer MacKenzie, co-founder of The TEFL Org.
Jennifer MacKenzie, co-founder of The TEFL Org.

“We are deeply passionate about the simple brilliance of TEFL and the life opportunities it gives people. From humble beginnings we’ve grown significantly but kept our core values solid, treasure our Scottish roots and love that we can positively impact our growing community of both customers and partners.

“The TEFL Org has big goals and ambitious plans to grow further and be a leading example in developing a business that values people and the planet. Our three award nominations in one bumper month spotlights out innovation and business acumen.”

The TEFL Org also won its first Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade for outstanding short-term growth in overseas sales earlier this year.

The SCDI Highlands and Islands Business Excellence Awards will take place in November at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness as it returns to an in-person event.

Following a two-year hiatus, the 10th annual Women’s Enterprise Scotland Awards return to Glasgow's voco Grand Central hotel at the end of this month.

The TEFL Org, which was founded by Jennifer MacKenzie and Joe Hallwood, offers a range of in-person and online TEFL courses, providing internationally recognised qualifications to more than 150,000 teachers who have gone on to find employment across the globe.


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