Invasion and Summer Camp C in Chiang Mai

Hi Everyone,

I have recently learnt that Americamp is owned by Invasion Ltd. I didn't actually know this. They have their head offices in the Manchester region too. Anyway, it seems they have just done the August Summer Camp Thailand Camp C in Chiang Mai, using Philip Crabb as their TEFL provider. Apparently, however, they had a falling out with Philip Crabb and told students that they were changing to another TEFL provider. If this is true, I must say hats off to Invasion/Americamp for removing Philip Crabb as one of their partners. Let's hope this will lead to a brighter future.

However, Invasion need to provide the TEFL certificates for this course pretty promptly, because I've heard from students who were on the course that Philip Crabb is trying to get them to spend a further £49 each to get their certificates from him. He claims that Invasion owe him a lot of money, which is why he needs to charge. However, this is something students have already paid for in the original course fees.  So we are strongly recommending anyone on that course not to pay Philip Crabb this extra amount. Philip Crabb needs to sort out his problems with Invasion privately, not pass them on to the students. Remember, the TEFL certificates are worthless anyway.

In addition to this, Invasion also changed the location of their packaged break in Cha-Am, changing it to inferior accommodation in Hua Hin, which caused a lot of discontent amongst campers. Why this was necessary is unclear, because one would imagine that a company as large as Invasion would always have plenty of cash available, particularly if you're paying £700 a head. I am told there were 67 students on the course. That's a total income of about £47,000!

Do watch out for this kind of thing and make sure providers keep to their promises and offer refunds when they don't.  As I've mentioned before, the TEFL world can be a shady place with low standards. The original hotel was Peerapa Place in Cha-Am, right near the beach and nightlife areas, whereas the "upgrade" was The Greenway Resort located about 40 km from Hua Hin itself.  Apparently, in the latter place, in addition to the poor location, the sheets were dirty, the food was poor and there was limited wifi. The place used in Chiang Mai was The Eco Resort and most comments were pretty positive.  Again, though, campers here were asked to pay extra for air-con, which is completely unacceptable. The hotel also confirmed that air-con was free anyway. Do Google them all.

Importantly, as per usual, the TEFL course itself was reported as being disorganised and incomplete. Otherwise, the camp that Invasion offered sounded quite good. But please do post your comments. What was your experience? Do you have anything to add to the above report? Any comments about facilities, arrangements, prices and people are all welcome.

Enjoy,
EFL Greg

Camp Thailand

We have received quite a few reviews and comments on Camp Thailand, which seems to be based in Surin, but also with camps in Phuket and Chiang Mai. It also has the backing of Americamp, which is certainly superficially a plus. However, it's unclear whether Camp Thailand is a franchise or a company in its own right. The man running it is Philip Crabb  (click here). Interestingly, Philip Crabb is the same man as Philip Dunne, who used to run Island TEFL, and the Camp Thailand courses are basically the same as the Island TEFL ones. As one would expect, the  website is very impressive, with lots of bells and whistles - and, of course, testimonials. But always beware of testimonials. No company is going to give any kind of negative report about itself. It's also very easy for companies to massage testimonials on their own and other sites (e.g. GoAbroad) by giving students an incentive to post a review. That could be in the form of a discount or a pass or a special position. To get an idea of the kind of standards to expect from Camp Thailand and some of its early history, simply google "Island TEFL Review" and a good mix of reports will come up.

Do check out the other posts on this blog too. Just click on the blog title in big letters right at the top to get to the latest post. Read particularly the posts about accreditation and pricing. Finally, and importantly, read the comments below.

Good luck with your search for a good summer camp.

Greg