Teaching English as a foreign language in Asian countries is quite popular for those looking to travel and explore and make some money. If you have the TEFL qualification you're pretty much good to go and don't need a degree.
I don't know how lucrative these overseas jobs are but I do know one JW from my congregation in England who decided to move to the Caribbean and teach English as a foreign language.
I'm not knocking this individual. They are accomplished in their field of expertise so this post has nothing to do with their teaching ability, rather it is the credential they hold.
On their LinkedIn profile they have a BA in Education from USILACS (United States Institute of Language and Clerical Studies). This is a four year American college degree.
I thought it odd that a pioneer would ignore the society's direction on pursuing higher education and wondered how someone from the UK could afford a four year degree from an American university as you cannot get Federal and State aid if you're a foreign student who lives overseas.
This individual has also worked as a "Sales Manager" for USILACS which I thought was odd.
I decided to do some research on this institution and what I found shocked me.
USILACS is not accredited. It's degrees are useless in the United States.
Here are some links:
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/sdtd6v/why_do_many_jws_have_degrees_from_this_university/
"Many PIMIs I encountered who teach English as a second language online have degrees from United States Institute of language and clerical studies. Just curious does anyone know about this university. Is it legit?"
The most informed response I saw on this thread:
"The school has national accreditation and is registered with the state of Florida as a religious institution. They can offer degrees as long as the title of the degree contains a religious designator. These degrees typically would not qualify for required education such as being a licensed teacher or other professional in the United States.
In the United States, regional accreditation is the most rigorous. "Real" universities/colleges have regional accreditation and can confer traditionally recognized degrees and can participate in the US student loan program. If you wished to be a professional in just about any field, you would need a degree from a regionally accredited school. The school in question is not regionally accredited.
These types of institutions very widely in their quality and value. My guess would be it's an easy and quick way to get the qualifications to work overseas. Probably not good for much else. But probably not worthless either."
Perhaps the most interesting response was this:
"I personally know a person with this degree. All the exams are closed questions and there is no final thesis to deliver. What's most ridiculous is that when you get the transcript they change the dates of your exams and backdate them several years before you actually started the course to make it look like you started the school 4/5 years before you graduated. When in reality it takes 2/3 months at most to complete it. And if you had been pioneer that also gives you credits.
You do learn some stuff to be completely honest but this is far from being a real uni. It's just a bit more than reading lots of Awake magazine. But you do get a degree at the end. Such degree is unfortunately pretty useless outside of Thailand, China and some other third world country"
https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/weasel-wording.57580/
"I've been wanting to do a full breakdown of this particular outfit for
quite some time, but never got around to it with all else that was going
on in my life. Given how absurdly and comically dishonest their
accreditation page is, I'm inspired to share a bit of the fun here.
There's a diploma mill known as USILACS - the United States Institute of
Language and Cultural Studies. What makes them stand out from other
diploma mills is who runs it and who the target market is. It's a juicy
story, but basically, its student base is primarily ex-pat
fundamentalist Christian evangelizers who need a bachelor's degree to
maintain their Visas in Thailand. The "graduates" from the school are in
Thailand and other Asian countries as TESOL instructors, and use the
fake degree to gain employment and evade scrutiny from government
officials while they dutifully go about their preaching assignments.
They pay several thousand dollars, spend a few weeks reading
fundamentalist propaganda (that they believe is somehow equivalent to a
university education) and go off on their merry way, proud of flouting
the system.
They're not approved by the State of Florida. They have EXEMPTION from
approval as a supposedly religious institution. Their Florida
headquarters is a small rented office which appears to be one of a
couple of addresses that they use for mail forwarding. Also, this
"school" operates under 2 different names- one of them replaces
"cultural" with "clerical," in a bid to keep up the front of religious
studies. Good luck finding the names of anybody associated at this
school- no faculty, no administration, and they went so far as to block
out the name of the person to whom the state approval letter is
addressed. I was able to find the name of precisely one person
associated with their operations, but since I could not find any further
confirmation of this person's identity, I wont reveal the name here.
They're not lying about the religious part, but they ARE lying about the
studies part. I've even received word, from a first hand source, that
the "school" has even been lying to students about their legal status in
Thailand. Apparently, they don't even have THAT to their credit."
"I just searched this Institute (USILACS) on LinkedIn and it's super interesting: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?currentCompany=%5B%2243280678%22%5D&origin=COMPANY_PAGE_CANNED_SEARCH&sid=h%2C4 if you read their employee list you can find out that many of them are JW.
And I just found this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/lxqts8/what_the_hell_is_this_a_new_jw_college/"