Page 14 - ELG1901 Jan-Feb 463

TRAINING NEWS .

Behind every great destination

there’s always a great trainer

By Melanie Butler
achieve or maintain accreditation. Val tells me. “It’s
Bristol, as we report on page 16, is IH Bristol fills the need. an ideal way to
the best place to study English in “Generally, we run seven CELTA get some teaching IH BRISTOL
the UK based on British Council courses a year,” says Val, “and experience.”
inspection results. But, how has it they are always fully-booked. Two Others opt to
achieved its success? thirds of our trainees live in Bristol work abroad. “It’s
The strength of a destination and most of the rest come from the great advantage
depends on its ELT infrastructure the wider region: Gloucestershire, of being affiliated
and, in particular, on the strength South Wales, even Oxford. A few to International
of its training provision. The come in from abroad.” House, we can help
largest regional training provider For people wanting to find out our trainees get jobs Celta group on their fi nal day at IH Bristol
is International House (IH) more, Val and her team offer an in other IH schools
Bristol which has been offering Introduction to CELTA course on around the world.” to join free courses and sending
courses in the city for over 25 weekends and even an unusual IH Bristol has adapted CELTA staff out to teach them.
years, according to Director Val ‘shadow a teacher’ option where to train the teachers of other The biggest growth area is
Hennessy. a would-be trainee can follow a languages employed on the courses for foreign teachers. No
From an industry perspective, teacher for a day. school’s popular evening classes. longer limited to general summer
the key training programme is the “Because we are a teacher Some 350 Bristolians are currently courses, there is an increasing
CELTA, the four-week training training centre, our teachers are studying a range of languages from demand for specialist courses,
course taken primarily by native very used to being observed by the more familiar Spanish, French with two CLIL courses already
speaker graduates and the most trainees,” Val tells me, “and it’s a and Mandarin to more unusual booked in for 2019 and increasing
common of the qualifications great way for someone to get a feel languages including Turkish and numbers of tailor-made courses
accepted by the British Council for what teaching involves.” Welsh. for groups from around the world:
inspectors. Without a supply Some teachers intend to teach IH Bristol is community Tunisia, China, even a platoon of
of teachers with a CELTA or locally. “We employ quite a lot of minded. It works with the local Eritrean army officers.
equivalent, no language centre can them on our summer courses,” refugee population, inviting them “They all love Bristol,” says Val.

14 January/February 2019