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Dive in Languages
[26.06.09]
Dive In Languages Announces Joint Training Platform Project at the 8th Annual Conference for Languages and Business Communication
June 17th, 2009, Düsseldorf, Germany
Dive In Languages generated tremendous interest in a joint language training platform project at the 8th Annual Conference for Languages and Business Communication held on June 17th in Düsseldorf.
"If we all offer our trainer training courses in one central, easy to access platform we can all benefit", says Shelley Steinhorst, founder of Dive In Languages. "We can all look forward to having more trainers sign up for our training courses, meaning an increase of workshops and seminars to offer."
The announcement was made after Ms. Steinhorst presented international survey results on the needs of further training for language trainers.
The findings were not at all surprising", said Shelley Steinhorst at the widely attended presentation. "As anyone who runs a language school in Germany knows, the challenge is not coming up with innovative training methods and materials. The challenge is finding competent and well trained trainers in the market to carry out training in an innovative way'.
The survey was titled 'A Trainer Check-up: Results of a Trainer Survey' and revealed two main challenges to trainers receiving higher training:
1) There is not enough specific training available for trainers, and
2) Trainers are not prepared to invest time or travel. Only 50% of the trainers invested more than 100 per year on further training.
Why?
The main answers given were 'I don't have enough time', 'I don't see any reason to invest in trainer training because it won't improve my pay', and 'I'm not aware of any trainer training courses in my area that I would be interested in taking'. These thoughts were backed up not only by members in the audience, made up primarily of language school owners and trainers, but by participants in the survey.
In addition, 76% of survey respondents said training different language levels required specific training, and 63.5% said they did not currently receive this training. While these results will not shock anyone in the industry, the answer, according to Shelley Steinhorst, is surprising simple: Language schools and training professionals need to cooperate to meet the challenge of providing vital further training at a local level.
"We are basically all in the same boat", said Shelley Steinhorst. "Most innovative trainers, due to a lack of fair trainer pay by the well-known, larger language training companies, are forced to go it alone, or start their own language school. Large corporations are naturally looking for such innovative new methods, yet they have the problem that they need more than one trainer to fill their needs. Hence the beginning of a vicious circle, where due to lack of time or funds, getting enough trainers trained and ready to offer the innovative training that companies are looking for becomes for some an impossibly difficult challenge."
The benefits of a centralized platform were clear to many members of the audience, who stayed after the presentation to enthusiastically discuss taking part in a joint project to set up this training platform. "We can all look forward to having more trainers sign up for our training courses, meaning an increase of workshops and seminars to offer," added Steinhorst. "More innovative trainer training courses means a better trained, not to mention a better paid, pool of trainers that we can all work with. It's a win-win situations for trainers, language schools, large corporations and of course the participants themselves.
Two highly successful courses offered last year were 'podcasting and weblog' courses, taught jointly by Dive in Languages, GEE Language Services, and the Kaarst-Korchenbroich VHS. The first meeting of the joint project group is scheduled to take place, true to their aim to stay at the forefront of innovation, in a virtual meeting room, offered by the online trainer training organisation 'Lancelot'. Our first item on the agenda is to agree a set of rules, or a Code of Conduct, to ensure that only serious and professional schools and trainers take part.
"We also need to agree on the exact method for administrating, advertising and distributing our course offerings effectively," said Steinhorst in conclusion. "However, I believe this will not take too much time as there is so much enthusiasm between those involved to get started."
If you are interested in taking part, please contact Shelley Steinhorst: s.steinhorst@dive-in-languages.eu
