- guardian.co.uk, Thursday February 19 2004 02.08 GMT
The British government's initiative to enhance and broaden the skills of English language teachers working in state-sector adult education has been welcomed as an attempt to raise the status of a group that has for too long been marginalised. But teachers who want to acquire the new qualifications are facing a perplexing few months as the agencies responsible for setting standards and training providers establish new courses.
Since last September new teachers of English for speakers of other languages (Esol) have been required to enrol on courses leading to the new Certificate in Further Education Teaching Stage 3 for Esol Subject Specialists. The certificate has been set up by the Further Education National Training Organisation (Fento).
The specialist qualification requires a high level of theoretical knowledge of Esol. It covers ground well-trodden in English language teaching but also deals with areas specific to Esol, such as coping with varying levels of literacy or helping refugees and asylum seekers who may be traumatised by their experiences.
But creating new specialist qualifications and training up teachers is a complex task, made harder by the slow process of approving new teaching qualifications. Fento released its specifications for Esol qualifications only in May last year, four months before the start of the academic year.
By September only the Institute of Education in London and London South Bank University had received approval from Fento for courses running their versions of the qualifications, and these were intended for experienced Esol teachers. The same applied to a University of Teesside qualification approved later in the year, but there was still nothing available for new entrants to the profession.
However, that should change this year as colleges and universities start to offer qualifications devised by Cambridge-Esol and Trinity College London. Last month Fento approved Cambridge-Esol's application to run its two-module version of the certificate. The qualification caters for teachers holding a variety of specialist and generic qualifications, or none at all. The first, shorter module is the Celta - the well-established and widely available certificate in teaching EFL. The second, longer module covers subject specialist knowledge and generic FE teaching, taking trainees to fully qualified status. Module Two involves 180 contact hours, a 120-hour teaching placement and 10 written assignments.
Teachers who already have a Celta qualification will be able to move straight to Module Two. Those who don't have Celta, but whose can satisfy course providers that they have sufficient EFL teaching experience, can also skip Module One. Two colleges in London are now running the course and Cambridge says the certificate will be available at other centres during this year.
Trinity College London is expecting final approval for its version of the new qualification by March, and it does not expect courses to be available before September. Unlike Cambridge-Esol, Trinity has not divided its qualification into modules specifically to accommodate its well-established CertTesol certificate. Instead it is proposing a two-stage generic FE teaching qualification combined with an Esol subject certificate. Teachers who already have Celta or CertTesol will still be required to take the Esol subject certificate, but up to 40 hours of input is likely to be waived.
Helen Casey, of the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy, backs the involvement of Cambridge-Esol and Trinity. "It's very good news. This is a first in combining the experience of international Tesol qualifications with the mainstream certification for the post-16 learning and skills sector."
Esol jobs applicants who already have a Celta or CertTesol now know that their qualification is not only valued but officially fits into the qualifications framework. And, says Casey, holders already teaching in FE know they are already part-way to becoming fully qualified. "The qualifications held by EFL teachers may need to be added to for full professional recognition but teachers won't need to repeat and start from the beginning as if they were untrained, as many had to do in the past."
But what about teachers with a Cambridge-Esol Delta or Trinity Diploma? With most early energy concentrated on building new qualifications around the Celta and CertTesol, Cambridge-Esol and Trinity have paid less attention to how their higher level qualifications would fit in. Part of the problem is that their diplomas are ranked above the new Esol qualifications on the national qualifications framework, yet Fento says they do not meet Esol's broader requirements. The diplomas do not, for example, cover literacy or deal with aspects of the FE system such as learner support and equal opportunities awareness.
Cambridge is developing an extension module to bolt on to its Delta to give holders full teacher status. However, this has yet to be approved by Fento and as such is not likely to be available until later in the year. Trinity expects its diploma holders to be able to upgrade, though it is not yet sure exactly how this will be done.
Meanwhile the government wants all FE teachers except new entrants to be fully qualified or enrolled on an appropriate course by 2010. It says targets have not yet been finalised but is aiming for 90% of all full-time teachers and 60% of part-timers to be up to speed by 2006. It will be up to colleges to work out how best to train staff with a wide range of experience and qualifications, many of whom also work part-time.
"The next couple of years are going to be messy," says Geoff Saul, head of Esol at Leicester College, which has 25 full-time staff and up to 70 part-timers. "But in the long run it's making sure that people get the qualifications for what they are doing. It's good for the individual involved."
