New language teachers’ qualification to meet Mexico’s demand for innovative teacher training
The University of Southampton and the British Council are collaborating on an innovative postgraduate course for English language teachers, whose classrooms are thousands of miles away, in response to the growing demand in Mexico, and elsewhere in the world, for inventive teacher training and course delivery.
The Postgraduate Certificate in English Language Teaching (ELT) builds on an existing distance learning programme run by the British Council in Mexico, which is recognised by the Mexican Ministry of Education as equivalent to a Mexican Postgraduate Certificate.
The new programme enables students to gain University of Southampton credit (up to 60 CATS points towards a Southampton MA) and can lead to the award of a free-standing Postgraduate Certificate in ELT from the University.
The programme, which will be launched in September, is delivered entirely online and can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Initially available in Mexico, the aim is that, once established, it will be extended to other countries in Latin America. As well as awarding the final qualification, the University will be responsible for internal moderation of student work and for the quality assurance of the programme.
Professor Clare Mar-Molinero, Head of Modern Languages at the University of Southampton, comments:
“We are delighted with the enthusiasm and interest for the new course. In particular the Mexican Ministry of Education has shown interest and support and are talking of offering a significant number of bursaries to enable Mexican English teachers to enrol on it. We hope that even in this first year we may be registering as many as two groups of 25 students each.”
A Memorandum of Agreement is being signed on Wednesday 26 March at the University of Southampton’s Avenue campus to recognise the collaboration between the University and the British Council.