Make the most of StudyWorld with our guide to the UK’s education sector
At StudyWorld, you can meet the best of the world-leading UK education sector. Whether your needs are simple or complex, you’ll discover all the right contacts all under one roof.
Every part of our education sector will be represented at the QEII Centre, Westminster, in September, including universities, further education colleges, English language centres, boarding schools, exam boards, publishers, software suppliers and support services.
To help you meet the right people, we’ve created some short guides to our different sectors, explaining what they are, and what they can do for you.
This week: English Language Teaching
What is it? Centres specialising in teaching English. They can be specialist colleges, or departments in colleges or universities.
What does it offer? Thousands of different courses, ranging from general to highly specialised. UK ELT providers teach English to everyone from beginners to those seeking native fluency. There are courses for teenagers, to prepare students for university courses, for English teachers and for people who need English for work. Business English courses can be general, or cover specialised vocabulary needs such as medicine, law, aviation and much more. Many centres will have the capacity to work overseas with clients as well as in the UK.
Where are ELT centres based? All over the UK. There are high numbers of ELT centres in major cities, and also in Bournemouth and Brighton on the south coast, and the university hubs of Oxford and Cambridge.
How do you find a quality provider? Look for their accreditation. The best ELT providers are accredited, either by Accreditation UK or Education Scotland, ISI or the QAA. This ensures that the centre meets high standards for teaching, management, resources and student welfare.
The majority of accredited providers are members of English UK, the national association for ELT, which runs Accreditation UK jointly with the British Council. All English UK members must have Accreditation UK accreditation. Every ELT provider you meet at StudyWorld will be accredited.
Find out more at www.englishuk.com
Case history: Living Learning English
Kate Hargreaves founded Living Learning English 20 years ago, and it is now an established, but unusual, ELT provider in the UK. It has no classrooms, and does not offer courses to large groups. Students, who can be adults or children, live in the home of their teacher, one of 350 around the UK. They have a similar timetable of lessons to students in language schools, but also learn in family time and regular excursions. There are around 350 active teachers, all over the UK.
This means the school can meet very specific needs. Recent requests have included English for the owner of a coffee machine business, for a plastics factory worker who needed to be able to show people around, and for a sushi restaurant chain manager who wanted to visit London restaurants with his teacher.
Ms Hargreaves says Living Learning English has a very high satisfaction rate, and students make much faster progress than they would in a group, as long as they work hard. StudyWorld has helped her to grow her business during the last 20 years, and she was one of the first ELT providers to book for this year’s event.
She says: “StudyWorld has really helped our business. What I like about it is that it’s UK-based, and because of its reputation it attracts some very good agencies, who’ve been in the business a long time. They know exactly what they’re doing and are looking for something new to offer their clients. If you’re at StudyWorld that’s quite prestigious and agents think you are worth their time.
“I like that StudyWorld is now totally UK-focused and concentrates on our schools and their quality. It’s definitely innovative and sounds quite exciting – just what the industry needs.
“The partnership with the government’s Education is GREAT brand is also brilliant. Being supported by the UK government opens doors and gets you meetings you wouldn’t have otherwise.”
