Introduction to my previous role
Open Doors International Language School is a charity that is primarily a school for teaching English to speakers of other languages. The students are people who live in the local community and are disadvantaged through lack of English and other skills. The majority of the students are Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrant workers and with close to 50 different nationalities enrolled, the student body represented a wide multicultural demographic. In addition to English language the school provides a number of other services including but not limited to: employability skills, a drop in job club, IT classes, family learning classes and a parent and toddler group. It aims to support people to integrate with the local community and become active participants.
The demands of the charity are influenced by the economic, environmental and socio-political changes within local, national and international communities. In searching for ways to ensure ongoing viability of the charity in 2010 the trustees took the decision to open a new department and I was given responsibility for the newly formed Teacher Training department. I was given this role with a target of five years to help the charity to become self-sustaining whilst working within the budgetary and personnel constraints of the organisation. I have achieved this target.
My remit was to generate and develop new routes towards sustainability for the organisation. My vision, in line with the charity aims, was to establish a series of income generating strands, which are able to respond to the changing needs of both our regulating statutory bodies and our clients, while maintaining a highly personalised and supportive environment.
The flexibility of this role meant that under the umbrella of my job title I was able to build my skill set considerably, by taking on a number of key functions within the organisation.
The initial and primary route to achieve the target of my new department was the establishment of accredited teacher training programmes. Being responsible for the professional education of experienced and new teachers, and teacher educators, has provided me with exciting opportunities to explore and experiment with a wide variety of methodologies amongst a huge range of different people groups. It has also led to my role evolving organically with the success of the department.
With the advent of fee-paying customers I found we needed a marketing strategy to attract a wider audience. With budgets and personnel capacity tight at the charity, I took on the role. I became administrator of our school website and social media and was responsible for populating, maintaining and updating it. I also set up, populated and administered the multi-media rich school Virtual Learning Environment which is used in a variety of different ways, including delivery of accredited teacher training courses, staff development, additional resources for teachers and students, and bespoke courses. You can find links to these resources under the relevant job role headings below.
Another development of my role was that I identified a skills bridge - we were producing newly trained teachers who wanted a safe environment to practice their skills before making life-changing decisions in terms of employment. At the same time, higher-level students were in need of additional practice of English and wider skills sets to support economic integration. Alongside this situation, we also had teachers struggling with mixed ability groups and students who would benefit from additional support. In response, I started up a volunteer department with opportunities for volunteers as classroom support and administrative assistants as well as putting on additional free conversation, maths, literacy and IT classes and co-ordinating the student volunteer led newsletter. Just prior to handing over this role in December 2015 I took our volunteer and student involvement to a new level via a creative project, more details of this are outlined on my projects page.
I was instrumental in building relationships between our organisation and two local universities: Plymouth College of Arts and The University of St Mark and St John. Formal agreements have been put into place between the two universities and ourselves. The vision is to combine our strengths to create an improved overall experience for overseas students.
From September 2016 The University of St Mark and St John offers our Open Doors as one of two options for their MSc TESOL students to undertake their internship and I worked with the department to enable and support that process.
In April 2015 I visited China with our CEO and a group from Plymouth College of Art, including their Principal. The purpose of the visit was to begin building relationships with universities there who have expressed an interest in working with us. The school has already had visitors as a result of the visit.
Not long before leaving the role I was able to gain approval for the school to become a Secure English Language Testing Preparation Centre for all levels of Trinity College London Examinations required for university entrance and Home Office visa requirements for the UK. We begin delivery of exam preparation courses in May 2016.
Please see the CV page of this website for a more detailed breakdown of my current and previous employment. More details of some of the work I do can be found on links below and on my 'Projects' page.
Please note that while it may seem I held many roles, the situation grew out of need and success. The organisation is currently working on its organisational management strategy and building the teacher training team in order to ensure the work i did is sustainable.
Link here to an interview with the local paper where I give an overview of the school where I currently work. http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Talking-language-common-good-city-charity/story-20631032-detail/story.html
REFERENCES:
I have original written references from almost all of the jobs I have done. References can be made available on request.
See also the 'Testimonials' page.