delphiandomine
14 Jun 2010
Work / Professional development for teachers? the options in Poland? [11]
When course costs either have to go up by 22% or teachers salaries have to go down by a similar amount - then you're going to see a reduction in the amount of people learning English. Schools doing mostly corporate training will be fine - but it always has been an unreliable job. I know someone who was teaching at a company that was absolutely happy with him, loved him, the school loved him - everything was perfect. Until of course, the big cheeses from Germany turned up and told them to get cheaper teachers. Not an uncommon story, especially with more expensive schools.
Or we could talk about the mid-sized Polish company (around 100 employees) who were very happy with a school where I used to work. All of the employees had classes, all was fine and well - until of course, the director felt that the school wasn't providing value for money. Bye bye contract.
Or maybe - we could talk about how 22% on courses means that schools will be starting to aggressively go after corporate clients as they won't be bothered about VAT being charged on courses. End result = lower wages for native corporate teachers as everyone will want a piece of the action.
Corporate training is very whimsical though - just because your school has nice contracts at the minute doesn't mean that they will have them tomorrow. I certainly wouldn't call corporate teaching stable - where will you be if your school hasn't got long term agreements in place and a competitor takes their classes? The smart teacher knows that the industry isn't stable at all - for instance, I was negotiating to take over classes from a well known school here, simply because I could supply myself for a few zloty cheaper than the school could supply a native. Of course - it didn't hurt that I knew someone who knew the director of the company ;)
There are some MA's at UAM that are worthwhile, but again - why bother with a Polish MA when you can obtain a far more credible British MA by distance learning that's actually worth something on the world scale?
Very little, really. From what I know, most people do either an MA through distance learning from a British university (set price, doesn't mention "distance" on the certificate) or the DELTA if they want to expand further. There are sometimes workshops organised by the publishers, but they're pretty dire - I haven't seen one in Poznan worth going to yet.
Really, professional development is either an MA through a reputable place (and not a diploma factory, like the vast majority of Polish universities) or the DELTA.
Let me understand this, you think that when they bring the VAT increase in that people will magically want to stop learninng English?
When course costs either have to go up by 22% or teachers salaries have to go down by a similar amount - then you're going to see a reduction in the amount of people learning English. Schools doing mostly corporate training will be fine - but it always has been an unreliable job. I know someone who was teaching at a company that was absolutely happy with him, loved him, the school loved him - everything was perfect. Until of course, the big cheeses from Germany turned up and told them to get cheaper teachers. Not an uncommon story, especially with more expensive schools.
Or we could talk about the mid-sized Polish company (around 100 employees) who were very happy with a school where I used to work. All of the employees had classes, all was fine and well - until of course, the director felt that the school wasn't providing value for money. Bye bye contract.
Or maybe - we could talk about how 22% on courses means that schools will be starting to aggressively go after corporate clients as they won't be bothered about VAT being charged on courses. End result = lower wages for native corporate teachers as everyone will want a piece of the action.
It is demand that aggregates all market forces and there certainly is enough demand for language training in Poland, Language knowledge is one of Poland's critical success factors (HP and IBM both consder it so). Besides, A lot of my teaching is to corporate clients who aren't too concentrated on the bottom line since language training is a relatively small expenditure that brings tangible rewards.
Corporate training is very whimsical though - just because your school has nice contracts at the minute doesn't mean that they will have them tomorrow. I certainly wouldn't call corporate teaching stable - where will you be if your school hasn't got long term agreements in place and a competitor takes their classes? The smart teacher knows that the industry isn't stable at all - for instance, I was negotiating to take over classes from a well known school here, simply because I could supply myself for a few zloty cheaper than the school could supply a native. Of course - it didn't hurt that I knew someone who knew the director of the company ;)
I am considering my MA at either Wrocław Universytet or in Poznan,
There are some MA's at UAM that are worthwhile, but again - why bother with a Polish MA when you can obtain a far more credible British MA by distance learning that's actually worth something on the world scale?
But the question remains, what are the options for professional development?
Very little, really. From what I know, most people do either an MA through distance learning from a British university (set price, doesn't mention "distance" on the certificate) or the DELTA if they want to expand further. There are sometimes workshops organised by the publishers, but they're pretty dire - I haven't seen one in Poznan worth going to yet.
Really, professional development is either an MA through a reputable place (and not a diploma factory, like the vast majority of Polish universities) or the DELTA.