Tag: certificates

RIP Cambridge Train the Trainer

This blog post was originally written in 2021, right after I had finished the Cambridge Train the Trainer course with IH Lima. ELT professionals interested in courses leading to certificates issued by Cambridge English probably remember the following framework of teaching qualifications that previously appeared in the Delta handbook.

Cambridge Train the Trainer FAQ

In the original post, I mentioned that there wasn’t much information on this qualification available online, which I found a bit surprising. I felt that Cambridge English didn’t show much interest in promoting it. The course was retired in 2023, and since I don’t want to provide misleading information to those who stumble upon this article, I decided to update this post and describe what that means.

In short, the Cambridge version of Train the Trainer was a course aimed at teachers interested in becoming teacher trainers. It took approximately 30 hours to complete (either in-person or fully online) and comprised the following six modules:

● The training class focused on the main differences between teaching students and training teachers.
● Analysing and designing training sessions showed you how to plan a variety of input sessions.
● Delivering training sessions was the most practical part of the course. The participants were asked to plan and run a mock training session.
● Observing teachers consisted of watching a recorded lesson and analysing it as if you were the observer.
● Managing feedback helped you identify various ways of giving oral and written feedback to teachers. You analysed a recorded feedback session as well.
● Course planning and trainer development went beyond thinking of standalone sessions and taught you how to plan longer courses. You also received advice on further development options for trainers.

If you want to read more about the course, I recommend reading James Fuller’s series of eight blog posts with information about each session and Rachel Tsateri’s reflections. My own experience was pretty similar, and I thought it was a useful introduction to teacher training.

The trainees who completed the Train the Trainer course became eligible to train teachers on the CELT-P and CELT-S courses. Those two qualifications have been discontinued as well, which is probably one of the main reasons why Cambridge decided to retire the Train the Trainer course.

Now that the Cambridge course isn’t offered anymore, what exactly does that mean? According to Cambridge, ELT professionals interested in teacher training are encouraged to buy Matthew Ellman and Peter Lucantoni’s book From Teacher to Trainer. The practical element of actually preparing and delivering training sessions can’t be replaced by reading literature, so there is still a lot of demand for courses like that, and you can actually find many Train the Trainer courses offered by various institutions around the world.

Peter Lucantoni clarified the situation in this Sponge Chat: the Train the Trainer course is no longer an official Cambridge product, but teacher training centres are welcome to run their own versions of the course. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since those institutions can update the course content and provide more training in dealing with the challenges of the online environment, which was not really addressed on the original Cambridge course.

However, the lack of standardisation now means that there are numerous versions of the Train the Trainer course available, so potential trainees don’t know what to expect from the particular course they decided to attend. Another disadvantage is that course providers now have to issue their own certificate, so even if the course itself is very useful for the attendee, the qualification has nothing to do with Cambridge, which may affect the way it is perceived by other educational institutions.

I’d be interested in hearing from those who have attended the non-Cambridge version of the Train the Trainer course. If you’d like to talk about your experiences, feel free to leave a comment below this article.

My bumpy ride with Delta Module Three

If you are looking for general information about the Delta, you should read this FAQ post. In short, I recommend pursuing this qualification if you are interested in making progress as a teacher. Delta requires a lot of hard work and commitment, but it’s worth the effort. My Module One experience was very positive, and I believe that it is perfectly possible to pass the exam without taking a preparatory course. Well, let me tell you that I will refrain from making comments like that about Delta Module Three because I found it much more challenging.

Cambridge Delta Module Three

After passing the Module One exam without major difficulties, I felt confident about facing a new challenge. Since Module Three consists of writing an essay that is sent to Cambridge as a Word or PDF file, you can simply submit it through any authorised centre in the world. There are many useful courses you can take, but you are also allowed to complete your assignment without any assistance. You just need to contact a provider and arrange this option with them. I contacted several centres in Latin America, but for some reason the Cambridge fee in this region is almost twice as expensive when compared to other centres. I found out that you can find the most affordable option by contacting the distance learning providers listed here. Some of them even offer limited tutor support if you don’t want to pay for the full course.

There isn’t an easy step-by-step manual for passing this assignment because its content depends on what you find out during the process. First, you have to select a topic, research it and identify key issues. It’s recommended to write about an area that you are involved in, so I chose Teaching monolingual classes in Colombia. You need to have access to students in order to perform a needs analysis and a diagnostic test. The results are then used to design a 20-hour course, which includes assessment and evaluation. There is a strict limit of 4,500 words for the main body of the assignment, so you can expect to use plenty of appendices to support your ideas.

It is necessary to read the Delta handbook to see what is expected, and I highly recommend going through the examination report as well. There is a lot of useful information provided by ELT Concourse, Lizzie Pinard and Sandy Millin. Every assignment follows the same outline, but you can’t just read someone else’s work and use the same principles in your own essay because your teaching context and students will make it a unique piece of writing. All stages need to be logically connected and you have to justify your choices, which makes this module very challenging. In fact, it took me four months to complete it while working full-time.

My decision to work on Module Three independently wasn’t very smart because I had to resubmit my assignment. I felt sorry for ITI because they let me submit my work through their centre without any tutor input and I damaged their statistics a little bit. Fortunately, the examiner’s report showed that only one section of my assignment wasn’t good enough, so I didn’t need to redo the whole essay. I eventually passed Module Three after submitting it through NILE, whose tutor generously offered to read my draft at no extra cost. The tutor confirmed that I had taken the examiner’s feedback into account, and that put my mind at ease.

If you want to make your life easier, you should pay extra money for a Module Three course. You can decide to work on it alone, but in that case I recommend that you ask someone to read your assignment before you submit it. Although an experienced tutor would be the best option, it could also be someone who is familiar with the way Module Three is graded because Cambridge assessors expect you to present the information in a specific manner. You have to state the obvious and make explicit references to other stages of the assignment, which is quite tricky when you have a strict word limit. If you make the same choice like me and try to tackle this module before completing Module Two, you may find the writing process very challenging.

Asking someone else to read your essay is beneficial in terms of proofreading as well. My tutor pointed out a couple of embarrassing mistakes that I had made. While I find it easy to spot issues in other people’s texts, I can’t seem to transfer that skill to my own written production. I am pretty sure that there are errors in my posts on this blog, but my brain is simply incapable of detecting them.

Even though my road to obtaining the Delta Module Three certificate was far from straightforward, it was a very rewarding experience. I learnt a lot about curriculum design, which was an area I hadn’t explored before. Analysing my students’ needs was really enlightening, and it made me think about the way I can make my courses more personalised. Designing a course and a series of tests from scratch was very helpful because I had to think about my choices all the time and consider how my students would benefit from them. You have to jump through a lot of hoops to successfully complete it, but this Delta module is very beneficial for your teaching practice.

► If you enjoyed this blog post, I recommend that you read More Than a Gap Year Adventure, a collaborative book aimed at those who wish to have a long-term career in our profession.