Job Discussion Forums

[Coolguy123]

Hi,

So it's been over a year since I did my CELTA, and while I liked the center that I did it in, I, and every student in the CELTA class, had numerous issues with one of the CELTA tutors during the course. The in-house tutor was amazing, however the second tutor that was sent to the center seemed unprepared and not able to give us effective feedback. The center itself acknowledged the issues with the second tutor but was unable to do anything about it.

After talking with other teachers who have done the CELTA, it seems like this is not the norm, and those that have done their courses in the UK or elsewhere had no complaints with the course and have only sung praises to the CELTA teachers.

So I'm wondering if there is a complaints procedure within CELTA? I definitely feel that we got particularly unlucky with one of the teachers who was sent to us, and that we weren't able to learn as much or as effectively as we should have. I was under the impression that the CELTA course was held to a high standard of quality and feel disappointed at the course we ended up getting. Especially as developing teachers, I feel that we ended up being hindered by a teacher trainer who was not fully prepared.

Also, does anyone know what kind of support centers are supposed to offer post-CELTA if any? Are they supposed to help you or answer questions or is this simply at their discretion?

[HLJHLJ]

I don't think they have any obligation to you once you finish the course. Some centers do offer ongoing support, but it's at their discretion, and usually more about marketing than actual support.

On the course itself, the training center should have had an official complaints procedure (in fact they HAVE to have a complaints procedure in order to be a certified training center). That should probably have been your first port of call. Did you ask the center at the time how to make a formal complaint?

Also, when the external examiner came, you could have raised it with them (though they would likely have told you to start with the center's internal complaints procedure). That would have been your connection to the Cambridge administration. Did you speak to the external examiner about it at all?

It's pretty unlikely that you can do anything much about it now, a year after it happened, but it's important that people do complain at the time if they feel a course is substandard.

[nomad soul]

[mmcmorrow]

Information about the complaints procedure is given to candidates at the beginning of the CELTA course. It's at the end of the CELTA 5 under the title 'Procedure for Enquiries on Results and Complaints'. The CELTA 5 is the blue booklet in which you record all your lesson observations, teaching practice, written assignments and tutorial feedback.

CELTA trainees / graduates who are dissatisfied with the course and / or their grade are asked to be as specific as they can. It's useful to refer to the 'Roles and Responsibilities' section of the CELTA 5 in order to identify a particular area of concern. As the other posters have said, candidates are expected to raise their concerns with the centre (and / or the visiting external moderator) and then pass them onto Cambridge if they feel they haven't been resolved.

Cambridge will deal with complaints about CELTA course provision up to nine weeks after final results have been issued. So it's too late for you to complain to them about a course a year ago. The Centre wouldn't be obliged to deal with your complaint at this late stage either, but if you feel strongly about it, you can always let them know your concerns.

Martin McMorrow, Auckland, New Zealand

[nomad soul]

Coolguy123:

One other question I had was if you and the other trainees had approached that tutor directly with your concerns before deciding to go to the center's administrators. That's what generally happens (or should happen) in most teaching situations. Students are encouraged to first speak to the teacher to resolve the problem, and if it doesn't get settled to their satisfaction, they then should seek guidance from administration, student services, the academic coordinator, etc.

[fluffyhamster]

Junior tutors are always going to be somewhat in a position of playing second fiddle to established or head tutors (I imagine they sometimes feel like trainees again LOL). On my cert we had a newbie tutor whose main area of expertise seemed to be with scissors and glue sticks. Anyway, as others have said, it's too late now to rock the boat, and even with 100% stellar trainers, there's only so much that these initiations can achieve.