Job Discussion Forums

[Peter McAlpine]

I am trying to find some language schools in Russia, or a school with several branches there, which would like to offer a variety of hotel English courses in addition to its current array of General English courses. Do you know of any schools that might be interested?

As the hotel industry grows there, there is one area of ESP, which will become very significant, namely hotel English teaching.

There is great potential for this line of the English teaching business because being able to offer job-specific courses would not only enable the language school(s) to offer various job-specific hotel English courses to the public at its school(s), but also place English teachers in 5-star hotels, and conduct job-specific hotel pre-opening English training. (Any school that can do this for hotels will be in great demand.)

Moreover, the courses could be adapted for other customer service and hospitality related businesses, and include customer service training so that the language schools would not just be providing an English teaching service, but also enabling the client to increase its reputation for service and its revenue. The courses would appeal to learners in the general public because the courses would be helping them directly to find employment.

There are further possibilities after this. It would not be hard for the language school company to dominate the market in certain cities or areas within a year or two, while benefiting synergistically from an increased demand for its General English courses.

I have the expertise and experience in training and consulting in 5-star hotels, customer service training, course writing, hotel English teaching, and the other possibilities referred to above. I also have all the course materials needed. What I don't have is the physical structure of a language school business in Russia to launch all of this from, which is why I am looking for (ideally) a chain of schools that is interested in the idea.

My role would be to help the language school company to develop this business in return for profit-sharing in the hotel English teaching and training side of the business that would be built up.

If you know of any schools that might be interested in the idea as a business, please let me know. I'd be most grateful.

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Dear Peter:

Not a bad idea you have there, although I'd be somewhat surprised if the quality 4 and 5-star hotels in Russia's two big cities don't already have some kind of English language program in place.

If you're serious, you could begin by contacting the large chain schools in Russia directly. There are only 2 of them at the moment:

1. International House (BKC Russia)

and

2. Language Link

In addition to the above 2, you could also contact EF (English First) and/or Denis School; both have multiple branches in Russia, although less than IH and LL.

If you scroll down on this page, you will find direct links to all of these schools, except for EF. The homepage URL for English First is: www.englishfirst.com/ They also have a Russian homepage, but only viewable in Russian: www.englishfirst.ru/

Another option would be to contact the quality hotels directly and bypass the language schools altogether. This option would be my personal first choice, although it would involve a lot more leg-work and bureaucratic red-tape on your part.

Anyway ... good luck with your idea, Peter

Best wishes,
kENt

[maruss]

Hi Peter-I am very interested in helping you and know an English person like myself who will definitely be able to discuss this project with you on a professional basis.Please send us your e-mail and/or phone number and contact details and we will be in touch right away.
You can also e-mail me direct at:[email protected]

Thanks!

Martin.