Job Discussion Forums

icecreamballet · Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 1 Location: In transition

Hi

Do you know anything about the British Institute in Busto Arsizio? I have found mainly negative sayings about B.I. but not particularly about this one.

stillnosheep · Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 2068 Location: eslcafe

British Instituyes are a franchise; everything depends upon the franchise owner.

johnnybgood · Joined: 03 Jan 2009 Posts: 9 Location: Trieste, Italy

I can't say anything about the actual school in Barletta but BI as an organisation is quite serious. It's not actually a franchising but an "ente culturale" (examination board) with it's headquarters in Milan. This means that the actual school you're interested in only has an agreement with BI to act as an examining centre for BI exams. This agreement is based on the condition that the school guarantees a certain amount of students sit for BI exams at the end of the year.
Hence, the school offers BI courses but, as it's not a franchise, it can offer any other type of course if it wishes to. Franchises, such as Wall Street, follow a very strict marketing strategy and only offer standard courses.
All BI courses follow a syllabus and are accompanied by good book references. BI certificates follow the CEF (Common European Framework) guidelines and are recognized by all Italian universities and UCAS ( UK universities). Ok, It's not exactly like the Cambridge exams but they're getting stronger and stronger year by year.
Other things which the school in Barletta might offer all depends on the owner's intentions. As I mentioned before, it's a franchising so the owner is more or less free to do as he/she pleases. This is something you would need to clarfy with the owner.