Course Director, Hornby Regional School, sought by British Council, Bangladesh
British Council South Asia region are looking for an experienced Course Director with considerable training expertise to work with Teachers’ Association representatives from this region during their Hornby School - ‘Sharing Best Practice: Strengthening and Extending Teachers’ Associations in South Asia.’
Please read through the specification below, and if you meet all requirements and are interested, submit your cv and other documents by the deadline of 23 September 2011.
The Teachers’ Association course is expected to run from 6-12 December in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Friday 9th December is a social weekend break.) During this period, the Course Director will be required to deliver relevant and focused professional development training and capacity-building workshops, and to supervise sessions delivered by participants.
Background
The British Council has been strengthening its collaboration with, and support for, the global network of Teachers’ Associations over the past decades, and has strong links with a number of the TAs in South Asia region, providing expertise and developmental support at national, regional and international conferences. Discussions with regional TA representatives in May 2011, following the BELTA conference, confirmed the need to share best practices, to learn from one other to build strong, viable TAs and programmes.
Context
Teachers’ Associations in the South Asia region work towards similar objectives, and face many of the same challenges, issues and setbacks that other TAs have worldwide. They need to maintain momentum, vibrancy and a regular flow of new members from which to select the next generation of committee members and leaders. How should they lead and build up their Teachers’ Associations? What should they offer their membership? How can they identify and develop members’ skills and levels of professionalism to enable them to take on positions of responsibility? Other challenges include financial budget management, winning regular sponsorship support, making best use of (online) communications & media to inform, update and recruit in current, and new, members. These TAs want to become better at planning, managing and delivering high-quality activities and events, and promoting transparent leadership succession planning. Knowing their members and what they expect/want from the TA is critically important to encourage more members to get actively involved in running a regional group or chapter. The SA region associations recognise the need to resolve these challenges in order to evolve, grow and enhance their national/regional reputation and presence.
Further information about TAs can be found in two British Council publications on the Teach English website (i) Developing an Association for Language Teachers-an Introduction and (ii) Running an Association for Language Teachers –Directions and Opportunities. (Both of these can be found at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform).
Terms
The post-holder will receive a fee of £1,200 for the course preparation, delivery and reports. British Council Bangladesh will provide international economy class return air travel to Dhaka, and all local arrangements for delivery of the training will be provided by the British Council in Dhaka.
Qualifications & Experience (candidates will be expected to reflect their ability to meet these criteria in their applications)
• minimum of five years’ experience of designing and delivering training programmes, ideally in developing contexts with leaders, managers, trainers (in ELT or other professions)
• proven ability to design and deliver a highly professional course to fit the course description
• an understanding of developing country educational context and / or experience of working in the South Asia region
• excellent interpersonal skills, with ability to build teams, and a willingness to work as part of a team (both academic and administrative)
• good marketing/communication skills, and leadership/ management skills
Expressions of interest
Interested applicants should contact Sheilagh Neilson, wider South Asia Regional ELT Manager at sheilagh.neilson@britishcouncl.org or and Mirza Beg, Country Project Manager, Bangladesh at mirza.beg@bd.britishcouncil.org by 23 September 2011 with an up-to-date CV and covering letter, stating how they meet the criteria required for this post, and giving their availability for end of November / early December 2011. In addition, applicants should send a brief statement (up to 300 words) of how they envisage the course contents for this school.
