ADEC and British Council partnership in English language teaching paves the way to higher education for 40 Emirati students

The British Council presented the awards as part of the ADEC foundation year programme for high school graduates. The awards were presented at the British Council offices in Abu Dhabi by Ahmed Al Shamsi, Community Relations Manager ADEC; Marilyn Mathieson of ELS (the programme monitoring agency); and Paul Sellers, Director UAE for the British Council.

The training programme was one of the largest partnership teaching activities undertaken in the UAE by the British Council. The training project began in October 2007, with the Emirati high school graduates involved in an intensive English Language Programme at the British Council in Khalidiya, Abu Dhabi.

The project involved 700 hours of teaching per student, with groups running simultaneously, 24 hours a week over eight months. 12 of the British Council's most experienced teachers were dedicated to the project in a variety of ways which involved English Language tuition, CEPA / IELTS preparation, and Life Skills Training, including ICT projects, team-building exercises and field trips to public venues such as exhibitions.

Ahmed Al Shamsi congratulated all the participants, and Marilyn Mathieson commented:

'The Monitoring Agency commends the British Council on the excellent programme it has conducted, which has been designed to meet the specific needs of these young Emirati men.'

The aim of the course was for students to reach an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) score of between 4.5 and 5.5, as well as improving on their previous CEPA (Common Educational Proficiency Assessment) scores, which all the students did dramatically in March 2008. Many students achieved high enough marks to begin their 2008-09 applications to local universities and colleges.

Paul Sellers, Director UAE for the British Council, said:

'For the British Council, this programme is an excellent example of the benefits of working in local partnerships to create real benefits for young Emiratis; together, ADEC and the British Council have achieved the objective of helping these Emirati students improve their English language capabilities, which will significantly enhance their career prospects for the future.'

Sam Fenwick, who led the project for the British Council, added: 'Due to the significant success of this project, we are able to guide the Emirati students to alternative pathways for the future, by working with organisations such as GTZ and ADVETI to offer them both academic and practical educational options.'

'The training programme took place at our Khalidiya offices, which we will be leaving later this year,' added Paul Sellers. 'Our new operating model in Abu Dhabi, with a more compact office and multiple teaching sites, means that we will have far greater capacity and flexibility in the future to run more of these kinds of teaching programmes, working in local partnerships, for the benefit of more Emirati students. This is how we are shaping our organisation and operations to better suit the evolving needs of the community we serve in Abu Dhabi.'