Teacher Training Programme Turkey
15 December 2020

Edinburgh College Steps up Involvement in Large-Scale National Teacher Training Project

This month sees Edinburgh College significantly scale up its involvement in an important national teacher training programme in Turkey.

In partnership with the British Council, the College is providing bespoke online training to 300 English teachers from 24 regions across the country as part of the new ‘English Together’ Programme.

The course will see trainers from the Edinburgh College ESOL team work with groups of up to 25 Turkish teachers to develop their capacity as mentor teachers, preparing them to lead CPD opportunities and Professional Learning Communities for English teachers in their own region.

Each group of teachers will complete 6 hours per week of face-to-face online classes with Edinburgh College trainers and 4 hours of complimentary asynchronous learning to build on the concepts covered in face-to-face classes.

This course follows on from the College’s successful involvement in the initial pilot stage of this project, which saw a group of 22 teachers of English from Turkey travel to Edinburgh for a 2-week intensive master mentor training programme last September.

The College had been due to host another 60 teachers from Turkey earlier this year but this was postponed due to the pandemic. The new online format therefore represents both a significant adaptation to the original plan and a significant upscaling of the programme, despite the challenging circumstances that prevail internationally. The course was formally launched at an event in Turkey last week by the Ministry of National Education.

Edinburgh College International business manager Sarah Gore said: “After the disappointment of having to postpone the course earlier this year due to the pandemic, we’re very excited to be working with our Turkish partners once again. It’s great that this programme is now expanding in scope, despite the ongoing issues caused by the pandemic.

“The team have worked really hard to develop an online offer that delivers high-quality training to our partners in Turkey and we’re delighted to be continuing our work with the British Council and the Turkish Ministry of National Education on the next stage of this high-profile programme.”