Week Four Activity

What PD happens in your organisation/would you like to see in your organisation?


Fan Jiajun, Clovis

For the IELTS training institution I have described during the last several weeks, professional development often happens in it because the success of this educational organisation is largely determined by its knowledge workers and the knowledge in their minds. Having realized the great importance of learning, this institution provides the following approaches for professional development:

1.     Pursuing master’s degree in Australia. Every year the organisation selects around five to ten IELTS trainers who only hold a bachelor’s degree to further their study in education or applied linguistics in some Australian universities.

2.    Inviting experts to hold workshops. Every month we have the opportunity to attend some workshops on the latest development trends of the IELTS exam and some advanced teaching methods.

3.     Visiting universities and other famous training centres. This approach is quite effective for us to learn in that we can draw on other’s successful experience to improve our organisation and ourselves.

4.     Training for new staff. Every summer some fresh graduates join our institution as new trainers. Our centre provides a complete set of training courses for them, including job rotation and mentoring programmes.

5.     Meetings and online platforms. We regularly hold meetings to share our ideas and discuss some problems we face. Also, we use the online platform to obtain useful resources for us to learn.

Apparently the organisation has done quite well for the professional development of staff, providing both formal and informal opportunities to learn. In the future, I would like to see that our institution can encourage teaching staff to form as many communities of practice as possible for the purpose of learning and sharing knowledge both inside and outside our institution.

To conclude, professional development benefits staff, students, and the organisation. Staff can acquire new knowledge and skills and obtain opportunities for career advancement. Students can learn more from the staff and get better results in the IELTS exam. And the organisation can attract more customers because of the high quality of its trainers.