Today we visit Language
in Group in company of Tim Barker, sales and account executive.
Before we start the interview, while we are trying to find a place
where we can talk, Tim tells me that he is a fan of Spain. He goes every time
he can. I comment to him how my first days in London are going and finally we
find a place near to the computer’s room.
Interview with Tim Barker
As sales and account
executive, what is your role in the School?
I promote the School overseas and in the country. I make
presentations, feedback with the customers and I try they have a good
experience. It is like Commercial Marketing.
Have you ever thought
of working as an English teacher?
I was linked to Language Schools all my life. My mum has her own
centre and since I was 14 I have been working in this sector. I think I was in
every role except the teacher one.
Tell
us a bit about the history Language in Group. I see you have three schools...
Yes, all of these schools existed in an independent way. The
school in London starts in 1999, in Dublin in 1979 and in Totnes in 1980. So we
decided 3 or 4 years ago that the best was to create a group. Anyway, even if
we are part of this Group, we didn’t have a lot of changes. We still keep our
independence in how to do the things and our familiar atmosphere.
"You
should be Learning English instead of looking Facebook” (Tim makes
a joke with 2 students)
Although you don’t have direct contact
with the students, can you tell us something about the dynamic of the class?
What is going on inside a Language in Group class?
Well, we try to be a traditional School and do things differently.
In fact, we have a course that the school itself has designed which has been
awarded by British Council where the room is the own city, London. It’s called Culture Experience and every lesson is outside
the rooms. What we do is to go to different museums of the city. For what you
need a book when you can use a piece of art?
Yes, it is luck that in London
most of the museums are free entrance.
That is why we want to take advantage on it. We try that when
students come, for example, from Spain, they don’t have the same books than
they have there.
Some of the members of the staff
Do you offer
formation to your teachers?
Yes, we have several
meetings for the staff of the 3 schools and we form up them in customer
service, to give feedback... In fact,
soon, we are going to guarantee that we will return your Money if we don’t
perform what our leaflets says.
We have now a “teacher trainer” for training our teachers
Why
Language in Group is a good choice?
The choice that a student makes before coming to England or
Ireland is big. There are millions of schools. Most of them are really good and
the big deal is to find one which suits the best to the student. This is, not
all the students will adapt to every school. In this respect, I think our
school suits to everyone who wants to feel like at home, to feel welcome, to
feel that everyone here wants to listen what you have to say. Even if they come
to complain about the course they will find someone to listen to them and to
guarantee them that the situation will change.
This school is for people who like to do funny thing, social
activities.... for people who don’t come to London only for sitting in a class
room and say “oh, I had a lot of fun studying the chapter 7”. But for people
who say “I met amazing people in the social programme, we went to a different
and interesting places... and we learnt while we were enjoying”
Thank you for the interview.
EXTRA BALL
Remember we have a promotion and you can win up to £50 if you bring a friend to study to London with POLAR CHOICE.
Visit our web and find out the details.
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