Tashkent hosts training for English language teachers of tourism colleges

The training was organized within a joint project “English for tourism”. The organizers of the training were British Council in cooperation with Center for secondary special education of Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education of Uzbekistan.

The training was aimed at improving skills of English language teachers in the sphere of tourism. Within the training, the participants considered peculiarities of teaching English language. The training had practical direction and it focused on teaching students of colleges for their future employment.

Six-day training included lessons on methods of teaching professional English language, including writing successful correspondence, business communication, etc. Within the session, the meeting with employers and representatives of businesses in tourism sector was held.

Currently English language as a global communication language is becoming important in labour market and the language is becoming popular among youth, including among students of professional colleges and academic lyceums. This will help to improve their chance to receive employment. The course “English for special goals” is actual in the system of secondary special education, which will help graduates to improve their language skills. The course is a pilot and after successful testing, it will be introduced to secondary special education of Uzbekistan. Annually, professional colleges, specialized in tourism sector, graduate about 1,700 young people. About 20 teachers are participating in the pilot project, which train 30 students each. So, about 500 students are engaged in the project.

British Council in cooperation with the Center for secondary special education is implementing several projects on studying market labour and determine necessary skills of graduating in the process of works. Implementation of the project “English for tourism” is designed for four years and it includes three directions: increasing skills of English language teachers of tourism colleges, developing educational materials of English language for students and teachers, as well as improving educational progammes on tourism direction.

This training is the third event, which was held in this sphere. It is planned to hold several such events in 2014. Similar events were held in August 2013 and January 2014. After successful implementation of the project, this experience will be implemented for other industries.