Tom Tuohy

The maturing of the Thai EFL industry

Something tells me there’s a bright future ahead,

1st December 2009

I began this column for ajarn.com some six months ago with a look at the way that writing is taught in Thailand, and I bemoaned the fact that there is a dearth of creative writing programs which allow Thai students to better develop their critical and creative thinking processes. I focused on the exceptional creative writing program offered at Lanna International School in Chiang Mai as an example of what can be achieved e.g. because its students won a major international award for their creative writing.

This for me was one of the signs that something good is happening in terms of education here, especially though not exclusively within the language teaching and learning environment; a sign that there is a clear and blossoming element which is an indication of a maturing of the language teaching sector as a whole. What we are seeing more and more of these days, are the different ways in which Thai and international students can access new language, and through a much wider set of mediums e.g. satellite links to classrooms, more blended learning, new and more modern teaching methods, external validation of courses, and international recognition of Thailand as a great place to study for international students.

Another example has been the commitment by The Royal Thai Government (RTG) to raising the standards of teaching here by providing money to provide a better standard of education for all Thai students. This has been part of the Second Educational Reforms (the First being in 1999) and the RTG has pledged at least 18 billion baht guaranteeing free education for all local students till the age of fifteen as well. The RTG is also attempting to plug the estimated shortfall in demand of 100,000 teachers by waiving the normal entrance test (to become civil servants) for new recruits, so the government is clearly doing a lot to improve things and making Thailand a more attractive place to teach and study.

Other examples abound e.g. the company Corporate English Consulting in the business English sector which is the first and only provider of the internationally recognized Business Language Testing Service (BULATS) test as part of the most widely accepted platforms for assessing English language teaching, the Common European Framework (CEF). This system is already the accepted benchmark for testing in business in Europe and is also being used in other lesser known places like the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.

But perhaps the best example of a sign of the maturing of the Thai language teaching sector is the work that has been done by John Quinn at SEE TEFL in Chiang Mai. I say this because their teacher training centre has recently received full ISO 9001:2008 status as an educational provider which has to rank as a pretty significant "first" among the others in Thailand. It also provides a welcome choice for those who don't want to go down the traditional CELTA or Trinity teacher training route.

(The graduate trainees of the recent course, August 31st - September 25th, 2009, reproduced here by kind permission of SEE TEFL

For those not familiar with this, ISO 9001:2008 is the latest version of the ISO standard for quality management systems. To gain this status, there is both internal and external auditing, and it is ISO that provides that external auditing. The standard includes elements like quality policy, which must be understood at all levels of the organization, quality decisions, quality management record-keeping, planning, and development, quality management, a regular performance review of internal auditing, and the precise documentation of procedures and exception management.

All in all, this is a pretty comprehensive commitment for any organization to undertake, not to mention expensive, although the training costs at SEE TEFL were subsidised 50% by the Thai Ministry of Industry's SME centre in Chiang Mai.

What this in effect means is that SEE TEFL is certified and audited by Bureau Veritas. If you do a quick search on Google, it will tell you that this company is the world's leading certification body with over 80,000 clients in more than 100 countries, and a global network of 5,700 highly qualified auditors and expertise that is recognized by more than 35 national and international accreditation bodies. Pretty impressive indeed.

The SEE TEFL certification is accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) which is the sole national accreditation body recognized by the UK government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organizations that provide certification services.

I caught up with John recently and asked him about the success of his program and what he thinks of the maturing of the Thai EFL sector.

"The TEFL industry is still growing quite a bit and so it is best characterized as uneven levels of maturation. The fact that we have sought and been awarded this certification is one sign of increasing maturity, as with increasing competition the need to stand out and to set a standard and lead becomes more and more important."

I was keen to know more about this course as it is clearly growing in popularity. I asked a recent graduate, Peter Kenny, what he thought made the course special for him? He identified three main areas which are: price, the range of classes (taught in the teaching practice sessions), and the cultural awareness training.

"The main difference for a prospective student is that the cost is low but the quality is still good. The best thing was the range of classes that we prepared for: from college nurses to elementary school students. It was fun learning the Thai, and the cultural awareness was interesting."

Clearly, there are lots of positive things going on at SEE TEFL. I asked John about his future plans and where he sees his organisation in the next 5 years.

"We feel that we have set the standard for others to follow. We would like to encourage all course providers to be externally audited by professional independent organizations such as Bureau Veritas and follow quality standards recognized by an authority such as ISO. Currently we are considering an offer to open a second school in Asia. We will ensure first that quality is standardized wherever the SEE TEFL brand is used."

Something tells me there's a bright future ahead, not just for SEE TEFL, but for the Thailand education sector as a whole.

Tom Tuohy is a teacher and writer. His book - ‘Watching the Thais: From the Outside Looking in' - is published by Legend Press, the UK. Versions in both Thai and English will soon be published in Thailand. You can access Tom's blog here.

Tags: tefl certificates tefl courses iso processes iso applications bulats test