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Len Grates
International Director |
International Training Network is an interdenominational Christian organisation, founded in 1995 with the aim of training Christians to teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL/TESOL).
The idea for a teacher training centre began in the summer of 1993 when, together with a team of English teachers, Len Grates and his wife Julie ran a two-week English language camp in Julie's homeland of Hungary. During this camp Len recognised the need for a centre where Christians could be trained to teach much-needed English language skills, while building bridges of friendship. Over the next eighteen months, the vision took shape.
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Len was put in touch with Christian TESOL professionals equipped to set up the centre, recognition was obtained through Trinity College London (one of the two British examining boards whose short, intensive TESOL training courses are recognised and respected worldwide), and in January 1995 the first 5-week course was launched.
Since the foundation of International Training Network, we have run approximately seventy intensive 5-week courses, each being externally moderated by Trinity College, London. We have also run introductory taster courses, including one-week training courses in teaching English to Immigrants and Asylum-seekers. In addition, we have worked in association with certain organisations to provide courses tailored to their specific TEFL training needs. Two such organisations are the Senior Volunteer Network, which has a membership of mainly retired Christian high school and junior school teachers, and an American mission organisation which places groups of workers overseas on short-term assignments.
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The majority of our courses take place in Bournemouth, UK, but we have also run courses in other locations in England as well as in Poland, Australia and Central Asia.
We are now entering a new and exciting phase in the life of International Training Network, with the development of a range of online courses which provide access to training for those people for whom a face to face course is not a viable option. |
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Our trainees range in age from 16-80 years and include those who speak English as a mother tongue and those for whom English is a foreign language. Currently, over 1,000 trainees have been trained by ITN and many have taught in salaried or voluntary employment at home and abroad.
We encourage our former trainees to keep in touch with us and each other through our 'Network Community'.
In addition to training people to become teachers of English, we have developed a programme for training trainers. A number of well qualified and experienced teachers have taken part in this programme, some of whom now work with us on a freelance basis.
We are a member of the Evangelical Alliance and have adopted its Statement of Faith.
International training Network Council of Reference:
Baroness Cox, Professor the Lord Alton of Liverpool, Professor Hugh Barr, Ken Brew, F.C.A., Rev. Dr Stephen Brady, Rev. Mike Frisby, Mrs Hilda Gordon, Lt. Col. Malcolm Hitchcott, Rev. Norman Meeten, Rev. Bill Molenkamp, Dr David Vine, David Williams. |
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