Cambridge ESOL re-organises for improved service
In streamlining the organisation and its processes, Cambridge ESOL recently re-organised some of its structures and redefined some of the key roles. Under the leadership of Chief Executive, Dr Mike Milanovic, there are now six departments.
Assessment & Operations
The Examinations & Assessment Group and the Operations Group have been combined under the directorship of Roger Johnson. The enlarged department brings together the production of exams with On Demand Processing, Pretesting, Examiners & Materials Commissioning and Performance Testing units.
Customer Services
A new Customer Services department brings together five units - the Centres Support Unit, the Inspections Unit, the Centre Registration Unit, the Projects Office and the IT Quality Assurance Unit. The director of Customer Services is Sarah Corcoran.
Research & Validation
The group, headed by the director, Nick Saville, continues to be responsible for the validation of the exams and the results and also for the quality management of products and services and the research projects that support new assessment techniques and methodologies, led by highly qualified assessment specialists.
Business Support Group
The Business Support Group, under the directorship of Susan Randall, helps drive forward Cambridge ESOL’s business through its four units; Business Development, Business Development Support Unit, Marketing Services and Business Planning & Financial Management Unit.
Asset Languages
The Asset programme is an important development for Cambridge ESOL and has grown considerably over the last 18 months. A separate department to drive and implement assessment initiatives has been set up under the directorship of Barrie Hunt.
Stakeholder Relations & Legal Affairs
This is a new department, with specific responsibility for managing a number of key stakeholder relationships and initiatives, and co-ordinating legal affairs across Cambridge ESOL. It has been set up under the directorship of Christine Nuttall who was formerly Director, Assessment.
Test for primary school teachers in Italy
English is now a compulsory subject in all five years of primary education in Italy. With new reforms phasing out specialised English teachers in primary schools, the Italian Ministry of Education is funding four years of English language training for general primary school teachers. As part of this training, Cambridge ESOL is offering an immediate placement testing service to the regional education authorities (Uffici Scolastici Regionali).
The service uses the Quick Placement Test, provided by Oxford University Press, which is delivered electronically and covers reading, writing and listening skills. Speaking skills can be tested using KET (Key English Test). The testing is organised in liaison with the regional education authorities and administered by Cambridge ESOL authorised centres.
SiLT Volume 22
The latest volume in the Studies in Language Teaching series - The impact of high-stakes testing on classroom teaching: a case study using insights from testing and innovation theory, by Dianne Wall - gives an account of one of the first data-based studies of examination ‘washback’.
For more information, please visit www.CambridgeESOL.org/research/silt.htm
Fond farewell to Silvia Holmes Brown
Sylvia Holmes Brown recently retired as Chair of the Cambridge ESOL Co-ordinating Committee in Argentina. She has been a Local Secretary and has chaired the committee since its creation in 1992.
Further Information
Cambridge ESOL Information, 1 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB1 2EU, United Kingdom
Tel. +44 1223 553355 Fax. +44 1223 460278
e-mail ESOLinfo@CambridgeESOL.org | web www.CambridgeESOL.org