Rokiah Mahmud
Seven local teachers completed their Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) course conducted by the Centre for British Teacher’s (CFBT) Brunei.
Nur Shaahidah binti Sulaiman, Siti Syazwani binti Haji Mohamad Usop, Nur ‘Afiqah Nasuha binti Abdul Ghani and Suok Jiun Hii received their certificates yesterday.
Syazana Izzaty binti Haji Ramlan, Shamin Afiq bin Saizul Akmal and Rahmah binti Abdullah will receive their certificates respectively.
The centre boasts a reputation as highly regarded in producing qualified English teachers.
“It’s the qualification that most often requested by employers – three out of four English language teaching jobs require a CELTA qualification,” said CfBT Brunei Country Manager Dominic Morley during the certificate presentation at CfBT Centre in Kiarong yesterday.
Morley added that CELTA is the most widely recognised English language teaching qualification in the world.
“CfBT gained accreditation to run CELTA courses in 2016. Since then, teachers have graduated through us and Bruneians as well. For the past three years, we had just two Bruneians and the number continued to rise to 13. The world is truly out that we are a teacher training centre of high quality.
“For some graduates, a CELTA award is filling a CV gap, while for others it can be the stepping stone to a new career in Brunei or overseas,” he said.
Meanwhile, CfBT Head of Training and Learning Rob Tunnell said the CELTA course is an unusual piece of professional development and its strength lies in the fact that it is not testing theory or an ability to repeat information.
“It is learning a practical teaching pedagogy or methodology today and demonstrating this is your teaching tomorrow,” Tunnell said. “It is that check and balance that makes the course stand out and makes CELTA trusted by governments and educationalists over the world.”
He also said that over 60 graduates have completed the CELTA with CfBT where the majority have been international expatriates.