Cert IBET Scholarship

Cert IBET Scholarship Winners

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• 2011 Scholarship Winner

  The winner of the Cert IBET scholarship, sponsored by IATEFL BESIG, English UK and The Consultants-E is Sabina Pillai.
  
  Sabina is an Associate Professor of English at Delhi University, India, where she teaches Business English to final year graduate Commerce students and Business Communication to first year undergraduate students of Commerce Honours.
  
  She has been involved in teaching Business English for many years working with vocational and professional students and institutes in the hospitality, tourism, paramedic, aviation and engineering sectors. Her doctoral research is in the area of a semiotic analysis of Communication. She is also a Cambridge ESOL examiner.
  
  Additionally she runs a consultancy in teaching and training corporate executives in Business Communication skills such as presentation skills, negotiation skills, culture and gender awareness programmes at the workplace, report writing, training trainers, etc.
  
  

  Corporate clients she has worked with include Sri Lankan Airlines, Colombo, Sri Lanka, Dialog MTN, Malaysia, International Institute Of Hospitality, Sylhet, Bangladesh, EscoSoft, India, Engineers India Ltd., India, Confederation of Indian Industries, Philips and Wipro Spectramind.

• 2010 Scholarship Winners

  The 2010 outstanding scholarship winners were Akos Gerold and Maxim Achkasov, who shared with us some insights into their professional development and aspirations as language teachers as follows:

  
  

  Akos Gerold (Serbia)

  
  

  Having graduated in English language and literature from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia in early 2001 and done a subsequent 18-month stint as a sports journalist, I decided to devote myself entirely to teaching EFL. In 2002, I took up my current position as a Language Instructor with the Department of English, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, where I taught English to both specialists and non-specialists for a number of years before opting to work with the latter only. Since 2002, I have also been working as an EFL teacher with the Lingua Foreign Language Centre in Novi Sad, which is the largest private language teaching establishment in Serbia in terms of candidates for the Cambridge ESOL exams. It was here, and by chance, that I started teaching business English and grew to love it. Later added teaching legal English to my professional repertoire. Since then, I have advanced to the position of BE and LE Coordinator, and now I am preparing candidates for Cambridge ESOL exams in general, business and legal English. Since May 2009 I have also been working as an Oral Examiner for Cambridge ESOL exams in Serbia. In 2008 I obtained the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Further Certificate for Teachers of Business English (Pass with Distinction). To deepen my study of BE, in the 2010/2011 academic year I am going to start my MA course in linguistics at the University of Novi Sad and make BE the focus of my thesis. Parallel to my MA studies, and as one of the two recipients of the BESIG, Trinity College London, English UK and The Consultants-E joint scholarship, I am delighted to take part in the Cert IBET online course staring on 1 October 2010.

  
  

  Maxim Achkasov (Ukraine)

  
  

  My interest in teaching dates back to my teenage years. I was genuinely fascinated with the beauty and authority I saw in the work of my teachers. Gradually my desire to study grew into a passion to devote myself to education and development as a teacher. When I finished the first year of the Ukrainian Theological Seminary in 1998 I had the highest marks and, as one of the best students, was awarded with the full scholarship for the following year. By the end of the second year, I was recommended to go the Regents Theological College (Cheshire) to continue my studies there. In 2002, while studying in England I got acquainted with Jean Binns, the senior tutor and director of the Regents English Language Centre, who advised me to take the INTESOL course and start teaching English. So I did and have never regretted it. I have been working as a teacher for more than eight years and I can’t say that there is a better place for me to be in than the classroom. For over three years I have been running the Language Studio Glagoll where business and general English language courses are offered. This is also my first year as a Business English SIG coordinator for IATEFL Ukraine. I sincerely hope that this course (Cert IBET) will be of benefit not only to me, but also to my peers and colleagues here in Ukraine.