BILC Conference Madrid 2015 Stakeholder Diversity: Management, Support and Delivery

1. BILC Conference Madrid 2015 Stakeholder Diversity: Management, Support and Delivery Part I: Language Management at the Bundessprachenamt (Federal Office of Languages) Rainer Geers Deputy Head of Section “Central Planning and Policy”, Language Training 5th May 2015

2. The Genesis of Languages Pieter Bruegel the Elder

3. Bridges to “Bridge the Divide”

4. “Bridging the Divide” Organisational parameters versus NATO- requirements National Policies + = Needs analysis Planning process starts

5. Needs Analysis The requirements often change in the process of the needs analysis: • aims, contents have to be revised, • not as many people as planned have to be trained, • the individual´s language competences are too different to train them together in one class, • a special training isn´t needed, an existing course-type meets the needs, • rarely: a training is not needed at all.

6. Phases and Principles of Training Management • Check if there is already a course type in your programme that fulfills most demands. • More than 500 different course types. • Adaption of existing training types.

7. Phases and Principles of Training Management • Deal with your resources, teachers and training locations in the most flexible way. • 33 training locations • Approx. 400 teachers • Central course management, supported by regional course management Ellwangen

8. Phases and Principles of Training Management • Offer as many languages and course types possible. Regularlytaught languages (12) Languagestaught on demand (37) • Arabic (several • varieties) • Chinese • Czech • German as a • Foreign Lang. • English • French • Italian • Polish • Portuguese • Russian • Spanish • Turkish • Amharic • Albanian • Afrikaans • Bambara • Bosnian • Bulgarian • Danish • Dari • Dutch • Farsi • Finnish • Georgian • Greek • Hindi • Hungarian • Indonesian • Ivrit • Japanese • Korean • Kroatian • Latvian • Lithuanian • Macedonian • Malay • Norwegian • Pashto • Romanian • Swedish • Serbian • Slovak • Slovenian • Swahili • Thai • Ukranian • Urdu • Usbek • Vietnamese

9. Phases and Principles of Training Management • Offer as many languages and course types possible. • Close contact and cooperation with universities, language training institutions, educational and cultural institutions (teacher recruitment, course materials etc.) • Close contact and cooperation with stakeholders (Aim: Meeting the special demands of the target group) • Flexible personnel management: Permanent and project-related employment contracts

10. Phases and Principles of Training Management • Plan economically and try to plan a training for a high number of students. • Growing demand for shorter language courses (federal and state institutions). • Combined language training: alternating classroom-based training and self-study phases) • KISS - Specialise trainings only if needed and simplify them if possible. • Growing demand for specialised language courses (federal and state institutions). • E. g. technical logistic aviation English.

11. Phases and Principles of Training Management • Be aware of the qualities of your training institution. • Status of a higher federal authority, i. e. directly subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Defence. • Extension of responsibilities: linguistic services and language training for the Bundeswehr + language training for federal institutions • Never stop managing and optimizing efforts. • Central course management, supported by regional course management - at peak times up to 4100 course participants per day nationwide

12. Phases and Principles of Training Management • Our governing principle: Be pragmatic.

13. BILC Conference 2015 Stakeholder Diversity at the Federal Office of Languages: Management, Support, and Delivery Part 2: Support Dr Sabine Baltes-Ellermann Deputy Head of Section “Concepts, Teaching Materials and Tests” 5 May 2015

14. The Federal Office of Languages 14

15. Technical English for Aircraft Maintenance 15

16. Picture by Kogo, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Picture by Julian Herzog, CC-BY 4.0 Public Domain 16

17. Technical English for Aircraft Maintenance • Course subject: • technical documentation and maintenance manuals in the form of Interactive Electronic Technical Publications (IETP-X) • Course aims: • basic generic vocabulary • IETP-X-specific reading comprehension • functional writing • research skills 17

18. Technical English for Aircraft Maintenance Cartoon by Ton van Andel from books published by Leeuwis Publications 18

19. Technical English for Aircraft Maintenance 19

20. A Blended-Learning Scheme to Meet Time Constraints 20

21. A Blended-Learning Scheme alternating with The Combined Language Courses two-week courses in class several-week self-study phases 3

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31. Phrase books for missions abroad 31

32. Phrase books • Albanian • Arabic for the Middle East • Bosnian • Dari • English • French for Central Africa • Macedonian • Pashto • Russian • Serbian • Swahili für East Africa • Urdu • Uzbek • Medical phrase books • English and French 32

33. Phrase books Beispielseite 33

34. Phrase books 34

35. Epilogue In addition to teaching and testing materials i.a.w. STANAG 6001, we provide • support for highly specialized teaching projects • support for language learning outside the classroom • support for the individual outside the language learning context. 35

36. BILC Conference, Madrid 2015 Stakeholder Diversity: Management, Support and Delivery Part 3, Delivery Dr. DugaldSturges, Head of English Language Instruction 5th May 2015

38. What is a “Stakeholder”? • “Stakeholder” – a business management term. • Post, Preston & Sachs in Redefining the Corporation: Stakeholder Management and Organizational Wealth (2002), define a "stakeholder” as: "A person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization. Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies. (…) The stakeholders in a corporation are the individuals and constituencies that contribute, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to its wealth-creating capacity and activities, and that are therefore its potential beneficiaries and/or risk bearers."

39. Who are the “Stakeholders” in language training? In a language teaching context, the “Stakeholders” are • The organization commissioning the course (the customer) • The organization organizing the course (course management) • The organization developing course concepts and materials (curriculum development) • The organization delivering the course content (teachers) • The persons receiving instruction (the índividual learners) • In a word (well, three…): ALL OF US

40. Delivery Bridging the divide at the language school between national, international and multinational stakeholder requirements is as central an issue in course delivery as it is in course management and support.

41. Delivery • The stage which thatimportantgroupofstakeholders, thelearners, hasdirectcontactto. • Studentshavetheirownexpectationsofthecoursetobedelivered, whichmayormay not beidenticalwiththegoalsandconsiderationsofthestakeholdersinvolved in thefirsttwophases.

42. Catering to Specialist Needs: • International Co-operation • International Requirements • Preparation needed for interoperability

44. Diversity of stakeholder expectations Defining what personnel is intended to achieve: What is the course goal? • General proficiency? • Specialist skills? • Survival vocabulary? • Etc.

45. Needs analysis at the classroom level Does the course goal agreed to with the commissioning agency agree with the individual needs of this particular group of learners? What additional skills do the learners need?

46. Task coordination - Internal • Course management must be informed of the in-classroom challenges and – as far as possible – integrate this into course planning • Regular (e.g. quarterly) internal meetings between the strategic (management) and operative (teaching) sectors

47. Task coordination - external • Customers must also be informed of in-classroom challenges and take this into consideration when registering students for courses • Implications for the individual students and for the target group as a whole must be understood by all parties • Understandings and agreements reached with parties responsible for booking training must be respected • Placement priorities: by language level ,by topic or by target skills?

48. Diversity of international requirements

49. Example 1: Language for Multinational Missions French for GSG 9 Bambara English for Military Experts on Mission To meet NATO / EU / UN requirements For military and law enforcement personnel

50. Example 2: Aviation English Federal Police Aviators‘ School: Pre-flight school training (8 weeks) Federal Police Air Support Service: ICAO refresher course for flying personnel (2 weeks) Federal Police Air Support Service: Technical English (4 weeks, various levels) To meet UN (ICAO) and EU (EASA) requirements For law enforcement personnel