International students in Australia have a variety of options when choosing a school to learn English. Some opt for a ‘chill’ or ‘fun’ school, where students engage in extracurricular activities most of the time, without much focus on improving their English “test-score” level. We understand those schools and students, but we can see the students don’t improve their scores quickly.
Sometimes English students from other providers have enrolled in our VET courses but been unable to achieve “Equivalent to IELTS 6” which is the current entry standard. Some students with an “Upper Intermediate” result had a hard time understanding instructions during orientation, and our “safety-conscious” trade trainers excluded them from their class as “unsafe for the trade environment”.
We don’t want our English students to waste their time and resources that’s why we research and experiment to develop more reliable ways to get better test scores.
So how did ACADEMIQUE ‘s English Course start?
Our principal has been teaching English as a second language for nearly 35 years. He started working at Bond University when it was in Surfers Paradise, before Robina campus was finished.
He did his Masters in ESL while teaching and managing schools in Japan for over ten years.
ACADEMIQUE didn’t teach English originally, but we had so many struggling students who needed more English, we started teaching a “VET English” program in a little school in the back streets of Southport.
Working together with many talented teachers, the school developed ways for students to steadily increase their English test scores. Most of our teachers are bilingual, so we know exactly how hard it is to learn another language, we know what works, and we want to develop new ways to help.
Now we have over 600 VET and ELICOS students from 47 different countries in 4 locations including this historical former pub near Chinatown in Southport.
Then and Now
It’s been a gathering place since 1878, and now it’s open for ELICOS 10 to 8.30 Monday to Friday! And, thanks to a very clever system developed in Japan, everyone can turn up any time and join suitable learning activities. (Sign in anytime on the red clipboard and we count the hours!)
Our English program staff and managers are experts with experience from many years of studying and teaching all over the world. It’s very rewarding to work in a school that has such a strong focus on improving.
A range of different classes is available to deal with every kind of problem that students experience, including low levels and listening, speaking, writing and grammar classes. Our VET students can join classes for free to get ready for future tests.
Now that VET entry standards have been raised to “Equivalent to IELTS 6” we’ve been monitoring student results and to see what works best. We recently started the “Target 6” classes 4 evenings every week to really help students get the practice and knowledge they need to increase their test scores.
If you pass the college in the evenings, you’ll often see a large group of students with multiple staff working together to get better test scores using specially selected materials.
Drop in and check out our great system to “Get Better Faster” if that’s what you need.
But!!! If you visit during the week before tests, everyone will be very quietly studying… With their “Eyes on the Prize”.
😊
