Over 30 English medium TVET colleges have been established in Saudi Arabia by the Colleges of Excellence initiative. Early results on PET and KET exams were disappointing. A six-month project using consultants addressed the issues and developed a quality strategy for English in TVET.

1. AN ENGLISH QUALITY
STRATEGY FOR VOCATIONAL
EDUCATION IN SAUDI ARABIA
Waleed Bajouda
Senior Education
Manager
Colleges of Excellence
Paul Woods
Freelance
Consultant
and

2. WHAT ARE THE COLLEGES OF EXCELLENCE?
1. Set up to reform SA’s vocational and technical
colleges through internationalization.
2. Worth over $ 1 billion dollars investment.
3. An ambitious attempt to use education as a primary
tool for producing human capital with a good
command of English.
4. Maximum exposure to Western best practices and
knowledge through English-medium training.
5. Over 30 English-medium International branch
campuses established since 2013.

3. MALE COLLEGE LOCATIONS (19)

4. FEMALE COLLEGE LOCATIONS (18)

5. VISION
“Connecting learners to world class training,
opening the door to a successful future”
MISSION
“We foster relationships between top
quality training providers, learners and
local employers”
PARTNERS

6. GOAL FOR EFL
To provide high quality EFL
provision which enables
vocational students to enter
and succeed on
internationally recognised
Saudi Skills Standards
vocational programmes and
to communicate effectively
in English in the workplace
and wider society.

7. PREMISES – NO EXPENSE WAS SPARED!

8. DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED
• Entry level of students - in some colleges up to 70% not
literate in English
• Availability of appropriate syllabuses, schemes of work,
books and materials
• Poor exam results on PET in the first 11 colleges in 2014,
with only 10% achieving the required CEFR level to start
their technical/vocational courses
• Teacher recruitment issues
• Student attitudes and motivation

9. …….DIFFICULTIES
• Conflicting demands of teaching the Basic Interpersonal
Communication Skills needed to pass KET and PET exams
and the Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency needed for
vocational/technical programmes
• Some providers lacked experience in running TVET
programmes in GCC countries
• Others?????

10. QUALITY IMPROVEMENT FOR ENGLISH
• Following a tendering
process, CoE appointed a
team of consultants to
identify the issues and come
up with a plan for quality
improvement.
• 6-month mini-project from
February to July 2015

11. ELEMENTS OF THE PROJECT
• Needs analysis. A team of international consultants visited
all 33 colleges currently operating (February 2015)
• Two-day training workshops for English teachers were held
in regional centres (March 2015)
• A two-day workshop for managers (March 2015)
• A website for managers and teachers was created
• Individual consultancy visits and follow up sessions (July
2015)
• Creation of a set of legacy documents

15. QA STRATEGY RECOMMENDATIONS –
THE QA PROCESS
Establish a Quality Assurance Steering Group.
Agree an annual Self Assessment Review (SAR).
Revise and update the Internal Quality
Improvement Plan (QIP).
Appoint an internal QA Lead for English.
Ensure all EL staff are familiar with the EFL Quality
Framework.

16. RECOMMENDATIONS – DOMAIN 1 STUDENT
OUTCOMES
Use placement tests which discriminate adequately.
Document learning goals in an Individual Learning
Plan.
Give awards recognising achievement as well as
attendance.
Schedule formal and informal formative
assessments regularly.
Motivate students by using technology.
Make study skills/skills for employability a key
element of the FY programme.
Incorporate short periods of work experience.

17. DOMAIN 2 – TEACHING, LEARNING AND
ASSESSMENT
Agree a modular core curriculum for the Foundation
Year for students with low level literacy skills on
entry.
Develop schemes of work covering both cognitive
academic language and the general English needed
for basic interpersonal communication and to pass
the exit exams.
Consider adopting e-learning components of
published courses.

18. TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
College-based TPD using the TVET website.
Individual self-study.
Support for certificated external training.
Short face-to-face training courses.
Coaching for managers.
Support for attendance at conferences.
Use the Cambridge Teachers’ website.

19. ASSESSMENT
Develop a system-wide tailor-made placement test
and diagnostic assessment.
Stream students by level.
Assess student progress regularly.
Provide further staff training in various aspects of
testing.

20. DOMAIN 3– LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT
Appoint Heads of English with EFL as well as
TVET/FE experience.
Involved colleges in teacher recruitment.
Establish a clear progression and training for
national staff.
Improve teacher induction and performance
management.

21. DOMAIN 4 FACILITIES AND RESOURCES
Invest adequately in the equipment and resources
needed for vocational subjects.
Use visual displays throughout the college.

22. …. EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS
Develop an e-learning strategy.
Acquire a learning management system/platform.
Develop a strategy for using portable handheld
devices.
Establish a Learning Resource Centre.
Promote the use of book boxes and class sets of
simplified readers.
Promote and develop the TVET English website.

23. THE RESULT – CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT