TIME TO WEIGH UP THE OUTCOME OF THIS CRAZY 2020
2020 has been a year out of the ordinary, it really has tested us all. Although, at Artelingua we can look back with some satisfaction. We have been able to draw on our experience and find other opportunities. I’d like to tell you about them one at a time.
E-LEARNING
The obstacles caused by the Covid pandemic have provided us with new opportunities and methods in the way we approach teaching. Today we are able to offer teaching with different approaches: both in person and online. By evaluating clients needs, whether they are companies or private students we can offer the best path for them to follow and guaranteeing, in both cases, an excellent quality of service, from the point of view of their professional needs to their technical and language requirements.
FORMATION
During the less intensive months, due to the absence of our usual groups of foreign students coming to Spoleto (We miss you madly!) we have invested in and concentrated on training our teachers to obtain higher professional qualifications. Our teacher are now all certified by TEFL and CELTA Cambridge and are constantly undergoing updated training courses on how to teach students wishing to take Cambridge and IELTS exams.
FORMAL RECOGNITION
This has enabled us to undertake the long process of reaching the number of enrolments needed to obtain our new certification by Cambridge ESOL, which permits us to be an official preparation centre for Cambridge exams. Therefore every student intending to obtain a certified Cambridge qualification will be followed step by step until they reach their certification.
At the same time, we started the process needed to become a Referral Centre in Umbria for IELTS Exams. IELTS is a specific exam required by academics and Universities, especially for students wishing to go to University in an English speaking country.
Recognition has recently been achieved for this and it enables our candidates to follow a professional path in their preparations with use of our resources and services at their disposal.
ITALIAN SCHOOL LICET
Another objective we have been successful in reaching is achieving our goal of Artelingua becoming an Italian school for foreigners. We are among the 50 schools of Italian language and culture that have contributed to the birth of a national association dedicated to the strategic sector of tourism in Italy. We have always been great ambassadors of Spoleto and the region of Umbria.
A PERSONAL REFLECTION
2021 marks the 10th anniversary of ArteLingua.
Many people have told me that, in this past year, they would not have believed that something that requires so much time and effort which is located in such a small territory where there are not a lot of requests as well as in such an economic downturn that we have endured for the past decade, would be thriving. In fact we have gone through an economic crisis without precedent, the cultural and economic decline of our city including the devastating earthquake coupled with all its consequences and now living through the pandemic it is as if we are in a constant battle. Yet here we are, getting better all the time.
ArteLingua owes a lot to those who believed in us from the beginning and who have, through time, followed without ever having any doubts.
There will be many surprises in the future and both our own and your perseverance, just as stubbornness, will certainly pay off.
Thank you all.
Elisa Bassetti
