Pre-departure training for Ministry of Health

IALF Surabaya has recently completed an intensive pre-departure program for the Indonesian Ministry of Health.

A group of ten students left for Australia in July to undertake a Masters degree program in Public Health (Leadership) at Southern Cross University in Lismore, NSW; Southern Cross is a leading centre for the provision of public health courses that focus on rural contexts. The
program is particularly relevant for this group who work in remote rural locations in West Java, assisting in the provision of health services. In addition to the formal aspects of their university work, data collected from Indonesia will be incorporated in their study. This will
enhance the practical value of the course for them, making it more applicable to their work on their return.

The custom designed course ran for 13 weeks at IALF Surabaya, and included English for Academic Purposes, (with an ESP slant towards health-related issues), as well as computer skills training, library skills and cross cultural communication skills. In addition, as the students require an IELTS score before departure, their course included an IELTS preparation component.

It was not all hard work however. The class, with their teachers, visited Mount Bromo in East Java for the weekend, staying overnight on the mountain. Besides being great fun, the weekend was also part of the team-building objective of the course in preparation for their time studying together in Lismore.

IALF teacher Terry Russell leading a language learning activity with the group during their trip to Mt. Bromo.

IELTS Assessor Training in Bangkok

Richard Howells, Manager, IALF Jakarta and Vlad Pejovic, Program Manager, IALF Bali recently attended an IELTS Assessor Trainer
Training workshop in Bangkok. The aim of the workshop was to train IELTS assessor trainers in the new marking system for the IELTS
Writing test. This will come into effect on 1 January 2005. The workshop was conducted by Denley Pike, an IELTS Senior Examiner.

All IELTS assessors will need to be trained in the use of the new performance descriptors before the end of 2004. The revisions are part of a substantial process of development and validation which began in June 2001. These revisions aim to provide more comprehensive assessment criteria and analytical rating scales.

Richard and Vlad, who have, over the years, conducted IELTS assessor training throughout the Asia Pacific region, will be training existing IELTS assessors in the new marking system to ensure that they are re-certificated in time for the change. IALF has 55 IELTS assessors working across its three centres in Indonesia.

Indonesia Australia Language Foundation IALF Language Centres in Indonesia:
Jakarta Jalan H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. C-6 Jakarta 12940 Indonesia Tel. (62-21) 521-3350 Fax (62-21) 521-3349 ialfjkt@ialf.edu	Surabaya Jalan Sumatera No. 49 Surabaya 60281 East Java Tel. (62-31) 502-6400 Fax (62-31) 502-6408 ialfsby@ialf.edu	Bali Jalan Raya Sesetan 190 Denpasar Bali 80223 Tel. (62-361) 225-243 Fax (62-361) 263-509 ialfbali@ialf.edu