Regional English Training Centres Project (Bootcamp Project)
The Regional English Training Centres (RETC) Project, also known as “The Boot Camp” ran from October 2016 to September 2018 and saw British Council Thailand working in close partnership with the Thai Ministry of Education for two years on a project which sought to transform the teaching of English in state primary and secondary schools across Thailand. The RETC “Boot Camp”, started with twelve British Council international teacher trainers based in 4 centres, and quickly expanded to work in 15 centres right across Thailand.
During the lifetime, the project helped to develop the communicative teaching skills, methodological practices and English proficiency of around 17,000 primary and secondary school teachers across the country.
Teachers took part in a three-week intensive course which used British Council course materials tailored to the Thai context. The trainers created a fun, dynamic and interactive training environment, giving teachers the skills they need to deliver effective English lessons back in their own schools and help their students to communicate more effectively in English.
By the end of the course, 90% of teachers felt more confident using English, just under 90% had improved their teaching skills.
The project also provided training for 45 Thai master trainers (TMTs), who completed a range of training development tasks including team-training or delivering Boot Camp training sessions. This effectively trained up a cadre of highly trained Thai teachers who are now able to take on a wide variety of roles within the Thai education system including passing on their skills and autonomously training other Thai teachersand facilitating in future English Teaching Professional Learning Communities.
In 2019, the TMTs have continued their main role in cascading their knowledges, including delivering the “Bootcamp Turbo”course, which aims to support teachers who didn’t participate in the Bootcamp intensive training. The course was redesigned to be less of the face-to-face input, and more of the online and PLC activities. More than 10,000 teachers have been reached through the Bootcamp Turbo.
Read more about the Bootcamp Project in The Story of Bootcamp.
For more information, please contact Pattanavimol Israngkura:
Pattanavimol.Israngkura@britishcouncil.or.th
Head of English for Education Systems, British Council Thailand
