Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας στο χώρο των ξενόγλωσσων εκπαιδευτικών επιχειρήσεων (Β' μέρος)

Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας στο χώρο των ξενόγλωσσων εκπαιδευτικών επιχειρήσεων στην Ελλάδα, οι παγίδες για πιστοποιημένες και μη επιχειρήσεις, η θέση της Ελλάδας και άλλων χωρών της ΕΕ απέναντι στον παράγοντα της πιστοποίησης. (Β' μέρος)

Σημείωση:
Το κείμενο που ακολουθεί αποτελεί μέρος της εισαγωγής του πονήματος του υπογράφοντος με τίτλο «Το εθνικό ψυχολογικό προφίλ του Έλληνα στην ενιαία ευρωπαϊκή αγορά – Προσόντα και δεξιότητες». Με σεβασμό στον διατιθέμενο χώρο της ELT News, που για πρώτη φορά το δημοσιεύει, θα ολοκληρωθεί σε δύο μέρη.

Στο προηγούμενο τεύχος (Α’ μέρος) αναπτύχθηκαν:
· ΠΑΡΑΔΟΧΕΣ
· ΑΝΑΠΤΥΞΗ
o Ένα σύντομο ιστορικό της πιστοποίησης ποιότητας στην Ευρώπη

Β’ μέρος

Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας στην εκπαίδευση

Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας στην εκπαίδευση δεν έχει και ιδιαίτερα μεγάλη ιστορία ως καταναλωτικό προϊόν στην Ευρώπη. Ενώ στις Η.Π.Α. διαμορφώθηκαν από καιρό σώματα πιστοποίησης εκπαιδευτικής ποιότητας ad hoc, στην Ευρώπη τα μόνα παραδείγματα παρατηρήθηκαν στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο. Αυτό βέβαια, από μόνο του, αποτελεί πιθανώς ένδειξη του ότι η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας αποτελεί προϊόν καταναλωτικού και κεφαλαιοκρατικού ανταγωνιστικού φιλελεύθερου αγοραστικού προσανατολισμού. Στις υπόλοιπες χώρες το εκπαιδευτικό σύστημα περιχαρακωνόταν μόνο από τις τάσεις του κρατικού εκπαιδευτικού συστήματος, ενώ οι ιδιωτικές εκπαιδευτικές επιχειρήσεις υπόκειντο στους όρους που διέπουν το κρατικό εκπαιδευτικό σύστημα ως προς τη νομιμότητα του εκπαιδευτικού προγράμματος, ενώ ως προς τη λειτουργία και τις προϋποθέσεις της παροχής καθ’ αυτής, συνήθως αρκούσαν οι κοινές επαγγελματικές άδειες και οι άδειες επιχειρηματικής λειτουργίας κατά τον κατά τόπους εμπορικό και αστικό κώδικα.

Από πολλά χρόνια στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο λειτουργούσαν δύο βασικά σχήματα πιστοποίησης εύρυθμης λειτουργίας και ποιότητας ξενόγλωσσων και μη εκπαιδευτικών επιχειρήσεων, ένα ο κώδικας του ABLS (Association of British Language Schools) και ένας ο κώδικας του πολύπαθου οργανισμού ARELS/British Council. Μόλις το 2004 η γραμματεία παιδείας του Ηνωμένου Βασιλείου άρχισε να διερευνά ποιος κώδικας θα μπορούσε να υιοθετηθεί ως επαρκής για την αδειοδότηση γενικώς ιδιωτικών εκπαιδευτικών επιχειρήσεων, γεγονός που δείχνει την επιτυχημένη και ρεαλιστική προσέγγιση των δύο ενώσεων στους στόχους τους.

Διάφοροι κώδικες προέκυψαν σε διευρωπαϊκό επίπεδο στα πλαίσια που αρκετά χρόνια πριν διάφοροι μεγαλοεταίροι δημιούργησαν το ISO. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, μεγάλες αλυσίδες ή δίκτυα (π.χ. BELL, International House, British Council, κλπ.), άρχισαν να δημιουργούν τις προϋποθέσεις αναγνωρισιμότητας και επέκτασης στα κράτη-μέλη της ΕΕ, με στόχο να «πιέσουν» τις μικρομικρές εκπαιδευτικές επιχειρήσεις στις κατά τόπους αγορές. Είναι περιττό, φυσικά, να αναφερθούμε στο στόχο ελέγχου της μεγαλύτερης αγοράς μικρών εκπαιδευτικών επιχειρήσεων στην Ευρώπη, την Ελλάδα, και την προφανή επιρροή που είχε σε νέα προς προσχώρηση στην ΕΕ κράτη της Ανατολικής Ευρώπης, όπου το φαινόμενο των φροντιστηριακού τύπου μικρών εκπαιδευτικών επιχειρήσεων άρχισε να εξαπλώνεται.
Οι επιχειρήσεις πίσω από τους κώδικες αυτούς έκαναν εύστοχη χρήση της αναγνωρισιμότητάς τους, της ισχύος και επιρροής τους σε εκπαιδευτικούς επιτρόπους της ΕΕ, της δημιουργικής συμμετοχής τους σε ερευνητικά προγράμματα και όργανα της ΕΕ, και δημιούργησαν ένα μεγάλο δίκτυο συμμάχων σε όλες τις μικρότερες ή νεότερες χώρες, οργανώνοντάς τους, και έχοντας παράλληλα γνώση των αδυναμιών βιωσιμότητας των συγκεκριμένων επιχειρήσεων, οι οποίες ούτως ή άλλως τους συνέφεραν στην περίπτωση εμφάνισής τους στις νέες αγορές. Μιλάμε κοινώς για το επιχειρηματικό φαινόμενο του Δούρειου Ίππου.

Υπάρχουν δικαιολογημένες προσπάθειες των συλλογικών οργάνων τοπικών αγορών που έχουν συνασπιστεί με τους φορείς αυτούς, να δημιουργήσουν σχετικά διαφοροποιημένα σχήματα ελέγχου και πιστοποίησης ποιότητας για τις τοπικές τους αγορές, δεδομένου ότι γνωρίζουν τις ιδιομορφίες της αγοράς τους καλύτερα. Παρ’ όλα αυτά, απ’ ότι φαίνεται αυτές οι εξελίξεις έχουν «ερεθίσει» τους διεθνείς φορείς και την προοπτική που επιτρέπουν για επιβολή των μεγάλων οργανισμών-εμπνευστών τους, και έχουν αρχίσει «πολιτικού» τύπου προστριβές και ρήξεις μεταξύ των μελών.

Η θέση της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης στον παράγοντα της πιστοποίησης ποιότητας και προσόντων

Η ελληνική κυβέρνηση εδώ και πάνω από μισό αιώνα διατηρεί την ίδια θέση απέναντι σε οποιουδήποτε τύπου πιστοποίηση. Για να γίνω όμως πιο σαφής, θα πρέπει να μιλήσω για δύο ήδη πιστοποίησης:
Α) Η πιστοποίηση προσόντων ατόμων και επαγγελματιών
Β) Η πιστοποίηση επιχειρήσεων

Και στις δύο περιπτώσεις, η στάση της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης αντανακλά την εθνική μας ανασφάλεια, καχυποψία και όλα τα ψυχολογικά σύνδρομα, τα οποία θα πρέπει κάποια στιγμή να πάψουμε να αποδίδουμε στην οθωμανική κατοχή, μιας και αντίστοιχα σύνδρομα παρατηρούνται σε όλο το φάσμα της ελληνικής ιστορίας.

Ένας παράγοντας ή φορέας θεωρεί ότι χρειάζεται με κάποιο τυποποιημένο τρόπο να πιστοποιήσει τα προσόντα του ή την επάρκειά του, μόνο όταν νιώθει ότι δεν διαθέτει αρκετά μέσα ή επιχειρήματα για να τα αποδείξει έμπρακτα. Επίσης ένας παράγοντας ή φορέας νιώθει την ανάγκη να πιστοποιηθεί τυποποιημένα όταν υποπτεύεται ότι ο ελεγκτής, εξεταστής, εργοδότης ή πελάτης θα θεωρήσει την τεκμηρίωσή του ανεπαρκή, έστω και αν είναι επαρκής, είτε λόγω έλλειψης κριτηρίων, είτε κακόβουλα.
Κοινώς ο Έλληνας χρειάζεται αποδείξεις και επιχειρήματα. Αυτό φυσικά αντικατοπτρίζει όλη την ψυχοσύνθεσή του, ακόμη και σε μια συζήτηση, όπου όταν απαιτείται η ανάπτυξη επιχειρηματολογίας, ο Έλληνας μακρηγορεί και μπαίνει σε απίστευτες λεπτομέρειες, ακόμη και ως προς τα πλέον προφανή, από φόβο ότι δεν θα γίνει κατανοητός και έτσι δεν θα υποστηρίξει αρκετά τη θέση του.
Στην ανασφάλεια αυτή, φυσικά, μπορεί να κρύβεται και μια άδηλη αυτοϋπερεκτίμηση ή εγωπάθεια, η οποία να τον οδηγεί στο συμπέρασμα ότι απλά το άλλο μέρος είναι γνωστικά ή νοητικά ανεπαρκές για να τον καταλάβει.

Η πιστοποίηση, με βάση όλα τα παραπάνω, τόσο σε ατομικό, όσο και σε επιχειρηματικό επίπεδο, αποτέλεσε για την Ελλάδα κριτήριο-μονόδρομο. Η διαφορά είναι ότι λόγω έλλειψης τεχνογνωσίας, εθνικής ανασφάλειας και δυσκολιών ως προς την διοικητική υποστήριξη, η ελληνική κυβέρνηση πάντα κατέφευγε σε δανεισμένες, έτοιμες λύσεις, μη μαχητών ή διαπραγματεύσιμων ως προς το κύρος τους οργανισμών. Έτσι σε επίπεδο επιχειρηματικότητας το ΕΣΥΔ (Εθνικό Σύστημα Διαπίστευσης), το οποίο, παρεπιμπτόντως, λειτουργεί υπό το καθεστώς της ΑΕ δημοσίων συμφερόντων, έχει αποκλειστικά και αδιακρίτως υιοθετήσει οποιαδήποτε μεθοδολογία σχετίζεται με το ISO και αποκλειστικά και μόνο με αυτό.
Το ISO έχει αποδείξει την ουσιαστική του συμβολή στη βελτιστοποίηση των διαδικασιών παραγωγής, ειδικά σε υλικά προϊόντα σίτισης, ένδυσης, περιβαλλοντικής συμπεριφοράς και σε ζητήματα καταναλωτικής προστασίας. Παρ’ όλα αυτά, στο επίπεδο της παροχής υπηρεσιών είναι πρωτίστως αδύνατο να ορίσει κανείς την ποιότητα χωρίς εμπλοκή του καταναλωτή. Παράλληλα, η υπερτυποποίηση έχει αποδείξει ότι σε διαφορετικής φύσης υπηρεσίες συμβάλλει στην ανάπτυξη γραφειοκρατίας και στο τέλος η επιχείρηση αξιοποιεί το πιστοποιητικό μόνο ως μέσο προβολής, μιας και αρχίζει να παραλείπει επί της ουσίας μια μια της διαδικασίες τήρησης του κώδικα.
Σε επίπεδο ατομικής πιστοποίησης, π.χ. στους τομείς των ξένων γλωσσών και της πληροφορικής, το δημόσιο συμπλέει με τα πιστοποιητικά συγκεκριμένων ξένων πανεπιστημίων, όπως αυτά του Cambridge και του Michigan, ενώ στην πληροφορική αναγνωρίζει τα πιστοποιητικά διεθνών οργανισμών όπως τα ECDL, Microsoft, Cambridge, κλπ. Όπως και να είναι, το ελληνικό κράτος αναγνωρίζει «επισήμως» μεθοδολογίες πιστοποίησης και πιστοποιητικά με κριτήρια που αφορούν όχι κάποιες διεθνείς παραδοχές, αλλά τους κατά καιρούς επιστημονικούς συμβούλους των κατά καιρούς ΥΠΕΠΘ. Η ίδια η έννοια της αναγνώρισης είναι πανευρωπαϊκά πρωτοφανής, ειδικά ως προς τη βαρύτητά της στην επαγγελματική αποκατάσταση, τους διορισμούς στο δημόσιο, ή και το χαρακτηρισμό επαγγελματιών ως καθηγητές, συμβούλους, κλπ., όταν σε άλλες ευρωπαϊκές χώρες για κάτι τέτοιο απαιτείται τουλάχιστο πανεπιστημιακό πτυχίο και επιπλέον ειδικό πιστοποιητικό κατάρτισης και εξέτασης από δημόσιο φορέα. Φυσικά, το πρόβλημα στην Ελλάδα για όλα τα παραπάνω είναι ότι δεν υπάρχει δημόσιος φορέας με ικανή τεχνογνωσία και αυτοπεποίθηση να αξιολογήσει και να πιστοποιήσει και γι’ αυτό καταφεύγει στις εκάστοτε «αναγνωρίσεις».

Το μεγαλύτερο πρόβλημα αυτής της κατάστασης λοιπόν δεν είναι η πιστοποίηση, αλλά η αναγνώριση. Όπως γίνεται αντιληπτό απ’ όλα τα παραπάνω, η πιστοποίηση είναι παράγοντας θεμιτός και αποδεκτός όταν διενεργείται από ειδικούς, αν όχι εξειδικευμένους φορείς, οι οποίοι δεν «αναγνωρίζονται» από κανέναν, πέρα από την κοινή γνώμη και την καταναλωτική συμπεριφορά, η οποία θα επιβραβεύσει εκ του αποτελέσματος το έργο και το κύρος του φορέα.
Στην Ελλάδα παρ’ όλα αυτά, και μόνο η έννοια της «κρατικής αναγνώρισης» δημιουργεί πρώτον μια αποπροσανατολισμένη κουλτούρα στο κοινό, δεδομένου ότι αλλοιώνει τα κριτήρια και τους δείκτες εμπιστοσύνης, από την άλλη αποθαρρύνει τη συλλογικότητα ομοειδών φορέων που θα αναλύσουν τις ανάγκες του καταναλωτή, ούτως ώστε να προσδιορίσει με νηφαλιότητα την ταυτότητα της ποιότητας για κάθε προϊόν και υπηρεσία.

Εξάλλου, είναι πάσι γνωστό το οξύμωρο φαινόμενο των περισσότερων προσοντούχων στην Ευρώπη σε επίπεδο γλωσσομάθειας, αλλά με το μικρότερο δείκτη λειτουργικής χρήσης της ξένης γλώσσας, τόσο σε ακαδημαϊκό, όσο και σε επαγγελματικό επίπεδο.

Η τυποποίηση και πιστοποίηση ποιότητας στο χώρο της ξενόγλωσσης εκπαίδευσης, και δη της ιδιωτικής ξενόγλωσσης εκπαίδευσης, θα έπρεπε εξαρχής να είναι μια ιδιωτική υπόθεση, στηριγμένη σε δείκτες πελατειακής και μαθησιακής ικανοποίησης, και στο στόχο της τήρησης ενός υψηλού επιπέδου επιχειρηματικότητας και παροχής υπηρεσιών.

Έχω προβεί κατά καιρούς σε εισηγήσεις σε συλλογικά όργανα του κλάδου των φροντιστηρίων ξένων γλωσσών για δημιουργία αυστηρού κώδικα κριτηρίων. Η έλλειψη απόκρισης ενίσχυσε την υποψία, ότι οι εκπρόσωποι των οργάνων αυτών, ως Έλληνες πολίτες και οι ίδιοι, αναζητούσαν πρώτον το ποιος θα τους αναγνωρίσει (sic), δεύτερον απασχολούνταν με άλλα ζητήματα, συνδικαλιστικού ή πολιτικού περιεχομένου, ενώ προφανώς δεν είχε αναγνωριστεί η ανάγκη ουδετερότητας και διαιτητικής παρουσίας φορέα υποστήριξης.

Είναι πολύ σημαντικό να γίνει αντιληπτό ότι η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας ή προσόντων δεν μπορεί ες αεί να αποτελεί εργαλείο προβολής μόνο και μόνο γιατί το ελληνικό κράτος «αναγνωρίζει» κάποια χαρτιά. Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας ή προσόντων αποκτά κύρος όταν πραγματικά εξυγιαίνει την επιχειρηματικότητα και την ποιότητα ζωής των επιχειρηματιών και επαγγελματιών, με τρόπους που έχουν τελικό αποδέκτη τον πελάτη με υψηλό βαθμό ικανοποίησης. Σ’ αυτή την περίπτωση, πελάτης μπορεί να είναι και ο εκάστοτε εργοδότης.

Ένας ρεαλιστικός κώδικας κριτηρίων, ο οποίος θα θέτει αυστηρές προϋποθέσεις τήρησης, από έναν φορέα που ξέρει τον εκάστοτε επαγγελματικό χώρο καλά, θα οδηγήσει στη συγκέντρωση ομοειδών «πιστοποιημένων» επιχειρήσεων. Οι επιχειρήσεις αυτές οφείλουν να συνεργαστούν και να δημιουργήσουν ένα συλλογικό όργανο που θα προβάλλει τα οφέλη στον τελικό αποδέκτη και θα αναλάβει την πιστοποίηση και άλλων επιχειρήσεων, με τελικό στόχο την ανάπτυξη του κλάδου, όχι μόνο ποσοτικά, αλλά κυρίως ποιοτικά και ρεαλιστικά.

Το πιο σημαντικό είναι να μην τεθούν εκβιαστικά κριτήρια «αποκλεισμού» επιχειρήσεων από την αγορά με συντεχνιακή προσέγγιση. Αν πρόκειται να αποκλειστούν επιχειρήσεις, αυτό θα πρέπει να είναι αποτέλεσμα μη σύγκλισής των με τα κριτήρια του κώδικα, ο οποίος θα πρέπει να λαμβάνει υπ’ όψιν του επιστημονικές και επιχειρηματικές παραμέτρους, αλλά κυρίως τις πραγματικές ανάγκες της αγοράς, καθώς και της αγοραστικής της δύναμης.

Κάθε άλλο κριτήριο γεωγραφικού ή ποιοτικού αποκλεισμού θα αποτελούσε πρόθεση για τη δημιουργία lobby, το οποίο προσωρινά μόνο μπορεί να δώσει συγκεκριμένα ανταγωνιστικά πλεονεκτήματα.

Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας στο χώρο των ξενόγλωσσων εκπαιδευτικών επιχειρήσεων

Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας στο χώρο των ξενόγλωσσων εκπαιδευτικών επιχειρήσεων στην Ελλάδα, οι παγίδες για πιστοποιημένες και μη επιχειρήσεις, η θέση της Ελλάδας και άλλων χωρών της ΕΕ απέναντι στον παράγοντα της πιστοποίησης. (Α' μέρος)

Σημείωση:
Το κείμενο που ακολουθεί αποτελεί μέρος της εισαγωγής του πονήματος του υπογράφοντος με τίτλο «Το εθνικό ψυχολογικό προφίλ του Έλληνα στην ενιαία ευρωπαϊκή αγορά – Προσόντα και δεξιότητες». Με σεβασμό στον διατιθέμενο χώρο της ELT News, που για πρώτη φορά το δημοσιεύει, θα ολοκληρωθεί σε δύο μέρη.

Α’ μέρος

ΠΑΡΑΔΟΧΕΣ
1) Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας ή προσόντων θα πρέπει να έχει συγκεκριμένα σημεία αναφοράς σε κριτήρια τα οποία έχουν επικοινωνηθεί και πείσει το ενδιαφερόμενο καταναλωτικό κοινό εκ του αποτελέσματος. Η αναγνώριση από το κοινό μιας ετικέτας, είτε λέγεται ISO, είτε Proficiency έχει ισχύ και διάρκεια εφόσον ο αποδέκτης γνωρίζει σε τι αντιστοιχεί η πιστοποίηση και ενδιαφέρεται πραγματικά για την αντιστοιχία αυτή.
2) Η de facto διακήρυξη της «αναγνώρισης» από έναν μη διαπραγματεύσιμο οργανισμό, όπως το κράτος, δεν πρέπει να συγχέεται με το αλάθητο του Πάπα. Τίμια και επιτυχημένα το κράτος θέτει τους δικούς του όρους και τα δικά του κριτήρια, έστω και αν είναι δανεισμένα, είτε ως εργοδότης, είτε ως πελάτης, είτε ως θεματοφύλακας, μέσω των υπουργείων του και του ΕΣΥΔ. Το αν η ελεύθερη αγορά μιμηθεί το κράτος ή όχι είναι ζήτημα δικής της ανασφάλειας ή ανεπάρκειας. Καμιά διακήρυξη κριτηρίων ποιότητας δεν μπορεί στην ελεύθερη αγορά να κριθεί από το κράτος, εφόσον δεν παραβιάζει νομικά και θεσμικά πλαίσια.
3) Η ευθύνη του καταναλωτή είναι επίσης αδιαπραγμάτευτη. Ο καθένας παίρνει αυτό που του αξίζει. Παρ’ όλα αυτά η σωστή ενημέρωση και θεμιτή χρήση (όχι συντεχνιακή τύπου φαρμακευτικών εταιρειών) είναι ευθύνη όλων.
4) H Express Service πιστοποιούσε την εύρυθμη λειτουργία των αυτοκινήτων πολύ πριν θεσμοθετηθούν τα ΚΤΕΟ. Τα βραβεία ΑΡΙΩΝ βραβεύουν καλλιτέχνες σε θεματικές περιοχές που έχουν ορίσει και με τη συμμετοχή του κοινού, ανεξάρτητα από το κρατικής υποστήριξης Φεστιβάλ Τραγουδιού Θεσσαλονίκης. Τα πιστοποιητικά PALSO ενέπλεκαν μικρούς μαθητές σε εξετάσεις γλωσσομάθειας και πιστοποιούσαν θεμιτότατα το επίπεδό τους, πολύ πριν το κράτος αναγνωρίσει τα χαμηλότερα επίπεδα των εξετάσεων ξένων πανεπιστημίων, χωρίς τα ίδια να είναι «αναγνωρισμένα». Εκατοντάδες ιδιωτικοί φορείς ορίζουν και επικοινωνούν θεμιτά τα κριτήριά τους και με την «πιστοποίηση» που παρέχουν ανακοινώνουν στο κοινό τη σύγκλιση προσοντούχων ή επιχειρήσεων σύμφωνα με τα κριτήριά τους. Αυτό δεν πρέπει να συγχέεται με το αν πρέπει να διορίζονται στο κράτος κάποιοι με όλα αυτά, ή αν θα έχουν άδεια λειτουργίας ως επιχειρήσεις επειδή συνέκλιναν με έναν κώδικα που δεν κατάφερε ή ενδιαφέρθηκε να συμπεριλάβει στα κριτήριά του το κράτος.
5) Τουναντίον, όλα τα παραπάνω είναι η απόδειξη ότι ιδιωτικές πρωτοβουλίες μπορούν μια μέρα να οδηγήσουν και σε περαιτέρω κρατικό εκσυγχρονισμό. Αρκεί οι ευκαιρίες για ένταξη στην όποια δοκιμασία να είναι ίσες, και όχι μόνο αν…

ΑΝΑΠΤΥΞΗ

Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας και προσόντων έχει αποτελέσει δεδηλωμένη πρόθεση διαφόρων οργανώσεων και φορέων της ΕΕ και στην ΕΕ εδώ και αρκετά χρόνια, αναφορικά με όλα τα επαγγελματικά πεδία, είτε αφορούν σε παροχή υπηρεσιών, είτε σε παραγωγή και διάθεση υλικών προϊόντων.

Οι λόγοι που έχουν κινητοποιήσει τόσες δυνάμεις προς την ενθάρρυνση για πιστοποίηση ποιότητας είναι διάφοροι, και φυσικά, αποσκοπούν πάντα στο συμφέρον και την ικανοποίηση του καταναλωτή. Παρ’ όλα αυτά, πίσω από την ενεργοποίηση του μηχανισμού ελέγχου και πιστοποίησης ποιότητας βρίσκονται και οι όροι ελέγχου της αγοράς και δρομολόγησής της σε συγκεκριμένες προϋποθέσεις λειτουργίας, οι οποίες:
Α) Καθιστούν βιώσιμη συγκεκριμένη κατηγορία επιχειρήσεων
Β) Δημιουργούν συνθήκες καταναλωτικής ροής
Γ) Δημιουργούν προϋποθέσεις αναγνωρισιμότητας και ad hoc καθιέρωσης μιας συγκεκριμένης μεθοδολογίας παραγωγής και επιχειρείν στην καταναλωτική πίστη
Δ) Διαμορφώνουν καταναλωτικές ανάγκες τόσο για τον τελικό αποδέκτη-καταναλωτή ενός προϊόντος ή μιας υπηρεσίας, όσο και για τον παροχέα-παραγωγό που θα επιδιώξει να πιστοποιηθεί κατά έναν συγκεκριμένο πιστοποιητικό κώδικα
Ε) Δημιουργούν χρηματοπιστωτική ροή στους μετέχοντες της ad hoc καθιερωμένης πιστοποιητικής φόρμουλας.

Ένα σύντομο ιστορικό της πιστοποίησης ποιότητας στην Ευρώπη

Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας άρχισε να εξαπλώνεται ως αναγνωρίσιμος όρος περίπου εδώ και μισό αιώνα. Η μεταπολεμική ανάπτυξη στην Ευρώπη έδωσε χώρο σε πολλές μικρές και μεσαίες επιχειρήσεις, κυρίως παραγωγικές, να σταθούν δίπλα σε καθιερωμένους κολοσσούς (π.χ. Siemens, Bayer, κλπ). Επιχειρήσεις σαν και αυτές συνασπίστηκαν για να επαναπροσδιορίσουν το ανταγωνιστικό τους πλεονέκτημα απέναντι σε όλους εκείνους που μπορούσαν να ικανοποιήσουν καταναλωτικές ανάγκες πιο ευέλικτα, με χαμηλότερο κόστος, μικρότερους χρόνους παράδοσης και μεγαλύτερους δείκτες καταναλωτικής ικανοποίησης. Το μόνο στοιχείο που μπορούσαν να επιδείξουν ήταν η εσωτερική τους εντυπωσιακή για το καταναλωτικό κοινό οργάνωση, και οι διαδικασίες που συντονισμένα οδηγούσαν σε εύσχημη παραγωγή. Άνοιξαν με διαφάνεια τις πόρτες τους στο καταναλωτικό κοινό, ικανοποιώντας την περιέργειά του, εντυπωσιάζοντας με τα μεγέθη τους, και προβάλλοντας τον ανθρώπινο παράγοντα, όχι μόνο στο πρόσωπο του καταναλωτή, αλλά και του εργαζομένου. Προώθησαν την εικόνα της υγιούς επιχειρηματικότητας που καταπολεμά την ανεργία, διασφαλίζει τον περιορισμό διαρροών κόστους, την ποιότητα κατασκευής και τη διάρκεια ζωής του προϊόντος, δικαιολογώντας έτσι την υψηλή τιμή.
Η δύναμη της ταυτότητας αυτών των επιχειρήσεων, με όλο το σχετικό επικοινωνιακό βάρος, άρχισε να δημιουργεί ένα νέο ρεύμα προτίμησης του καταναλωτικού κοινού, ενώ άγγιξε την elite της κάθε τοπικής κοινωνίας για ευνόητους λόγους. Κοινώς, το τεκμηριωμένα ακριβό έγινε της μόδας. Με το που συστηματοποιήθηκε το νέο αυτό καταναλωτικό ρεύμα, οι μεγαλοπαραγωγοί που το εκκίνησαν οργανώθηκαν και δημιούργησαν τον οργανισμό τυποποίησης και πιστοποίησης που ιστορικά εξελίχθηκε στο γνωστό ISO.
Το παράδειγμα του ISO, στα επόμενα χρόνια ακολούθησαν συνασπισμοί διαφόρων βιομηχανιών και επαγγελματικών πεδίων, τόσο νομικά θεσμοθετημένοι (π.χ. σύλλογοι, σώματα και σύνδεσμοι, κλπ.), όσο και μη θεσμοθετημένες συμμαχίες που στηρίζονταν στην αμοιβαία εξυπηρέτηση συμφερόντων. Παραδείγματα τέτοια θα ακολουθήσουν στο επόμενο μέρος.

Στη συνέχεια του επομένου τεύχους:
Η πιστοποίηση ποιότητας στην εκπαίδευση
Η θέση της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης και της ελληνικής αγοράς απέναντι στον παράγοντα της πιστοποίησης ποιότητας και προσόντων
Αποτελεί η πιστοποίηση ή ο θεσμός της «αναγνώρισης» ένδειξη της εθνικής μας ανασφάλειας;

The secret powers of Greek ELT

Though we are getting closer to the second decade of the 21st century, talking or even doing politics in Greece is still shaded by the last half of the 20th century, in terms of ethos, expectations and attitudes. To be more specific, although a government should be a team of “nation’s employees” serving the public will, what actually happens in every country and even more so in Greece, is that this team becomes a team of authority and the nation follows. Something is obviously wrong but it’s all a matter of perspective.

The “Free Economy” world has been and will always be under dispute. It is a political issue. However, this is the world we live in and we have to as such make the best of it. The “Free Economy” world is the world that encourages private initiative. ELT in Greece is a private industry. On top of that, ELT in Greece is a semi-formal, semi-recognised, semi-purposeful private industry. All these “semis” are to blame for the status of Greek ELT nowadays. However, all these “semis” constitute some great opportunities for Greek ELT and more generally for education in Greece.

The Language Centre field is monitored by a number of authorities for different reasons. The permit for operation is provided by the Secondary Education authorities, but they don’t have a say in the nature and level of the educational service provided by language centres. Commerce authorities control levels of tuition fees every now and then, but only in terms of national competition and inflation indexes. Labour and employment authorities control minimum wages, but no collective contract has ever been formed, apart from in very few and specific cases. To cut a long story short, the Language Centre field has been a strategically adopted child in a family that can’t help discriminating between natural and adopted children, providing the latter with the minimum support and guidance.

Lack of support for private initiative is common in countries that have failed to accept a political attitude towards capital over the years. Greece is externally part of the Western globalised economy, but at the same time struggles to maintain an internal undetermined socialistic face. In such cases, if and when a private field succeeds in becoming self-sufficient, strategically or by mistake (as in the case of ELT), then the power of it can change trends and influence massive, nation-wide operations. The fact that private ELT in Greece has remained uncontrolled by the State over the past 50 years has led to the dire state of the field, but at the same time has given the field a pioneering position on issues that concern educational services, methodological trends and professional development.

To be more specific, private ELT in Greece has managed to be the only private field in Europe to have penetrated the population on a mass basis, before any governmental initiative for privatization was taken. It’s highly unlikely to find anybody nowadays who doesn’t send their children to a “frontisterio” to learn English.

ELT publishing flourished in Greece, set trends and developed methodological approaches that contributed to more profitable materials worldwide. Furthermore, the State welcomed private ELT publishing, allowing the use of materials in state schools, that are originally formed to service the independent/alternative curriculum of the “frontisterio system”.

The majority of teachers that join the State sector through ASEP (and the “epeterida” in the not so far past), developed their professional skills within the “frontisterio system” either as employed teachers or even as school owners themselves.

Quality assessment criteria and schemes were introduced for the first time by a private company and a school association (H-CQLE and QLS) that are solely related to the private ELT sector, awakening Greek ELT to issues of quality, viability and customer care. On 7th July 2007 a renowned UK newspaper published a special supplement dedicated to education in Greece (obviously funded by the Greek Ministry of Education), announcing the implementation of Quality criteria and assessment schemes, when before 2002 nobody would have expected anything like that from a State department. Not to mention of course that only recently local associations of school owners have started to re-activate quality and safety criteria and requirements (i.e. fire safety systems, insurance, etc.) and use the term “Quality” at every possible opportunity, generating comments from professionals that invested in quality and safety assurances long before “Quality” became the popular key-word.

Greek ELT was born and grew up as an orphan. It had its good times and also struggled over the years. As in the jungle, in ELT some survived, some didn’t, some will survive and some others won’t. The one thing that stuns me is how powerful Greek private ELT is. Greek private ELT has produced thousands of English teachers, profound training of immense quality, educational materials that whole generations remember, methodology of rare complexity. Greek ELT school owners and teachers first introduced solutions to learning difficulties, parental training on dyslexia and other syndromes, and opened a whole market to speech therapists, psychologists and pedagogic specialists of the private sector.

In 2007 Greek State ELT can take pride in experienced teachers, inspired advisors, internationally acceptable text material, the use of technology in ELT, a connection to the CEFR, a profound co-operation with university departments, integrated skills, task based and cross-curricular approaches, and, why not, a pretty decent attempt at a state language certificate. Greek State ELT is getting there. Greek private ELT, unbeknowingly, has done its job.

Once upon a time, the spontaneous birth of this private sector, led to the formation of a nation-wide active market. Within the field of education, it created specific needs for the whole market and thus a specific mentality. This educational product, massively accepted and bought, oriented and forced the State sector towards its current trends. All of this happened due to lack of state support, lack of state understanding, lack of state controls and prevalence of the rules of supply and demand. An active private ELT field in Greece is powerful enough to shape a healthy educational environment for the whole country, and when it becomes aware of its own magnitude, it will do that even more effectively and faster than it has done so far.
Whose interest is it in to change the status quo? Who would want to rock the boat, just as the next exciting phase of development is about to begin? Surely no team of “nation’s employees” should have the mandate to do so?

Lessons of control and interdependence

Running a business is a profession by itself. Two years ago I introduced the parallelism of a business to the human body, by corresponding various human resources to the different parts of the body, with the position of the owner of the business acting as the brain of the business “body”. Still this “brain” would have to make sure that all parts of the “body” of the business would be healthy and functional with the aim of ensuring the welfare of the “body”, but at the same time providing enough food and oxygen for the “brain”.

To achieve that as the “brain” of your business, you have to admit that there are universal principles that no body or brain can overcome. The idea of physical or business existence lies along the lines that by violating such principles we contribute to the creation of an unhealthy environment for the viability of everybody, us and the ones around us. This “unhealthiness” is obvious nowadays both in business and social/physical terms. When a number of similar entities (human or business ones) gather antagonistically, then survival in an “unhealthy” environment becomes a much tougher issue.

Then is when the “brain” has to move onto a “meta-phase” of existence. The role of the brain once was to ensure the viability of the “body” and of “itself”. Now the required role has to be more sophisticated, it has to come up with strategies, techniques, long term plans to ensure “survival space”, which sometimes will have to claim land from another “brain”.

In the business world, I would call this phase “identity distancing”. My own company, hyphen, once upon a time was a concept, and then it was conceived and went through a pregnancy period for the first years, bringing up hick ups, draw backs, side effects, like every pregnancy. The development of an embryo doesn’t stop with the birth. On the contrary it continues after the birth; mechanisms become consolidated and functions are put into place. And, of course, post birth development takes place in the real world, and not in the sheltered world of the womb. Most of all, post birth development takes place after the child detaches itself from the mother. Thus, in business, development in the real world takes place once the whole operation detaches itself from the brain that conceived it. Then the brain that conceived it, as the parent, acts as a close monitor, ensuring learning, feeding, growth, inspiring responsibility, self-protection, self-control, happiness and balance. This parent though has to remember that a) the child / business is a separate entity and b) too much interdependence can become suffocating.

In a similar way, when a parent, being over protective and overindulging does everything for his/her child, depriving it from the joy of initiative, experimentation and effectiveness, this parent produces a lazy and disabled child. However, every child deserves the freedom to grow creatively, but within specific frameworks, restrictions and guidance.

What I have been telling my clients in the past year is that my own business managed to breathe when I repositioned myself in relation to it. It was then, actually, when I managed to breathe, myself. My business is its own vision, human resources, targets and practices, always under my close monitoring and ensuring that its practices cater for its survival, growth and self-respect. In return I receive plenty of satisfaction in both material and spiritual terms.

This “meta-phase” has created a whole new world in running my own business, which reflects the targets of every mature co-operation of my business with its own clients. As “unhealthy” practices, good practices reflect from entity to entity and can create a positive domino effect, which shows more and more in the wider environment. So much, that it gives you the strength and satisfaction to realize that one day, your “child-business” will have to detach itself completely from you. Either you make a mature decision to let it go strong, or you let it grow ripe with you and die slowly with retirement. It all depends on what each one of us has catered to leave behind.

As I’m talking, I consider hyphen my Number 1 client. We have a fair and just relationship of moderate interdependence, I offer my know-how, planning and guidance and, in return, I get material and spiritual satisfaction. Almost exactly like with every client of mine. I have chosen not to be my business or my children or my relationship with my wife or even my client. All these entities grow healthily by themselves and within our relationships. So do I along with them. Just like a brain does along with the rest of the body. Realism is the means not to break universal principles.

Dealing with indirect competition - A new perspective for your marketing plan

There are two kinds of competition in every market.

Direct competition is practised by professionals of the same kind in an attempt to lock a larger share of the common target market. In the case of Greek ELT it is schools vs schools, publishers vs publishers, distributors vs distributors and so on.

Indirect competition is practised by those who, although not directly involved with your profession, are involved with your market and can somehow influence it against you if you are not on good terms with them. Usually this competition is positioned locally and can be of determining importance in your market’s decision to prefer your business. They may be neighbouring shops and businesses, or representatives of suppliers who serve many businesses of your kind, while in small towns they can even be suppliers of authority such as bank clerks, local authority officers, state school teachers and anyone who centrally serves a whole community, having the opportunity to gather information and spread rumours on a public level. Of course, the most important indirect competition comes from unhappy or even indifferent past clients, whose opinion matters the most to the wavering potential client, as it is solidly based on experience.

The importance of this peripheral, external environment increases in the time leading up to your actual sales period, when the target market goes out to investigate services, prices and advantages, and seeks out opinions and recommendations.

The majority of the schools we have visited over the past years prove to spend vast amounts of money on advertising, the role of which is to objectively describe their services and competitive advantages. This is important, but only limitedly effective as a part of your marketing plan, as it is addressed without discrimination to a much larger public than your actual target group. On top of that, it has been measured that advertising pushes, even when targeted, grab the attention of only 10% of recipients in terms of motivating them to investigate your business more closely. The public is really fed up with and suspicious of advertising due to the inflation of information and blatant deceit in portrayed messages. The role of advertising has become that of an announcement, so if there is not something new to broadcast to the public and thus appeal to it, then, more often than not, it is money thrown away.

In a profession that is promoted basically by word of mouth, understandably but unfortunately very few have invested money and effort in earning the attention and respect of the indirect but close and determining environment. This is about raising the public image of your school. Many school owners I talk to do admit that they make an effort to co-operate with local businesses, even if prices are higher than those offered by nationwide chains or suppliers, with the sole aim of creating what I would call “a positive vibe” about their business. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg, as this practice is based on current good relationships, but not on a profound knowledge of who you are, what your professional achievements have been over the years, where your excellence stands, what your competitive advantages are. To cut a long story short, your environment lacks the information that will act as a means of proof that your school is the best choice.
Raising your school’s public image is not rocket science. It is more of an applied art based on specific rules and principles. It usually takes less money and effort to achieve, and it is by far more effective than uncontrolled advertising. Immeasurable advertising can be frustrating, while raising your public image can be immediately rewarding and directly involves live reactions. All it takes is a realization of the need to orientate your school and yourself towards a more extrovert way of being following some basic principles, and the importance of being organized by planning and implementing a respective plan of calendar actions and on-going practices in your school that will become the second professional nature of yourself and staff. More specifically:
1) Remember that indirect competition is all around you and is ruthless. It is definitely negative when they talk against you, but even worse when they do not talk about you at all.
2) Every source of indirect competition can be turned into your biggest fan. They have to have reasons to do so though. Such reasons have always had to do with either profit or other indirect benefits, but most importantly with the emotional factor; how you make these people feel.
3) Work towards improving the COMPOSE of your environment. Inspire Comfort, Power and Security for everybody involved with you and most of all increase the number of those involved with you.
4) People talk about somebody or something because they were impressed, moved, happy, safe, motivated, inspired. All these are emotions and not facts, so work towards creating personal and collective experiences.
5) Every time you announce, advertise, or prove your excellence and advantages, check what the personal impact is on the recipients of your action. Design your next action bearing that in mind, and you will see your message reaching all possible destinations, with your recipients as the vehicle.
6) Investigate within your direct and indirect environment, current and past students and parents, current and past employees and suppliers, what their state of being is now, where their success and happiness lie and ask them how you and your school might have contributed to it.
7) Investigate within your current clients, suppliers, students and employees what could add value to their life and add a whole new experience for them next to your actual service.
8) Implement an adequate knowledge management system, supported by a clear customer care policy for your staff, and analyse the information map of your system frequently.

The benefits of raising your school’s public profile are immense and with time only grow. There is no better or worse time to start working on it. Actually, the best time to start working on it is now.

The loneliness of the business owner!

Running your own business is a lonely business. Once upon a time you opened your wings to fly towards contributing something more to the field you had been working in, anyway, as an employee. Your motivation possibly came out of your frustration for the amateurism that your profession was dealt with by your employer, your disappointment in what some people consider to be “teaching and learning”, the bedazzlement of who, actually, can become a teacher in this country! Where had the talent of identifying with the students and transferring knowledge effectively gone? How dare some school owners blind the parents who trust their school with their little children? And how, on earth, dare some other school owners pay so little to the teachers who support the whole language school, since they barely know half what their teachers know about teaching?

So, you opened your own language school. The truth is that, indeed, you did a different job, you provided a different level of service. Socrates said that a good teacher is the one who produces a student who has exceeded his teacher’s prospects. The employer that stole your time, ideas and money was replaced by a tax authority, a social security service, an ungrateful parent, an undisciplined student, and, worst of all, a bossy employee, who constantly tries to prove his/her prevalence in teaching practices, communicative and organisational skills. In the worst case scenario, this employee will use your school as a pool for private lessons or open a competitive school across the road.

In 18 years I have come across two different types of school owners. The Visionary Leaders and the Kinaesthetic Processors. The first type consists of a distinct minority, while the second type refers to the vast majority of each field. The former create trends, are innovative, introduce methodologies and ideas in teaching, advertising and servicing, and the latter take this material from scratch and adapt it to their own reality. Both types are necessary and invaluable for every professional field, as the former take the field one step ahead, and the latter make these steps mature in practice. However, both types are equally vulnerable and exposed to the same risks. Both types fail in being aware of the bigger scheme of their operation.

Running a business, either as a Leader or as a Processor, is a lonely business. It takes all your energy and it makes you exceptionally introvert, especially if apart from the owner you are also the service provider. As a Leader you fail to follow what the idea you have introduced as a pioneer will become, first in the hands of another member of the field, and then in the hands of many of them. As a Processor you can never be sure that the idea you adopted is right for you, for your market, for your pocket. Like you, so many other processors will turn the same idea into something completely unrelated to the original idea. Everything’s subject to interpretation. There will only be one common result for everybody. Each version is going to backfire in the same way. The clients (parents) will still want more for less and will display a lower level of satisfaction each time.

Greeks will never learn to work for somebody else without the prospect of overtaking their employer at some point, unless of course the employer is the State. Whether it is a matter of insecurity, lack of faith in collaboration, or just excessive faith in ourselves, we will always be the nation that “knows better”. In contrast to this, other nations, like western ones, take it for granted that they will shape their career working for someone else, usually an impersonal employer. In practice, that is what encouraged all those major corporations to flourish internationally. The fact that Greeks prefer to run their own small business is not bad, as small businesses promote innovation, invention, variety, technology in every aspect, and most of all they allow space for free, creative and growing minds.

Running a business is a lonely business, but loneliness, sometimes, can be turned into a blessing. Once upon a time you realized that your reasons to open your business were fair and sound. Along the way you got disappointed, realizing that you were missing specific data and knowledge, while most of your decisions were based on youthful assumptions. Since then, all you have managed is to keep the boat afloat in a rocking sea, but without using a compass. You have done well so far, but uncertainty kills you more than poverty does.

This is the right time to face up to reality. The use of any compass requires a set destination. You have to decide what land you want to reach. Confirming that you are doing business because it happened to you, or because you want to do it, or because there is nothing else you know how to do, is not a good enough answer to help you deal with uncertainty. It is like saying that you are sailing a lifelong trip because somebody dropped you in the sea, or that you like sailing or because sailing is all you have learnt to do. Let your target, even if that is just a wonderful retirement, guide your practices. To get there, you are going to lose too. Stay, however, focused on your target. Be realistic, get trained, keep in touch with things that happen around you, which you have neglected so far, mainly because you had lost faith in progress. Accept that your employees are there for the reasons you were in someone else’s business at some other time. Also, accept that ethics and prospects have changed.

The loneliness of running a business can make you a better person. It can make you more creative when you organize your financial plan and decide to stick to it. Then, when budget is restricted, you’ll find that innovation is the effect of need. It can make you more self-confident when you realize that nothing is impossible and that sticking to the old and familiar can sometimes eat up your savings and resources, rather than generate new ones. It can boost your self-esteem when you trespass that difficult threshold of saying no to the irrational customer or supplier. It will empower you to prove that negotiations can have only winners and not losers. It can improve your quality of life and income, as you once upon a time hoped for, when you dare to admit that you have to invest in order to earn, and delegate in order to have time to think. As in teaching English, so in business, nobody pays any attention to the most important of all skills. Thinking! As a businessman or a businesswoman you have to be the captain of the boat. Not the cook!

Allow your aspirations to breed and create something better for the field you belong to. Learn, learn and learn and put all this knowledge into practice. Be tough but fair, look ahead but avoid the rocks in front of you. Increase the SQ (spiritual quotient) in your business and inspire your staff, but most of all your students. English is only the vehicle towards creating a better generation of young Greek people in the next decades. This is what education should be about!

Running your own business is a lonely business! Though I personally fear loneliness the most, I was relieved to realize that decisions taken in the loneliness of self-reflection have never failed me.

Pride and prejudice!

Why numbers alone is not all you need for the development of your educational business and how the CAN DO statements of the business owner reflect on it!

Closing 2006 I proceeded with the review of 18 of my co-operations, the first phase of which was completed in the last year. Reviewing results, the first thing one would look into would be numbers, of course, and that’s exactly what I did. Having had an overview of each educational business’s state of being, it was still a bit shocking to see numbers, even though pretty justifying of the philosophy and attitude we have been breeding over the past 3 years.

The most outstanding issue was the lack of proportion among specific results. Analysing the increase in the number of students, against increase in turnover and then against increase in profit that were achieved over the first period of co-operation, the three respective rates had nothing to do with each other whatsoever. To be more specific, an overall 38% increase in number of students (4244 / 5873) reflected an 85% increase in turnover (€ 2.07 million / € 3.84 million), which in its turn gave a 219% increase in profit (€ 0.43 million / € 1.37 million) for these 18 educational businesses. The geographical distribution of these businesses, from Thrace to Crete and half of them in Athens and Thessaloniki, only showed that whatever the reasons were for these striking differences, they were rather universal.

What was though the chain reaction that contributed to this discrepancy? When we see such differences between increase rates it is more than obvious that it is not the number of students that determines the health or suffocation of an educational business. It is rather lack of controls, monitoring and most of all awareness of basic principles.

In the overall scheme of the above figures, the average tuition fees per student were € 485 in 2005, while in 2006 the same figure climbed up to € 650. That would definitely contribute to an outstanding increase in the turnover against number of students and would be based on effective marketing and communication techniques, imposing the need of such increases. However, this doesn’t excuse how the average profit spread was 20% in 2005, climbing up to 36% in 2006, which at the end of the day is what concerns every business owner. It would also be a mistake not to mention that none of these business owners were receiving a regular monthly advance of their entrepreneurial fee in 2005, whereas in 2006, arranged monthly advances for each owner, ranging from € 1,100 for a school of 70 students, to € 9,000 for a school of 950 students were being received. Of course, those entrepreneurial fees were arranged after catering for a floating investment capital for the business itself and the tax of the current year.

The above achievements of these co-operations were not only due to effective business planning (or re-planning); they were due to major initiatives of the owners to restructure their work philosophy and reeducate their market.
The first principle everyone had to realize was that their work time costs. So many times small owners that feel that their business is suffocating take on inflated numbers of teaching hours per week, so as not to pay extra wages. However, this is suicide, as they lose in personal quality of time and life, while they deprive themselves of the ability to monitor their operation, as well as their market. When either starts to collapse they look out for bad competition to blame.
The second principle everyone had to realize was that profit itself requires investment. Money can buy precious time to organize, monitor, correct and most of all communicate with your market. Also, time will facilitate the creation of an outstanding learning experience in your school, which is the only thing that can break the vicious circle of the standardized product as perceived throughout the country in terms of shaping up your own competitive advantage.
The third principle everyone had to realize was that bad management of variable costs leads to profound energy and financial leaks. Breaking healthy numbered classes, adding free teaching hours, giving out spontaneous discounts, etc. should be dealt with as important and measurable marketing tools and clients should be given the right to appreciate them rather than take them for granted. An immense difference in turnover was presented when in some of my co-operations, owners started charging their fees per class and not per student. Also, in three of the aforementioned co-operations I had to plan a temporary strategic decrease in the number of students in order to reset cost centre controls and increase profit by at least 12% that would give space for further strategic investment.
The fourth principle everyone had to realize was that pride in what you offer is something that no client is going to acknowledge without a respective claim and documentation. Treat your clients as partners and prove that what they pay is what they get. Value for money is a universal sine-qua-non. Treat your employees as your suppliers and prove that what they get paid is what they offer. Encourage everyone to contribute to the exceptional learning experience in your educational business.
The fifth and maybe most important principle was that of “I need / They want / We will”. During “zeroing” (the reset button of each business) I always encourage my clients to start from what and how much they need to earn on a personal monthly basis, in order for them to feel they live decently, if not profitably, out of their educational business. Then an analysis of the purchase capacity and value clients feel they receive, will determine how much they want to spend. A figurative manipulation of the above relation will, in its turn, determine not only the turnover of the educational business, but most importantly the trends and habits of the client in responding to their obligations, as well as the policy of the educational business itself. Mutual respect is based on self respect.
Last but not least was the vision. In international professional analyses, along with indexes like the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and the Emotional Quotient (EQ), what has started appearing more and more is the Spiritual Quotient (SQ). In heavily competitive industries, like Greek ELT, the vision will determine the success of the owner and his/her business as well. The successful owner will synchronise his/her business and educational practices with an overall vision of how the industry he/she is in will evolve. The need for change and vast improvements should contribute to the elevation of the qualities served and with the adequate nerve, dare to even change educational practices, perceptions and prejudices in the whole educational system. Besides, in our world if there’s any space for change it will come from the private sector and the state sector will follow in time.
Education, like health and other fundamental systems for social and individual existence, requires leaders.

So long training!

During our 2006 research what was specifically noticeable was the crisis training is undergoing. While once upon a time ELT professionals could take pride in being one of the best and most frequently trained professional fields worldwide, 2006 could be characterized as the most critical year for professional ELT trainers in Greece, based on interviews to 5 accredited professional ELT trainers in Athens and Thessaloniki, and 370 school owners also in Athens and Thessaloniki.

My standard professional attitude has always been that of judging processes and phenomena by result. To explain why training (among so many other ELT related professions) is going through such a major crisis, we have to analyse a series of parameters and most specifically:

What is nowadays perceived as training in Greek ELT
Which are the universal needs that are met by training as an one-off or on-going solution
How these needs apply or appear in Greek ELT nowadays
What can be done

a) What is nowadays perceived as training in Greek ELT? Training per se can only be interpreted as a development tool. Professional development requires targets, processes, keeping up-to-date with methodological trends and meeting the aforementioned targets more precisely, faster, successfully and more flexibly to achieve customized and individualized solutions, so that end receivers of our service receive a higher value for money. However, the majority of school owners and ELT teachers claim to have attended multiple training sessions throughout the year, just by attending publishing product knowledge sessions and book presentations, or even the free examination reform updates, which should also be included in the product knowledge sessions. This is a form of training and it is great that it is provided for free, but it covers only a tiny piece of the training needs of a professional.
b) Which are the universal needs that are met by training as a one-off or on-going solution? The reasons companies throughout the world train their staff and that professionals on an individual basis enrol in training programmes could be outlined as follows:
I. Product knowledge
II. New staff’s smooth incorporation into the corporate organogramme
III. New market trends
IV. On-going development / added value performance for the clients
V. Productivity and methodology
VI. Accreditation

I. Product knowledge
Product knowledge usually refers to the product or service that the professional offers or to the tools that the professional uses. In our case, the service offered has been highly standardized for years and is only related to specific certificates. The private language teaching sector has followed the state curricular standards, mainly because of pedagogical reasons that relate to the age group of ELT students. This means that we are talking about a set academic year, a rather standard number of years to reach the first certificate and the subsequent perception that “the student finishes English” in the way that they finish school with an “apolyterion”. There has been little and narrow space over the year for “ELT product” variations, mainly depending on the variations of the end target which is the certificate. Where there has been space for product development meeting variant needs of professional and adult students, the average school owner and teacher have just amended the corpus standard curriculum of the younger learners, hardly responding to the specific needs of the adults, which explains why the adult market is still so poor and only responding to the need of a “recognized” certificate for their career.
As far as products that serve as tools are concerned, as I mentioned above, they are supported by on-going presentations and usage training sessions sponsored by the publishers, thus serving regular product updates for the teaching community and sales targets for themselves.

II. New staff’s smooth incorporation into the corporate organogramme
It is common knowledge that the average ELT business in Greece has evolved rather spontaneously, with no recorded HR structures and definitely no recorded procedures and performance measurements to be met. Incorporation of new staff into the business reality is done equally spontaneously, without any methodological lines in place as there are no targets and procedures to be met. The average employment contract is as long as the academic year and there is lots of space for correctional moves based on experience.

III. New trends
Talking about new trends in Greek ELT we can only talk about new forms of language user accreditation and recognition, but not about new market trends. So far little, if anything, has been done towards serving the linguistic and communication needs of parts of the market who are not interested in state recognized accreditation by schools. Thus, there is no need for further training, as examination bodies cater for the training of teachers and their updates frequently and most importantly for free.

IV. On-going development / added value performance for the clients
Added value to the client and personal development should always be a parameter we constantly check and invest in. However, reasons of recession along with high standardization of the needs of a badly trained or faithless market make on-going training a rather expensive investment in the value for money relation. Experience and unofficial coaching offered by the owner of a school can effectively ensure the minimum requirements. Buying an undoubtedly valuable training programme on “how to teach young learners”, is no good value for money any more, first because financial restrictions have grown immensely, second because few school owners want to invest in staff that by no means can be seen as permanent.

V. Productivity and methodology
Training is usually one of the end tools to ensure productivity and methodological improvement. It definitely requires a target plan, observations and monitoring and most of all the time, resources and money to accommodate those procedures. These parameters live far from Greek ELT reality.
VI. Accreditation
A usual reason why professionals seek further training is to obtain some specific form of accreditation that would add onto their competitive advantages. Within the ELT field the only accredited qualification required is the “eparkeia” (coming from either a university degree or proficiency certification). When the whole market knows that any recognized teacher can get their students to meet exams requirements, time and money pressure keeps them from seeking further accreditation, simply because the market is not interested in further competitive advantages of this kind.

c) What can be done
The most important thing for all ELT professionals is to realize that what has made training less desired is value for money. Even small luxuries are welcome only at times of wealth. The rest of the time any added value service is purchased to add tangible potential for profit. Many teachers and school owners keep saying that nothing new or fresh has been offered training-wise over the past decade. That is not true, as Greek ELT has produced trainers of outstanding value and expertise over the past two decades. The problem is not that training is flat, but the fact that the ELT product itself is flat and too standardized in Greece.
Another thing is that trainers are framed and have associated themselves with specific products, methodologies, accreditations, spontaneously responding to market needs several years ago, which, however, do not correspond to current needs of the ELT market.
ELT training in our decade has to signify a wind of change. Training should give something that professionals do not possess; unfortunately they do not feel so, simply because they possess enough for what they are expected to give. That actually might not be true, but that is what everybody feels like and as I have said, I prefer to judge things by result.