About Alpha College
Alpha College of English, in Dublin, Ireland was established in 1989 and since then has consistently worked to be at the forefront of the EFL industry in Ireland in terms of quality, service and value for money.
The directors, managers and staff of Alpha College are committed to continuous improvement in teaching methods so that students will receive language training that is stimulating, dynamic, communicative, focused and effective.
All our teachers are University graduates with post graduate EFL qualifications and academic excellence is maintained through a programme of on-going in-service teacher development and observations.
The main focus of the college is student centred and every effort is made by all members of staff to ensure that each student benefits optimally from his or her course at Alpha.
Alpha College was the first school in Ireland and is still one of the few schools in Europe to hold both EAQUALS membership and ISO 9001: 2000 accreditation . These two quality marks are our guarantee to students, agents and promoters of Alpha College that Alpha College of English meets the highest international Academic, Management and Administration standards.
The Alpha College of English building is an imposing edifice of the Georgian architectural period that has been redefined internally and now offers bright, spacious classrooms, superb support facilities and the main shopping and cultural areas of Dublin are only a short stroll away.
The Academic Structure at Alpha
Alpha College ensures consistency of quality through a CPD (Continuous Professional Development) programme for our staff; through a weekly teachers meeting to review each class and through on-going support for our teachers. We have an Academic Manager who takes overall responsibility for our curriculum and syllabus and an Academic Co-ordinator who interviews students on a regular basis and provides extra coaching when necessary. Alpha College is recognised by ACELS as a training centre for the Certificate in English Language Teaching (CELT) and our teacher trainers work closely with our teachers to ensure up-to-date teaching methodology.
We have a very good mix of nationalities in our adult school and a further good mix of backgrounds with students coming from a very wide variety of educational and career experiences. All our teachers have at least a primary degree and a recognised TEFL qualification - many of them have considerably more qualifications - and they, too, come from different backgrounds which contribute to providing a good range of interesting and dynamic approaches to teaching.
Alpha College operate within a well-structured academic framework. We have a curriculum and a syllabus for each level and a weekly class plan which is posted in each classroom every Monday morning so students can see what they are expected to cover in that week. There is a short test each Friday on specific aspects of the week's programme to ensure that students have assimilated the material covered.
Our morning classes last from 09.00 - 13.00 (with a 20 minute coffee break). Two teachers are assigned to each class; one for the period from 09.00 - 10.50 and one from 11.10 - 13.00. There is a weekly teachers meeting during which each set of 2 teachers works together to plan the week ahead and to discuss areas of difficulty for a particular class; students who may need extra help in specific areas or students who may be ready to move up a level. We use a text book in each class but it is our policy to use at least 50% supplementary material chosen from a wide range of well-researched, authentic material.
