Quality in TANDEM

• The school members of Tandem International avail of a mutual quality standards inspection system, including interviews with course participants. There are also teacher exchange programmes. More about this on their website www.tandem-schools.com .
  In the event of a lack of agreement with a school member of Tandem International, course participants may adress themselves to the quality Ombudsman. Furthermore, they may find on the internet institutions which elucidate consumer protection rights in these matters.
  
• Tandem Fundazioa does not deal with the quality of language course offers in general. Instead, it has developed together with other institutions quality criteria specially for tandem mediation concluded by the Chair Board in the year 2008. For further info, look at the literature review and at the list below. 
  
• Not all the institutions that advertise themselves as 'Tandem' are prepared and trained to do it. With the help of this list everybody can prove the quality of the offers:
  

Quality criteria for tandem intermediation

Tandem intermediators are trained by bi- or multinational institutions with several years of experience with exchanges; Tandem Fundazioa; or a counsellors course of at least 15 hours at an accredited university. Along with these training requirements we also require that intermediators receive regular training updates.
They have to be well known in their institution and adhere to fixed times.

The intermediation is based on data about linguistic levels, interests, learning goals and motives, age, gender, personal characteristics and timetables, and done either by personal introduction, or, in the case of a high number of participants, they are counselled by self-search. In the case of etandems, intermediation can be done by electronic means.
All intermediations consist of a didactic introduction, easily comprehensible complementary material, checking in with participants soon after the start of the partnership, as well as the opportunity to get counselling or another partner.

The institution is committed to making sure that all employees and students in the language area/department know about the tandem service and, consequently, a high percentage of interested students receive partners. Partnerships can also be assigned independently of participation in a language course.
The current maximum fee per person for 3 intermediations per year is no more than the equivalent of a teacher’s salary for 1,5 hours.
Supplementary offers may be billed extra.

• Institutions which fulfil these standards, since May 2008 after an examination are awarded the Seal

            Here are to be consulted the lists of
             
            - trained intermediators
            - certified institutions .

• More information about how to obtain the Seal is available at the contact address above.

Tandem catalogue of materials

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