To reply firstly to Turnoi,

We had no problem employing qualified teachers per se, and is clear that you have never actually been involved in recruitment for a large organisation. The last time I looked around the staffroom, we had 3 or 4 fully state qualified teachers to work in government schools, at least 7 or 8 CELTA trained teachers and a few Trinity trained teachers, as good a qualified staffroom as you would find in these areas:) As I said in my earlier post I was proudest the most of the staffroom, but a few will always slip under the radar. Add the fact we supported and helped teachers to an extent that more than one of them went off to do a Masters degree in education/TEFL. The problem was that we had over 20 positions to fill, and couldn't always find the highest standard of teacher. And to be honest Turnoi, if you don't like Training Centres, fine then don't work in one. But as you said that you have never worked in one, then you really don't have the right to comment and your guesses are just that - guesses. And please, before you decide this is all personal - I have worked in state schools, international schools, taining centres, private tuition, and worked for government training and examination bodies so I know what I am talking about.

I find Magister's comments a lot more interesting.Without writing another epic, I would support Magister's previous post completely. We actually had all these steps in place, and in particular I knew I was getting somewhere with the teachers when they started doing peer to peer observations on their own initiative. But to any budding managers, I would wholly support what Maggister has to say.