INTER-INSTITUTIONAL LANGUAGE COURSES

INTENSIVE COURSES
SUMMER 2005

• Languages and levels
• Dates and duration of the courses
• Criteria which determine the organisation of a course
• Priorities
• Placement tests
• Admission criteria
• Procedure for enrolment
• Absences
• Secretariat of the inter-institutional language courses

The Training Services of the European Institutions in Brussels are jointly organising summer intensive courses. This will enable participants to complete a level in three weeks.

The aim is to enable participants to acquire the language skills which are necessary to carry out their daily work and to express themselves in everyday situations (= standard courses).

The courses will be organised provided that there are sufficient resources and sufficient participants.

Priority will be given to the most requested languages.

LANGUAGES AND LEVELS

Only languages of the European Union Member-States :

• EN (English), FR (French) :
  • Levels : 1 to 6
     
• CS (Czech), DA (Danish), DE (German), EL (Greek), ES (Spanish), ET (Estonian), FI (Finnish),  GA (Irish), HU (Hungarian), IT (Italian), LT (Lithuanian), LV (Latvian), MT* (Maltese), NL (Dutch), PL (Polish), PT (Portuguese), SK (Slovak), SL (Slovenian), SV (Swedish) :
  • Levels : 1 to 4

* Maltese will be organised if a teacher is available.

DATES AND DURATION OF THE COURSES

Two 3 weeks sessions will be organised :
 

Frequency : 4 hours per day (morning or afternoon)

Schedule: 8.30-12.30 or 13.30-17.30

CRITERIA WHICH DETERMINE THE ORGANISATION OF A COURSE

The elements determining the decision on whether to organise a course or not are as follows:

1. Available financial resources (the budget is determined at the beginning of the year at inter-institutional level) ;
    
2. The number of places available (limited course numbers according to the available budget at inter-institutional level) ;
    
3. A sufficient number of participants (minimum 8 applications: “article 45§2” and/or “in the interest of the service”).

PRIORITIES

Taking the above into account, it is evident that all applications cannot be satisfied and so the following priorities will be applied (in order) :

• 1^st priority: requests made in the context of article 45§2, of the Staff Regulations in force as from 1st May 2004.
   
• 2^nd priority: applications in the interest of the service for those who are not already enrolled in a standard twice-weekly course (except for the participants in the survival level courses), notably people who have been newly recruited and staff returning to Headquarters (within the previous 3 months) and who did not take part in a course under another status as SNE or auxiliary agent.
   
• 3^rd priority: applications in the interest of the service for those who are already enrolled in a standard twice-weekly course.
   
• 4^th priority: applications in the interest of the individual for those who are not already enrolled in a standard twice-weekly course.
   
• 5^th priority: applications in the interest of the individual for those who are already enrolled in a standard twice-weekly course.

PLACEMENT TESTS

For people whose level in the language requested is not known, placement tests will be organised from 11 April to 15 April 2005, from 18 April to 22 April 2005 and from 25 April to 29 April 2005. An invitation will be sent in due course.

Please note: persons who enter a request for a placement test must not enter a 2^nd request for a course. The request made for the placement test will be modified according to the test results and used for the enrolment in a course.

ADMISSION CRITERIA

Applicants must :

• be either an official, a temporary, auxiliary, contract or local agent, a seconded national expert (SNE) at the closing date for applications and during the course ;
   
• not be, at the closing date for applications and at the start of the course, “intérimaire”, service provider (“prestataire”), trainee, consultant, staff in receipt of an invalidity pension or on leave on personal grounds or on sick leave or on maternity leave. People working part-time can attend a course only during their working hours (time spent training is considered equivalent to work time).
   
• never have participated in an advanced or task based course in the language requested (or not have been assessed as being of a higher level than level 6 in the placement test).

Reminder :

• Each student may only apply for one single course.
   
• Spouses of officials and former officials are not allowed as these courses are principally aimed for the specific needs of the DGs, to give access to language training for statutory members of staff who cannot attend such courses during the academic year and/or to accelerate the completion of the cycle.

PROCEDURE FOR ENROLMENT

All applications for an intensive course must be on the basis of a specific application even if the applicant is already attending a standard twice-weekly course. The application must be signed by the Head of Unit and by the Training Coordinator of the DG or the Service concerned.

All applications must be made only via SYSLOG at http://www.cc.cec/di/syslog_formation/home/formation.cfm. The DG ADMIN will deal with your application only AFTER the electronic validation done by the Training Coordinator of your DG/Service (list of Training Coordinators is at http://www.cc.cec/pers_admin/training_bxl/cofolist_en.html).

You will not be allowed to change language once the training coordinator of your DG/Service has validated your request electronically.

FIf the participant passes the examination at the end of the intensive course :

• Those who are not enrolled in a standard twice-weekly course and wish to continue classes in that language must submit a new application for the next session of standard twice-weekly courses in Syslog (please refer to the administrative notice of the September 2005/February 2006 session, to be published).
   
• Those who are already attending a standard twice-weekly course will be automatically enrolled at the next level when the courses restart (except for advanced courses where a new application is needed). Please note : for these persons, the invitation to the 2005 summer intensive course will be sent at the beginning of July 2005 (after the finish of the standard twice-weekly course). Also, the invitation to the September 2005/February 2006 session of the standard twice-weekly courses (which start at mid-September 2005) will be sent at the beginning of September 2005 (after the end of the 2005 summer intensive course). This is because we must know the end of course results before we can place those following standard twice-weekly courses in the right level.

Deadline for entering applications into Syslog Web Formation:

18 March 2005.

ABSENCES

It's worth remembering that the learning of any language means regular attendance at all courses. Repeated absences inevitably slow down the learning pace of the individual and the whole group and risk compromising the training objectives. A similar problem is posed by chronic latecomers to courses or by early departures: which is why arriving more than 30 minutes late to your class or leaving 30 minutes before the end of the class is considered as non-attendance.

The language training secretariat needs to ensure that all the following rules are strictly respected by the participants :

Participants who throughout a course (56/60 hours) accumulate 12 hours of absence regardless of the reason for the absences will be excluded from the course and will not be allowed to sit the final test.

NB: presence is requested until the end of the course, this includes days following the course exam. Absences will then be counted until the last course hour and exclusion rules will be strictly applied (attention : it means that the exam results will be cancelled if there is a total absence of 12 hours).

Appeal procedure

In exceptional cases, an appeal procedure can be launched in order to avoid being excluded from the course or to be reinstated in the course, as follows :

• A note from the participant’s line superior to the language training Head of Sector certifying that participation in the course is in the interest of the service.
   
• A written declaration from the teacher stating that the participant is capable of continuing and successfully completing the course without slowing down the progress of the class as a whole.
   
• Commitment from the participant to take part in all remaining classes and to review the material covered during his or her absence.

Nevertherless, you will be personnally informed by e-mail of the outcome of your application by 11 May 2005 at the latest. Because of the limited human resources available in our team, no information can be sent out to you before this date. So please, do not contact us by phone or by e-mail before this date.

SECRETARIAT OF THE INTER-INSTITUTIONAL LANGUAGE COURSES

UNIT ADMIN.A.3
Language training sector

Address : rue Guimard, 10
Administrative address : GUIM 1/51

Head of Unit : Guido VERVAET, GUIM 3/56, tel. : 59224
Head of Sector : Päivi ÖHMAN, GUIM 1/56, tel. : 21210
Secretariat : Emmanuelle LOUEDEC, GUIM 1/51, tel. : 51160
Coordination and planning : Martine VAN LOO, GUIM 1/50, tel. : 52394
Administrative notices and website: Valérie DE KONINCK, GUIM 1/42, tel.: 58654

List of course managers (on 1^st February 2005)
(enquiries by phone or in person may be made between 10 and 12 a.m.)