Diploma in English Language Teaching Management (DELTM)
The English UK DELTM is the diploma-level qualification for managers and directors working at English language teaching centres.
Over six months and ten modules, our trainers cover a breadth of management disciplines to give participants the knowledge and confidence to succeed as ELT managers.
The DELTM is suitable for staff already in managerial roles in an ELT centre and those aspiring to work as centre managers, academic managers, principals or school directors.
Participants should have line management experience in an educational or business context. An English language teaching qualification and three years of experience in either ELT teaching or ELT centre operations are also desirable.
The DELTM is validated by LanguageCert.
Learn more about the DELTM
Course dates and calendar
Our DELTM course runs annually from October to March. During this period, there are three face-to-face training sessions, seven online training sessions, five assignments and a final project.
Our 2024/2025 course is now underway, and started with an in-person session in London on Friday 4 October 2024.
We will share more details on the 2025/2026 course later in the year.
If you have any questions, please contact our events & training manager, Eleanor Thomas.
Course fees 2024/25
English UK member centre staff: £2,250
Full price (non-members): £3,250
Course calendar 2024/24
In-person sessions last a full day, typically from 10:30 to 17:00. Online sessions run from 09:30 – 15:30 and include a break.
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Date
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Venue
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Module
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Friday 4 October
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In-person
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1: Organisational behaviour
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Friday 1 November
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Online
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2: The modern manager
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Friday 29 November
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Online
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3: Managing your team
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Friday 6 December
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Online
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4: Staff recruitment and beyond
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Friday 10 January
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Online
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5: Marketing and sales
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Friday 17 January
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Online
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6: Making a profit
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Friday 14 February
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In-person
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7: Academic management
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Friday 28 February
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Online
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8: The customer journey
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Friday 21 March
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Online
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9: The principled manager
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Friday 28 March
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In-person
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10: Managing change
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Course content
The programme covers management skills from the day-to-day operational to the strategic levels, exploring fundamental questions about organisational goals over a three- to five-year time span.
Participants will explore several areas, including leadership and organisational behaviour, people management, product development, marketing, and profit.
Organisational behaviour
- The organisational mission
- Organisational structure and culture
- Organisational development
- The organisation and its environment
- The role of the manager
- General management and the
Accreditation UK scheme
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The modern manager
- Personal effectiveness
- Time management
- Goal setting and prioritising
- Stress management
- Effective delegation
- Motivating yourself and others
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HR: managing your team
- People as a resource
- Communication within the organisation
- Organisational conflict
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HR: recruitment and beyond
- Recruitment
- Employment law
- Equal opportunities
- Health and safety
- Grievance procedure
- Disciplinary procedure
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The principled manager
- The principled manager's characteristics
- Safeguarding staff and student wellbeing
- Decision making
- Evidence-based management and
counteracting biases
- EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) and ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) principles and frameworks
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Making a profit
- ELT products and the product mix
- Base units for measurement and comparison
- Margins
- Fixed and variable costs
- Budgeting
- Cash flow
- Breakeven Analysis
- Documents of account
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Marketing and sales
- Sales vs. marketing
- Your brand
- Developing new products
- Creating marketing plans and campaigns
- Working with agents vs. direct channels
- Understanding and using industry statistics
- Digital marketing: websites, social media and customer-centric content
- How to involve the wider business
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Academic management
- Academic systems, including placement, timetabling and record-keeping
- Curriculum, syllabus and course design
- Student progress and feedback
- Maintaining and enhancing academic quality
- Academic quality control measures
- Managing technology, including online and hybrid course delivery
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The customer journey
- Customer service and quality
- Total quality management
- Service blueprinting
- Moments of truth
- Setting performance standards
- Best practice benchmarking
- Self-evaluation
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Change and project management
- The management of change
- Managing resistance to change
- The project management approach
- Planning your project assignment
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Course structure and assessment
Participants complete five assignments during the course: research, reports, presentations, and a 5,000-word final project. There is no final examination.
The five assignments will help you apply the theory from the training sessions and module handbooks. The final submission is a set of five assignments and a 5,000-word project covering the practical aspects of your job.
The course involves approximately 360 hours of work, of which 40 hours are allocated to training sessions, 80 hours to self-study, including completing mini-tasks and 240 hours on the assignments and the final project.
Find more information about the assignments and assessment criteria in the 2024/25 DELTM course information.
Read the English UK Qualifications Code of Conduct.
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Meet the DELTM tutors
Our DELTM tutors are experienced ELT professionals who have worked at teaching centres, as academic content creators or as inspectors on behalf of Accreditation UK.
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George Pickering is the academic course director for the DELTM.
George is an educational coach, trainer and consultant who has worked in over 60 countries. In addition to being the academic course director on the English UK DELTM course, George is also a tutor for the International Diploma in Language Teaching Management (IDLTM).
He is a senior inspector for the Accreditation UK scheme and was the first director of Bell's teacher campus at Homerton College, Cambridge. For many years, George was a trustee of IATEFL and the coordinator of the leadership and management special interest group. He holds a PGCE, an MA in Second Language Learning and Teaching, and diplomas in management, coaching, and counselling.
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Terry Phillips has worked in ELT for over 40 years as a teacher, teaching supervisor, manager, language school owner and consultant. As a consultant, he has worked in more than 25 countries in all parts of the world, advising state and private language institutions on all aspects of academic and financial management. For the last 15 years, he has been a full-time freelance writer with his wife, Anna, producing over 200 published books in all areas of ELT.
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Nicki Tinniswood is CFO at Bayswater Education and has over 25 years of experience in finance. She trained with Deloitte and spent several years lecturing in accountancy and management with The Financial Training Company before moving into the industry. Her experience has focused in recent years on the private education sector, working in apprenticeships and online tutoring before joining Bayswater. |
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Ann Hawkings has over 20 years of experience in sales and marketing in the language travel industry. She has worked in product development and marketing strategy for chain and independent schools. Since starting her consultancy company based in an East London design studio in 2016, Ann has worked with creative brand and design teams to help language travel organisations achieve their business development goals and produce effective marketing materials that inspire student journeys.
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Fiona Dunlop has over 30 years of worldwide experience in English language training, including teacher training, business and soft skills training and academic and school management. She holds an MA in Psychology and the English UK DELTM qualification.
Fiona currently provides training on many aspects of ELT management, such as internal customer care, manager CPD and wellbeing, effective project management and motivating and developing well-established teaching teams. She has written articles for ELT publications and most recently consolidated her years of experience in the form of a language school management book published in June 2019. |
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Bespoke DELTM options
We offer Bespoke closed-group DELTM courses for language centres, school chains and associations.
The bespoke DELTM is the ideal solution for developing your managers and business. This specially crafted programme is tailor-made to match your organisation's needs.
The bespoke offer is a flexible, blended programme that can be tailored to you, whether delivered in the UK or overseas, as an intensive block or over the course of several months. Flexible pricing also reduces the cost per head for larger groups.
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What did past participants think?
- "Quite simply, it is the essential training programme for managers in the ELT industry. From the very first session, the insights I gained from the DELTM inspired me to conduct research and implement change to the benefit of myself, my staff, my customers and the organisation as a whole. It was transformational on both a professional and a personal level." – Byron Skelton, Torquay International School of English
- "The DELTM is a great opportunity for anyone who has moved into management from teaching, with little or no training, to build on their experience with the theoretical and practical tools it provides." – Shila Nadar, Twin ECL
- "The DELTM course has had a profound impact on me. From the first session you immediately question your current practises and begin to make beneficial changes to your approach to work." – Gary Speirs
- "It was very interesting and made me reflect on my practice as a manager and my organisation's operation. It was lovely to network with like-minded people. The trainers were very knowledgeable and delivered classes in an engaging manner." – Agnieszka Cieszynska, Coventry College
- "A very professional course taught by industry specialists which provided knowledge and skills that could be applied in my organisation from day one." – Dan Smith, Riversdown House
