All candidates shortlisted for Canada, China, Latin America and Switzerland will be invited to an assessment day.

For all other countries some candidates may be assessed by telephone interview where areas of their application need to be followed up. We will contact you in advance by email if we require you to participate in an assessment day or a telephone interview. These will take place between January and April 2012.

Assessment days

ONLY candidates shortlisted for Canada, China, Latin America and Switzerland (French and German-speaking).

Please note that you are responsible for your own travel expenses and lunch will not be provided on the day.

You will be invited to an assessment day at one of our offices in London, Edinburgh or Belfast. If you have applied through the London office for China or Latin America, you may be called to attend at our Manchester office.

You can find the addresses of each office here: http://www.britishcouncil.org/new/articles/maps/  

Information to help you prepare

Group-based activity (morning):

The first part of the assessment day will focus on preparation and presentation of a lesson plan in small groups. The following qualities and skills will be tested in this session:

•Presentation and communication skills

•Lesson planning

•Ideas for variety of material/resources

•Knowledge of UK contemporary culture

•Contributions to group discussion

•Potential to motivate and enthuse students

•Ability to think on feet

•Taking Initiative

•Showing enthusiasm

•Leadership qualities

Individual interview (afternoon):

In the second part of the assessment day each candidate will be asked to attend a 10 or 15- minute interview.

We recommend that you research your first choice country and be prepared to talk about the following:

•Motivation to be an English Language Assistant

•Understanding and awareness of cultural difference

•Coping with challenging aspects of living in first choice country

•How other work experience you have may relate to being an assistant

•How you plan to build a social life outside school/university in which you work

If you are applying to Canada, Latin America or Switzerland you will also be asked a few informal questions in the foreign language concerned.

You should find our LanguageAssistant site useful when doing research for the assessment day. You may also find it useful to see what previous assistants say.

Please note: the programme is competitive and you will therefore be expected to prepare for the assessment day, to have ideas about the role and to give a good account of yourself.