NORTHAMPTON (University of Northampton) – The University of Northampton’s School of Education has signed a teacher training agreement with the most pretigious institution in Kazakhstan. As part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Abay Kazakh National Pedagogical University, academics will receive training in Northampton.

The Early Years team hosted a delegation from the Abay Kazakh National Pedagogical University – the oldest and most prestigious in Kazakhstan – and welcomed Professor Aigulim Aitpayeva, Dr Aigul Iskakova and Professor Khairulla Zhanbekov for a four-day visit. The purpose of the visit was to engage with senior staff members at the University of Northampton in a peer review of their PhD and Masters programmes in Early Years, as well as signing a MoU for future collaboration. This visit followed on from a promotional trip to Kazakhstan by Cilel Smith, Senior Lecturer in Education for Early Years at the University of Northampton, which resulted in establishing good contacts with three Kazakh universities.

The University of Northampton earned recognition by the Kazakhstan government for the Bolashak Scholarship scheme for training and development opportunities for higher education staff. The first six Kazakh academics are expected to arrive at the University of Northampton in January to undertake a bespoke six-month EFL programme through Northampton Business School, with a second visit in September for a further term of intensive training in contemporary methods of teaching, learning and assessment in Higher Education.

Bolashak Scholarships have also been awarded to two Early Years staff from the Abay Kazakh University, who will be participating in a 10-month internship programme at the University of Northampton in February and will have the opportunity to observe and participate in teaching and visiting early years’ settings and schools throughout the East Midlands.

Since 2011, a support staff training course developed by The University of Northampton is helping train teaching assistants for the first British independent school in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The course, the first Level 4 Certificate for Teaching Assistants in an International Context, is used to train the staff of one of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious independent boarding schools in the UK, Haileybury, to launch the new English School in Astana. The University has developed the Certificate as part of our agenda for internationalisation and has been designed to develop host country and expatriate Teaching Assistants knowledge and skills to an internationally recognised standard. The school opened its doors on 1 September 2011 to pupils from the age of 3 to 10 years and has plans for a boarding school for pupils aged from 13 to open in September 2014.