English Australia Award for Innovation

The Award for Innovation, sponsored by ETS TOEFL, aims to recognise quality by showcasing organisations within the ELICOS industry that support their staff in demonstrating original and creative problem solving initiatives in response to the challenges faced within the ELICOS sector.

It is designed to celebrate new ideas and innovative approaches to any aspect of ELICOS delivery. The Award recognizes that there are two key elements underpinning innovation: individuals and/or teams that develop initiatives to address identified challenges in ELICOS, and organisations that have a culture of support for these initiative.

The winner of the 2019 Innovation award was University of Newcastle Language Centre for its 'Student Experience Passport.' The Student Experience Passport was developed to drive engagement with the University of Newcastle Language Centre’s Student Experience Program through aligning the Program’s activities into four pillars - Orientate Yourself; Practice your English outside of the classroom; Experience the University community and Explore Newcastle.

This new approach has driven program participation by clearly communicating the value of participation and by incentivising engagement with extra-curricular activities through gamification (photo attached of group - Anna Bennett, University of Newcastle Language Centre (L) , Eileen Tyson, ETS Global, Anne Burnett, University of Newcastle Language Centre, Ben Doran, University of Newcastle Language Centre & Cynthia Kralik, English Australia Chair (R)