Access Training Center (ATC), which is affiliated with the American Cultural & Educational Centre (ACEC) was founded in 2003 to establish a high-quality American-labelled English language educational facility in order to assist in the economic and social development of Bahrain. We spoke to Liam John Bellamy, Director and Head of Academics, to find out more about the educational institution.
ACEC is one of the Kingdom’s premier American English centres and provides English language training to students of all ages and nationalities. A secondary branch located in Juffair, Access Training Centre (ATC), was created to help adults develop their skills for the job market.
Mr. Bellamy said: “ACEC was established by the American Embassy to improve the visibility of America in terms of culture and education, and to promote American values. We do far more than teach English too, we offer courses on employability skills in a number of fields such as construction and hospitality.
“We’re going further than this too, offering courses on risk assessment, crisis management, legal issues and other advanced business courses to help managers be more effective in business and also run their operations smoothly. We aim to make our students assets to companies rather than just employees.”
ACEC runs eight sessions per year, each lasting five weeks. People can sign up for one session and drop in and out of the sessions as they like rather than having to commit to three, six or 12 months of one block where they can’t make every session, meaning more flexibility and less risk to students such as single mothers who might unexpectedly face issues attending regularly.
Mr. Bellamy continued: “Ultimately, we promote an authentic classroom environment where learning English as a foreign language is a very rewarding, meaningful, and effective process. We have a strong, multicultural group of teachers who have been in Bahrain a long time so understand the local culture and provide the best environment for education.”
