Consultancy worldwide

NILE works on global, national and local consultancy projects with educational partners of all sizes, with a central ethos of providing excellence in project design and delivery and enhancing local capacity to ensure sustainability.

Recent consultancy projects have focused on large-scale teacher education, assessment reform and development, curriculum development, materials development, academic management, pre-service teacher training reform, online delivery of teaching and learning, CEFR alignment, English for Specific Purposes, and English-Medium Instruction.

Consultancies incorporate clear systems, processes and tools, and can involve in-country fieldwork and delivery, desk-based, online and blended research and training, and UK-based training programmes.

Our bespoke, contextualised, personal approach to every consultancy provides you with the confidence and trust in quality at every stage of your project, and the NILE resources and consultant network to manage all projects, large and small.


Our Consultancy Services

Understanding your needs and context is the crucial first step to ensuring excellence in project delivery. As a consequence of our independence, the detailed investigation we carry out and discussions with you, we are able to take an objective view of the needs of all stakeholders and build a sustainable way forward that is appropriate for your context.
Our advice, tools and solutions are based on awareness of current best practice in ELT. The wide and varied experience of the NILE consultancy team enables us to research the best possible practical approaches to suit your specific situation.
Our team of expert consultants responds to your specific needs and desired outcomes when designing and delivering sessions, courses and support. These can be provided for individuals or groups of any size and can be delivered online, in-country or in the UK.
We know how important it is for us to assist you in monitoring the success of your project. Right from the planning stage we consider and establish the precise criteria that will be used to measure success. Evaluation of processes and products is built in from the outset.
We make it a priority to support you in ensuring that outcomes are sustainable in the long-term. At NILE we understand that this is rarely achieved through a single change event. Instead, favourable outcomes involve a gradual process of accommodation and assimilation. For that reason, we offer a follow-up service to complement the other phases of the consultancy project.
We approach each consultancy like a partnership: working together to achieve results. We see your involvement and agreement as being the best possible way of ensuring success. We discuss all aspects of the process with you in order to find the right solutions and support the achievement of your objectives.

If you would like to discuss a proposal or find out more about what we are able to offer your organisation, please contact us.

Test Development – Brazil

This project to support the development of an online test for a major Brazilian language school chain involved test specifications development, item-writer training, item review, and guidance on piloting and data analysis. The resulting test and testing approach received excellent feedback from students and other stakeholders.

" We counted on NILE’s expertise in assessment to support our pilot project to design computer-based tests. Specialists of different areas were assigned to give feedback on initial drafts. Having different perspectives on each component made the experience really rich and enlightening and all of this helped us make informed decisions and implement changes. NILE’s invaluable advice was key to shape the final product and ensure its fit for purpose. All in all, a very successful consultancy project. "

Cristiane Corsetti
Head of Educational Measurement
Edify, Brazil

Managing consultancy – global

An innovative collaboration between British Council, IATEFL and EnglishUK involved NILE managing 20 teacher language development projects and developing a Community of Practice for UK-based language teaching organisiations and teacher associations worldwide. The PRELIM project has received extensive coverage and led to systemic improvements among stakeholders.

Roy Cross

" NILE, who are managing consultants to the British Council – IATEFL – English UK PRELIM project, have ensured the project’s success through a combination of a) fierce belief in and commitment to the project and b) their highly skilled and adroit mediation of the community of practice for the UK partners. I’ve much enjoyed learning alongside them! "

Roy Cross
Principal Consultant, Partnerships | English for Education Systems
British Council

CEFR alignment – Trinidad

This consultancy for Eaquals and University of the West Indies involved bespoke training and resource development for CEFR alignment across six modern foreign language departments at a major university. The impact of the training has been profound, and led to rollout across all teaching teams in language departments.

Ludka Kotarska

" Eaquals has worked with NILE on a number of consultancy projects and training courses. We have found NILE to be professional, reliable partners, working to the same quality standards that Eaquals holds as core values and have no hesitation in recommending their work as consultants in the field of language training and assessment in the international education sector.

Recently had the opportunity to work with NILE as a consultancy partner on the CEFR Training project carried out for the University of the West Indies. The project itself focused on specific training relating to the adoption of the CEFR which NILE delivered with their usual high level of expertise, knowledge and insight. "

Ludka Kotarska
Director of Eaquals
Accreditation, Training and Consultancy

EMI capacity - Uzbekistan

This three-year consultancy with British Council Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Higher Education involved NILE managing a project with 16 partner universities to develop capacity for planning and delivery of English-Medium Instruction programmes across faculties. The innovative approach to involving EMI and English for Specific Purposes teachers has resulted in sustainable development, teaching standards frameworks, curriculum templates, and had a major impact on university capacity.

Jamilya Gulyamova

" The British Council’s English Medium Instruction project in Uzbekistan responds to national education reform agendas to internationalize education, improve its quality and relevance, develop capacity for English medium instruction and transnational education. Our key partners on this project are the Ministry of higher and secondary specialized education of the Republic of Uzbekistan and 16 Uzbekistan universities across the country that teach programmes or modules in English.

We are delighted to work with Norwich Institute for Language Education who have brough in extensive and diverse experience and expertise in the area of English Medium Instruction and wider education reform from the UK and other countries. Working in close collaboration with national partners, stakeholders, academics including English and subject teachers the project is developing a holistic approach to English medium education development and shaping new innovative responses to Covid-19.. "

Jamilya Gulyamova
Deputy Director
British Council, Uzbekistan

Senior English Teachers Mentoring Project – Ukraine

In this consultancy for the British Council, NILE and TransformELT developed and delivered a mentoring programme and training course for senior teachers in 100 schools across Ukraine. The great impact of this programme has meant it will be rolled out to teachers of other subjects, as well as English teachers in other schools.

Zhanna Sevastianova

"  Working with NILE has been a pleasure for us.
I felt NILE’s professionalism at each level of our cooperation starting from managing the initial arrangements to the course design and delivery.
The online course for 95 Ukrainian teachers was skilfully tailored to address their needs and fit the context. That was exactly what we were looking for.
The success of our cooperation has been built on the experience in international collaboration and NILE’s expertise in online teacher development.
Thank you for cooperation! "

Zhanna Sevastianova
Head English
British Council, Ukraine

Curriculum Development and Online CELTA Project – Uzbekistan

A project to support the design of a new undergraduate curriculum across a range of pre-service language teacher education modules for a university in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, including delivering a full-time, fully online CELTA course over 4 weeks to a group of faculty members.

Elina Tovmasyan

"  YTIT has been working with NILE since 2020 on the curriculum development project for newly established English Education faculty that focuses on CLIL. We received tremendous assistance in syllabus and material design, assessment, and teacher development. NILE staff are real professionals, passionate about what they do. We learned a lot from the trainers, their guidance and support exceeded all our expectations.
When our team was planning to take the CELTA course there was no doubt that we would choose NILE. And it was the best possible decision. The course was highly effective and the English departments of YTIT are grateful to the management and all trainers of NILE for their hard work.  "

Elina Tovmasyan
Head of English Education department
Yeoju Technical Institute in Tashkent