HIE Higher Institute of English
The In-service English courses are professionally designed and offered to government employees as well as individuals working in the private sector. These courses also give a chance to those preparing for a work life to be better equipped for it.
Admission to In-Service Courses:
Interested parties and potential clients are encouraged to approach the Institute directly through the In-service Department in the first instance, or through the ‘contact us’ dropdown from the HIE Website. The Institute can provide all or some of the following services:
- Training Needs Analysis
- Diagnostic & Placement Testing
- Project Scope
- Pricing and Costs
- Curriculum & Syllabus Design
- Delivery
- Evaluation & Reporting
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B3 – The Military -
ENS -
BCM -
BP - ATC/C3I
The Etat Major is keen to upskill serving personnel with English. This is in light of Mauritania’s growing involvement with NATO, the UN, and other organizations such as G5 Sahel. As Mauritanian officers are involved in international missions such as peacekeeping in places like Central Africa and Mali, they need to be proficient in English. That is why these customized courses play a great role in preparing them to perform well. Along with our B3 military course, we have regularly given course for military observers and staff college officers.
Up till now, there have been 5 completed sessions, each session with around 200 hours of both General and Military English. We recently finished session 5, and we are planning to start session 6 in November, 2020.
B 3 – Session 5
This session was unique because of the circumstances in which the institute had to operate. It started on February 10, 2020, and it was supposed to finish on July 11, 2020. However, as a result of COVID-19 hit, we were forced to shut down by the end of the second of week of March. The situation presents HIE with many challenges; however, because of the administration’s support, the teachers’ proactive attitude, and the students’ motivation to learn, we managed to resume classes on May 11, 2020, and they concluded on July 23, 2020. A total of 34 students managed to complete this session, and they were awarded certificates or letters, depending on their attendance.
Session 5 pictures:
According to our HIE presidential decree, is tasked with assisting the secondary sector in the government education system to upgrade the teaching of English in state schools. At present, we are engaging with the Ecole Normale Superieur where 30 plus first year teacher trainees are being given support on a weekly basis in modern teaching techniques.
In Summer 2017, a 3 day event was organized at HIE entitled ‘English in the 21st Century Classroom.’ Sessions included workshops and seminars as well as informal gatherings. A second 1 day event on 16th March 2019 was organized by Gerry McKeown and our aim is to make such in-service training events a regular occurrence
Following a training needs analysis undertaken in Q1 2017, evening classes were set up to cater for up to 30 staff who have been progressing at different levels. Today, there are almost 60 learners and HIE now has a full-time teacher resident at the bank with dedicated learning facilities. BCM has also hosted a number of our interns from the Degree Programme.
BP is now a major player in the energy sector in Mauritania having bought into the Tortue offshore gas field in 2017. As operator on the block, the oil and gas major has initiated a number of projects to develop local human resources both for direct employees, and for the wider benefit of the government and nation. Over the last four years, HIE has been awarded a number of contracts to provide English language training and support. The first contract, ongoing, was to deliver English language courses for up to 50 government personnel across a number of ministries. On the success of this project, HIE was tasked with a providing a one year, full-time programme for 25 apprentice technicians and operators who are embarking on the first phase of their 4 year training to become fully-fledged employees. At the end of their training, these technicians will deploy to the offshore site. HIE has also given support to BP Mauritania’s office based staff.
Our involvement with C3I Air Traffic Control has been ongoing since before the Institute opened its doors. Air Traffic Controllers all around the world communicate through the medium of English added to which there is specialized language that has to learned called Phraseology – this is the language used between pilots and the control tower. The international standard that all controllers are measured against is ICAO Level 4. HIE staff are seconded to ATC premises to train their personnel to achieve this standard. C3I have recently moved to a state of the art, purpose-built facility at Oumtounsy.