My background :-

My IELTS teaching experience :

I quit my career as a cancer researcher to become a full-fledged trainer for IELTS and Spoken English and I have been in this field for over 5 years. I had already cleared IELTS (Band score – 8/9 in IELTS Academic) before moving to the UK. Furthermore, I obtained my training from British Council, Chennai for teaching IELTS.

During the course of my teaching experience, I have realised that students who have a good foundation in basic grammar and vocabulary score higher band scores. Those with a poor understanding of English language do not perform well irrespective of the number of attempts they take.

To address this pertinent issue, I have incorporated a Basic English course as part of IELTS coaching, although it is optional for students. In addition, I provide grammar and vocabulary notes for improving their standard. There is also separate tests for grammar and vocabulary.

My Masters experience :

I studied Masters in Molecular Medicine from University of Sheffield, UK, between 2008 - 09. I chose the university after extensive search on the net and word of mouth. Those days whatsapp did not exist and we had to rely on Orkut and Facebook to communicate with overseas students. Through Orkut, I found other students traveling to Sheffield for studying and finally decided to stay with them in the same accommodation.

The course was a 1 year taught Masters with a 5-month research project based on which I wrote my thesis. During the research project, I worked closely with a senior scientist in a cancer research group focusing on anti-VEGF therapies. I also partcipated in project presentation and journal clubs.

Foreign universities are strict in screening for plagiarism and collusion. They strongly advice students to understand concepts and write assignments in their own words. All assignments are scrutinized using plagiarism software. During the course of time, students would develop scientific thinking, scientific style of writing, performing literature searches and proper citation method.

My UK NHS work experience :

I worked as a biomedical scientist for a year at the Royal Free Hospital, in Hampstead, London. It is a tertiary care NHS trust hospital founded over 170 years back and the lab I worked is a referral centre for bleeding and thrombosis. Biomedical scientist is equivalent of Medical Laboratory technologist in India.

To work in healthcare in UK, one needs to register with the health and care professions Council in UK (https://www.hcpc-uk.org/). This is the registration body for all medical and allied health professionals. The registration needs to be renewed every 2 years. On gaining employment, candidates will be subjected to a criminal record check and determination of the protective titres for MMR, VZV vaccines.

After joining the trust, there was an induction program to orient all new employees about core NHS policies, Health and safety and Information governance (Data Protection act).