The deadline for the RFP below has now passed.

I’m presently engaged in a consulting project for a large group of for-profit universities called Laureate Education, Inc. This organization is based in Baltimore and comprises a network of about 25 universities in 15 countries including 280,000 non-native speakers of whom about 100,000 are EFL learners. Laureate also owns the online institutions Walden University and Capella University. On March 22, 2008 Laureate published an RFP, of which a significant part seeks providers of teachers for their EFL programs and providers of teacher-training for their existing faculty. Other portions of the RFP relate to testing, certification of both teachers and students, a blended curriculum of online and classroom-based course, and a study and travel abroad component. Laureate hopes to begin a pilot program with about 4,000 students in the fall of 2008, broaden to 25,000 students in January of 2009, then work with all of their students beginning in January 2010.

They would also like to add teachers to their existing faculty. They hope to add about ten next fall, another 40 in January 2009 and about 100 more by January 2010. Their teacher-training needs are similarly large. They hope to have a training program roughly equivalent to a CTEFLA-about 120 hours of instruction-for their teachers who are in many countries around the world. They envision a program that would be a combination of online and face-to-face instruction. The initial training would be for about 75 teachers, the next group about 475, and ultimately for about 1875 teachers.

Laureate is seeking potential partners with the capabilities to help them with their significant EFL needs. If you or your organization might be interested, check out the initial call for proposals If you’d like more information, you’ll need to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Further details will follow upon receipt of that agreement. The deadline for receipt of proposals is April 22, 2008.

Download the preliminary request for proposals.