INNES quality standards

Do it with passion, or not at all.

At INNES, you will find a learning space which is academic and professional, yet friendly and individual. Here, students benefit from more personal interaction with their teachers, allowing them to expect a more personalized learning journey and thus faster progress in their German proficiency.

Registration I Placement Level tests

Following our simple online registration and free placement test, you will be placed in a course that corresponds to your current level of German. On the first day of the course, the teacher will also check whether all participants are at the right level to ensure the best possible learning experience for everyone.

Feedback System to Assure High Quality

Each course includes a three-fold feedback process to maximize student satisfaction:

#1 lesson observation
#2 written satisfaction survey at the end of the course
#3 class feedback

Lesson observations are followed by personalized feedback or training sessions, transforming good teachers into exceptional ones. After the initial course week, an anonymous online Satisfaction Survey empowers students to address questions or concerns promptly. Recognizing that open teacher-student communication is essential for a positive class atmosphere, instructors conduct anonymous class feedback in the second course week. Furthermore, our attentive reception staff has an open ear for all your concerns.

Inside the classroom

All teachers at INNES are trained to teach in accordance with our quality charter. This quality charter includes guidelines detailing what students need to achieve in order to be awarded a certificate with ECTS, as well as: what elements influence students’ final scores, how to handle progress tests, course planning, course methodology, feedback procedures, and community building.

All INNES Teachers work according to the following didactic principles:

#1 Student-centeredness. People, their personal needs, and their stories always stand in the foreground of
all learning, and not the materials.

#2 Individual treatment. All learning activities are graded to participants’ individual needs and
wishes. Stronger students get extra exercise and challenges, and weaker students extra support. To guarantee individual treatment, we keep our groups small.

#3 Student feedback. Teachers create a communicative classroom environment in which feedback,  wishes and suggestions can be shared personally at any time. Teachers always conduct anonymous
in-class feedback after the first week of the course to respond to students’ suggestions.

#4 Well-structuredness. All teachers carefully plan and stage their lessons (and the entire course) in
correspondence to students’ needs. They also give students an overview of the entire course, test
dates, excursions, etc. on the first-course day.

#5 Group dynamics for active lessons. All teachers employ a mixture of individual, pair, and group
work to keep learners engaged and involved at all times. Our teacher’s mantra is to explain only as
much as needed, so that students can be as active as possible, and communicate non-stop in German
with each other.

#6 Balance of all four skills with extra focus on speaking practice. From the beginning, you will
practice speaking, reading, writing, and listening. However, at INNES we emphasize extended speaking practice in all courses, because we know that this is the skill needed most in real life. This
turns our students into independent communicators.

#7 Variety of activities. While it is important to establish some kind of learning routine, we know
that learners love variety – which is why we train teachers to make sure that activities are creative
and varied to engage learners with all their senses.

#8 Learning transfer. We at INNES are very structured and we expect our teachers to guarantee a
smooth changeover between levels. In addition to the progress tests throughout the course,
students draw a learning diagram visualizing the contents learned at the end of the course, thus reviewing everything and self-assessing their learning development.

Course Materials

Effective course materials, including a suitable textbook, are essential. We stay current with the course book market to select the best option for you. Additionally, our well-equipped teacher’s library features only the finest didactic materials for German language learners.

Quality assurance

We proudly hold the Wien Cert – a certificate granted to only the best educational institutions in Vienna. The acquisition of Wien Cert signifies our unwavering commitment to educational excellence. It serves as a mark of distinction, signifying that INNES has met rigorous standards and demonstrates a dedication to academic quality.