Running a language school is not just choosing the right location, preparing the building and the facilities for the students. It is much more than that.
To us, hosting the students is to provide them with the ultimate experience, and not only the learning \”in-class\” experience. It is about the warm welcome, friendliness, quality, the \”feels like home\” atmosphere, fun, support and guidance. There is a lot of \”behind the scenes\” work of many devoted Oscars Team members. We wish to introduce you to some of our staff – with them at the helm, Oscars is bound to succeed in welcoming and hosting you the best way possible : ) This week, we meet Kenny Moynihan- Student Experience Manager. Always smiling, helpful and high-spirited, favorite of many students.
Tell us a bit about yourself Kenny.
I\’m 31 and I\’m from Rathmines in Dublin, so I\’m not far away from the school at all.
What\’s your role here?
I\’m the Student Experience Manager.
Great and how long have you been working at City Language School?
Three years. A friend of mine actually sent me the advertisement through jobs.ie. I wasn’t looking for anything and when I saw it, it sounded like me. So I rang them and they said to come in straight away. I remember explaining to them that I wasn’t dressed for a job interview but they said to come in anyway. I did the interview with the directors. And they were great. I got a call on the way home to say I had the job if I wanted it.
It looks like things have changed quite a lot in the three years you have been here, have they?
When I started, it was all about the social programme and the activity side of things. My job was to really kind of introduce the students to Dublin and to each other. But as the school grew, the roll got bigger and bigger and we had to get more staff. So instead of there being just a student services officer it became the student services department. It is a much much bigger operation now.
The size of the groups has increased massively. We have become much more popular with groups to the point that weekends have almost become busier or certainly as busy as during the week. And I have to say, it\’s great to know that we’re good at what we do because the same groups keep coming back and that return business is how we know it’s working.
So you\’re dealing with a lot of people.
We have group leaders, tours, tour guides, activity leaders and host families to organise and keep in contact with so it’s all day every day.
How many host families do you deal with?
I’d say we have five hundred host families altogether. We focus on two areas mainly. On the southside Ballinteer and Dundrum because it’s a young area and it’s close to the LUAS and also there’s lots to do out that way including Dundrum Shopping Centre and Marlay Park. Then we have Clontarf and Raheny on the northside for people who want to be near the sea and from there
you can get the DART or there are lots of buses. But the main thing with host families is that students feel comfortable, enjoy their time with us and get an insight into real Irish life.
So after three years, you\’re still here. Do you still enjoy it?
I have to say I absolutely love it. It’s different everyday. The mixture between the summer school kids and the adults in their thirties and forties looking for opportunities is great. We see all sorts and we try to send them away from the school having had the best type of experience they could have had.
Thank you, Kenny!