FAQs
The Sprint Programme - Questions and Answers:
„SprInt“ ist ein Akronym und steht für sprachlich und interkulturell.
Participation in the Sprint Programme is free of charge. It is financed by the Institutional Strategy.
The Sprint Programme is aimed at the non-academic personnel at TU Dresden who, through their work, come into contact with people from different cultural backgrounds. It is meant for non-academic members of staff from all organisational units.
Academic members of staff can avail themselves of the variety of training opportunities at the Centre of Continuing Education. Should, however, participation in the Sprint Programme be considered useful for carrying out relevant non-academic assignments, it is possible to ask for a case-by-case assessment. Please contact sprint@tu-dresden.de.
Yes. You can only register for the Sprint Programme via the SprInt registration form, which has to be signed by your supervisor.
Please send a scan of your completed SprInt registration form via email to sprint@tu-dresden.de, by internal post to the KST 3440100; Weiterbildungszertifikat SprInt; Nöthnitzer Straße 43. You will then receive a confirmation and further information by email.
No. Depending on individual interests and time available, the Basis Certificate can be upgraded to the Special Certificate at a later stage. By ticking a box on the SprInt registration form, you can let us know that at the time of registering, you do not wish to or are not able to specify which version of the SprInt Certificate you would like to acquire.
No. The SprInt Programme is a structured training programme for acquiring both language and intercultural skills. The foreign language and intercultural elements are closely linked and complement each other. For this reason, completing just part of the SprInt Programme will not achieve the desired results.
In order to register for the individual modules (language course, workshops/seminars to acquire intercultural competences), you first need to register for the SprInt Programme.
If your command of English already corresponds to at least level B2 of the European Framework of References for Languages, please send the appropriate confirmation documents (certificates, reports, proof of stay abroad and/or relevant work experience) to sprint@tu-dresden.de.
Please feel free to add a brief explanation in writing of how you employ your knowledge of English in your current workplace. If it is then confirmed that your already existing command of English can be correspondingly credited, you will be able to learn a modern foreign language of your choice with an external provider. You may choose the language level. It is important, however, that the course comprises at least 40 teaching units (one unit = 45 minutes) and takes place outside regular working hours. Please note that the costs for such external courses cannot be reimbursed from Institutional Strategy funds.
If a specific foreign language is shown to be necessary and relevant for your area of work at TU Dresden, a financial contribution can be applied for at Directorate 2, Unit for General Personnel Issues; a further condition is the availability of funds. Please apply informally to the above-mentioned Unit (Ms Breitenborn) and include your supervisor’s assessment of why this foreign language is necessary and relevant for carrying out your duties. Each case will be assessed individually.
As soon as you have received a confirmation of your successful participation in the external course you have chosen, please send a copy to sprint@tu-dresden.de so that it can be credited to the Sprint Certificate.
Modern foreign language courses taken in the past cannot be credited retroactively.
Yes. We currently offer courses in accordance with level A2 (basic English) and level B1 and B2 (advanced English) of the European Framework of Reference for Languages. Unfortunately, we have no courses for beginners.
In order to ensure that all participants select the appropriate course, it is urgently recommended that you evaluate your level of English by means of an online test (e.g. http://sprachtest.cornelsen.de/einstufung/index.aspx or http://www.prolog-berlin.de/de/englisch-test-online.htm) before registering for an English course.
To acquire the SprInt Certificate, you only need to participate in one English course. As the SprInt Programme is currently enjoying great popularity, we would first like to enable everyone who is interested to complete their preferred English course at the time they choose. In the event of there being free places available, these can be given to SprInt participants who would like to take several English courses.
We are constantly working to extend our range of intercultural workshops. This also involves adding more cultures to the culture-specific intercultural workshops. If the culture you are particularly interested in is not yet available in the programme, please let us know. We will do all we can to find suitable lecturers and to implement your request in coming semesters.
The SprInt Programme is proving to be extremely popular, which we are very happy about. As a result, the intercultural workshops are also in great demand. To ensure a pleasant learning experience and an interactive exchange among participants and with the lecturer, there are only 12 places in most intercultural workshops. This is why the individual workshops fill up so quickly. We are doing all we can to meet the great demand and have extended the programme considerably over the past weeks. Additional dates will follow. However, we would like to point out once again that the SprInt Programme will be available until at least October 2017, so in coming years there will still be the chance to take part in the various components of the SprInt Programme.
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and Free State of Saxony under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder