Budget language schools are driving the dollar down to such a point that the standards of quality schools are being compromised.

Too many companies in the Czech Republic drive their language programs on the cheapest possible fuel and then wonder why they get no results. Perhaps they think they are getting results because individual students submit encouraging "happy forms" at the end of each year — but are corporate needs being met?

Anybody with an appropriate trading license can call themselves a language teacher, or even a language school. In this way, friends of friends permeate corporate language teaching, creating a fee level that is unsustainable for a professionally established language school.

Let's take a look at a few key aspects of a successful language learning program.

Resources

Resources — staffing, standards and infrastructure among others — is one area in which corporate clients are either ignorant of, or blind to, the benefits and necessary overhead costs.

Staffing needs for corporate language training are unlikely to be met by a budget school. A properly accredited school is able to provide a variety of teachers with different specializations. These may range from a beginners' class to general business English classes to "English for Specific Purposes" classes, where a teacher may have a background and training in areas such as accounting, banking, or law, among others.

Another area underrated by the corporate sector is that of standards. I'm talking about externally monitored standards. The Bell School, for instance, is the only Czech member of the European Association for Quality Language Services, or EAQUALS. This association bases its standards on best practices. The accreditation and reaccreditation processes are tough and expensive. It's unlikely many Czech language schools would pass muster.

Then there is infrastructure. Providing accounts managers with proper complaint and reporting procedures, a director of studies, a business manager, a managing director, board of management and internal accountability are all part of a professionally run and accountable language school.

Teachers

It goes without saying that teachers need to be trained. Reputable schools will only hire trained teachers, and generally require a minimum of a bachelor's degree plus language-teaching certificate.

Prague is something of an international magnet for working-holiday teachers. Generally, they start off with a lot of enthusiasm, but then the financial reality sets in when they realize their school is paying them a wage that doesn't enable them to live as they are accustomed.

The budget school, with budget fees, is unable to support the most basic financial needs of its teachers. Enthusiasm wanes, class preparation time is cut, standards disintegrate, and the disillusioned teacher moves on.

A quality school is able to offer its teachers with more experience and ability guaranteed hours, ongoing teacher development and higher pay to teach more specialized programs.

Those experienced language teachers who persevere certainly don't work for the budget schools. They move into teacher training or are in such demand among the few corporate and government clients prepared to pay above-market prices, and they are simply not available to the general corporate market.

So a new batch of working-holiday teachers rolls into town each year to fill the void left by the lack of experienced instructors.

The extent of the problem is so great that budget schools are threatening to destabilize the market. The wake-up call has been ringing for some time.