Becoming an iDeaL Specialist
iDeaL Specialists are a group of motivated and passionate specialists who provide gold-standard, evidence-based structured literacy intervention for students across New Zealand.
Through the iDeaL Specialist model, you run your own business, receive guidance and support from an iDeaL Coach, have access to our iDeaL Specialist Online Platform which houses a myriad of resourcing, quality assessments and reporting systems, and determine your own work/life balance.
As an iDeaL Specialist, you will be endorsed and promoted through the Learning MATTERS brand and website.
The pathway to becoming an iDeaL Specialist
The pathway to becoming an iDeaL Specialist in 2023 requires individuals to undertake a 3-step application process outlined below, in addition to having a prerequisite qualification/training and intervention experience.
NB: Applications are currently closed. Check back with us later in the year.
One or more of the following prerequisite qualifications/training required to apply:
LMIT Certification
IMSLE professional training
LETRS professional training
Orton Gillingham training
iDeaL Consultancy PLD
SPELD training
And intervention experience.
How to apply - 3-step application process
Step 1
Completion of an application form.
NB: Applications are currently closed. Check back with us later in the year.
Step 2
If your application form is successful, you will be asked to send us a 45–60-minute video of you teaching a structured literacy intervention session to a student (this can be your own child or a child you work with etc). A permission form for the student you record will be required.
Step 3
If you are successful in moving to the next stage after your video has been viewed, you will meet with some of the Learning MATTERS leadership team and will be sent terms and conditions and a financial matrix overview to review.
What if I do not have a prerequisite qualification/training ?
If you do not have the prerequisite qualification(s) do not worry. Learning MATTERS has developed the Learning MATTERS Intervention Teaching (LMIT) Certification.
The LMIT training is a comprehensive 12-month (hybrid) training course, specifically designed to build your knowledge and practice as a specialist intervention practitioner. As well as developing extensive knowledge of systems of phonology, orthography, syntax, morphology and semantics, participants of LMIT will be supported in learning and administering quality intervention assessment tools suitable for creating diagnostic education plans for use during evidence-based instruction. Great emphasis will be placed on developing how to teach through various practicum requirements.
Ultimately, this professional development training course will enable you to develop extensive specialised knowledge in the Science of Reading. You will be equipped to teach in an intervention setting using a gold standard Structured Literacy approach that is diagnostic, explicit, systematic, cumulative and multi-sensory.
The LMIT Certification is an accepted prerequisite qualification as part of the iDeaL Specialist application process.
