In reply to climbingpixie:
I was already relatively advanced when I used New Generation. I was skiing most blacks on the pistes and looking for help with more difficult terrain. I booked onto a small group session, but it was early season and I was the only customer so I ended up with 1:1 tuition. That was 1 three hour session and despite the difficult conditions that year the guy had me going from terrified of moguls to going down Grand Couloir and enjoying myself.
One of the friends I was with that year did New Gen group beginner lessons and only had good to say about them as well.
I did 3 or 4 years of group lessons before that, mostly with ESF or the Italian equivalent. Absolutely no problems with them and they got me to where I am now, but the group sizes were bigger and if you aren't either at the head of the group or the bottom you don't get much individual attention. Also, although English was universally spoken some of the instructors did struggle with more technical explanations. If I were to go back to beginner lessons again, I would definitely look at alternatives.