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Best Practices in Language Training & Development for both SME and Corporations

From a social and economic point of view, the general level of foreign language knowledge in the Czech Republic still remains an important question, even almost a quarter of a century after the fall of communism.(1) In a global market(2), language training and development of workers is a key success factor, so many companies try to tackle the issue. However, with the recent economic slowdown, a key question arises – what could they do to cost-effectively achieve what they really want and need?

From a social and economic point of view, the general level of foreign language knowledge in the Czech Republic still remains an important question, even almost a quarter of a century after the fall of communism.(1) In a global market(2), language training and development of workers is a key success factor, so many companies try to tackle the issue. However, with the recent economic slowdown, a key question arises – what could they do to cost-effectively achieve what they really want and need?

In our short article, we would like to briefly outline the decision-making process of the company management before launching a language training programme, and then offer a possible solution to perhaps the commonest objection to any training – “it was too general and not 100 % relevant”.

First of all, in the decision-making process, there are three particular questions the company management need to ask themselves:

• What do we need our workers to speak the foreign language(s) for?

This is the very heart of the matter. If the company management realize that there is no need for foreign languages, then there is of course no point in organizing language training. Unless there has been a long tradition of having language training as part of company benefits and abolishing it would cause too much of a stir among the workers to make up for the saving. Nonetheless, involving the workers to share the cost might be a wise decision here.(3)

• What benefits will the language training bring to our company?

The practical impact on company’s business is absolutely essential (and extremely difficult to determine). Even if the company does not have a competency model, it is useful to think about the desired language level for a particular position (e.g. Assistant, Executive, etc.) The actual benefits may then appear in various forms ranging from an increase in revenues from new international clients to better satisfaction of workers. 

• And how shall we measure the practical impact?

Measuring benefits of language learning and expressing the practical impact in “hard” figures is the most difficult part as it requires a lot of “soft” input data, but it is worth trying. Despite appearance, translating “soft” quantities into “hard” is not impossible and a quality language training provider can help.

Having now decided to start a language training project, the company will think of its design and will most likely require a tailor-made (and pertinent) programme.

A possible solution may be EnglishPRO(4), a flexible module-based language training programme focused on English for professional use. The original idea behind this training program was inspired by feedback from clients who complained that they were spending quite a lot of money on expensive soft-skills workshops in English, but at the end of the day, the participants somehow did not seem to grasp everything, and although their English was advanced, they felt frustrated. Having analyzed a few such cases, we realized that there was a language problem. The participants were actually trying to absorb 2 skills at the same time, hence dividing their concentration and, logically, found the whole experience overwhelming. They could not simultaneously grasp the intended soft skill and the foreign language, or, better said, the specific functional language related to the soft skill. That is why we decided to develop a programme that gives the participants the initial functional language training they need, regardless of their level, in order to be able to fully concentrate on the soft skill at a later stage. The trainees do not learn any “dead wood”, the modules can be combined across topics and coaching is available after the programme. Over the past three years, the most popular topics have been EnglishPRO Presentations, EnglishPRO Meetings and Discussions or EnglishPRO Negotiations.

Ondřej Douša, Language School Manager, Channel Crossings

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Notes:
1 http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_fact_cz_en.pdf
2 http://ec.europa.eu/languages/documents/doc421_en.pdf (esp. p. 4-6) and http://ec.europa.eu/languages/languages-mean-business/files/pimlico-full-report_en.pdf (esp. p. 3-5)
3 http://www.chc.cz/webinar (in Czech)
4 http://www.englishpro.eu/