4 tips to ensure a successful corporate English training program?

In recent years, more and more businesses invest in English training programs for their board of members. However, many of them still witness a lack of improvement and fail to reach their business goals. What are the reasons behind this sad reality, and how can business owners ensure their investment will be well paid off?

Why do English training programs often fail?

A curriculum is created without a single focus.

One of the most common reasons why many corporate English training fails is using the wrong curriculum. Each industry and each business has a different set of goals, requirements for English. Not to mention, different departments in the same company may require different pieces of training.

Therefore, using a tailored curriculum designed explicitly for that business is one of the main priorities. However, many business English trainers’ learning paths and lessons failed to meet this crucial standard due to the lack of resources and technical expertise. 

Lack of situational lessons and practicing time.

Just like any other skill, in order to master a language requires thousands of practicing hours. By regularly using English either with clients, co-workers, or trainers, staff members can build up their confidence in using the language and get more familiar with using English in daily life.

Unfortunately, many corporate English training programs only offer a set number of practicing hours as agreed in the contract.

Unsuitable teaching method 

In addition to the two reasons mentioned above, another reason corporate English training failed to reach its potential is the lack of suitable teaching methods.

Working professionals are very different from high school or university students. They all have a packed schedule with millions of things happening at work and home. Therefore, most traditional teaching methodology has proven unsuitable for this audience.

Corporate English training for staff members needs to be flexible, and allows people to study at their own pace while maximizing the effectiveness of each lesson.

What can businesses do to ensure a successful corporate English training program?

For the corporate English training lives its expectations and meets its goal, here are 4 tips that business owners can take into consideration:

Thorough level assessment

Level assessment is a critical stepping stone in ensuring the effectiveness of the English training program. It gives business owners a complete view of their employees’ English background and the weaknesses and challenges their employees are facing. After understanding the current situation, businesses can give out goals and training directions backed up by data.

Regular progress check

During the training process, it is necessary to measure the learning status and evaluate the improvement. This keeps the company and the training provider in check of how far they are to the agreed goals, and has timely adjustment if needed.

Manage employee attentiveness

To see progress in any skills learning, one must do their part in learning, practicing, and reviewing their study steps. However, it is hard to assess how many lessons staff members have studied and how much they can use in work-related situations with the traditional English training programs. Without proper measurements, the training programs may become wasteful and expensive.

Design curriculum for each department

It may not be necessary for start-ups or SMEs businesses to design curriculum for each department, since there are many cross-over tasks. However, at large-scale corporations, cross-over tasks rarely happen and each department needs to perform specialized tasks daily. Therefore, having a tailored curriculum for each department is one improvement businesses owners can consider.

ELSA for Corporation – The perfect English training solution

Understanding the difficulties in finding the right English training program that many businesses are experiencing, ELSA has launched ELSA for Corporations – an exclusive, world-class English training package for companies worldwide.

ELSA Speak is the only English language learning and communication app that can help correct pronunciation errors to every syllable. Artificial Intelligence, equipped with exclusive voice recognition, voted Top 5 in the World. Based on the learners’ pronunciation test results, ELSA also offers an individual learning path best suited for each learner, saving time, effort, and money to improve English efficiency.

With ELSA for Corporations, all curriculum and learning resources will be designed by leading academic and technical experts, which are tailored to each department’s objectives and needs, for each business, in each industry. Moreover, ELSA has a suite of management tools, which let business owners see the overall progression of the training programs and continuously suggest how to motivate and improve employees’ learning process.

Nowadays, it is crucial for businesses, no matter big or small, to recruit, nurture, and equip their board of staff members with professional English skills.

Book a demo with ELSA for Corporations.