Your training needs

Hello again !

I imagine that if you are reading this second article on my blog it is because you have read the first one where I told you the importance of “growing up learning English”. 

In today’s chapter I address you COMPANIES, who, immersed in a process of internalization, have decided to train your staff in English, either because you have not done so until now or because after years receiving training in “general English” in-company, you have realized that your staff does not have the necessary fluidity to do it professionally. 

Therefore, the first step is to contact a training center and trainer, who, with their experience, will help you carry out a “needs analysis” that will allow you to determine what the English training needs of your professionals are.  

• First we will have to ask ourselves a series of key questions to determine:
• Which workers and which departments most need to communicate in English, with whom and to do what?? 
• Will the training to be provided be intended for all workers who may need it or only for middle and senior managers??  
• In the case of senior managers, will it be organized in one-to-one classes?? 
• Will it be done online through Zoom, Teams…?? Perhaps traditional in-person training in a meeting room no longer makes much sense if all your workers have virtual meetings through Teams and many of them work from home a couple of days a week. 

Other considerations to take into account:

• Your workers use English in their daily work activity to communicate orally or in writing. To write emails? To participate in videoconference meetings? To make presentations? Write reports? Contact suppliers by phone? On work trips to other countries? Receive visitors and have meetings and work lunches? Negotiate the conditions of a contract? Read technical manuals?

If the answer to all these questions that would form part of the needs analysis is affirmative, then it is clear that you should hire specific training in “Professional English”, with a trainer who could train your staff in the “skills” necessary to respond in English to the needs established “a priori” and achieve the objective of communicating in English fluently and professionally.  It is for this reason that a “general English” course would not cover these needs. A trainer with extensive experience, knowledge of the business world and the ability to design a professional English course “tailored to YOUR company” would be necessary.

In this same article I also address those PROFESSIONALS who, due to their work, need to improve their level of English. That’s why I always talk about “professional English” and not “Business English” to encompass other professionals with specific English needs.  Among my “student-clients” I have had professionals from different professional fields with very different training needs, which I detail below.

To cite some examples. A lawyer on the board of directors of a multinational whose need was to improve his listening comprehension and oral fluency. A doctor who only needed to improve his reading comprehension to be able to read medical treatises.  A university professor who was beginning to teach two theoretical subjects in English and wanted to reinforce her “public speaking” in English. A dietitian who needed to prepare and practice his presentations in English to attend conferences. 

All of them are professionals who use English in very different contexts and therefore with very different training needs that require a needs analysis and a “tailored program.”