How to launch English courses inside a company - a real case study

?I’m Getting Too Old for This Shit!?

Do you often hear these words when it comes to learning English in a company? I want to share our experience of starting corporate English and the pitfalls.

It's no secret that knowing English is a definite advantage for any specialist and, in particular, an IT specialist. Our company has been raising English-speaking employees since "from the cradle," from the moment of candidate selection and recruitment. But let's face it, not every valuable candidate and employee has impeccable foreign language skills. And, of course, a professional, and even with great soft skills, we will hire on condition to raise their skills in English, which, of course, the candidate vows to succeed in!

And what do we see in the process? "Busy on the project," "Children and mother-in-law at home," "Visiting a sick grandmother" - a thousand excuses, if only not to attend corporate Speaking club, not to do homework, not to do self-study.

The war, which brings so much pain to our country and business, like any crisis, has opened up new opportunities and pushed ARTJOKER forward as well. And we have to use them to expand the customer base, the company staff and its competitive advantages.

The company is developing, growing in strength, gaining the trust of international clients and the need for specialists with knowledge of English, who can not only answer the client's questions, but also support the Small-talk in the line: "What Marvel hero do you feel like?" is growing.

But the problem was still unsolved!

So, the company had goals to motivate the team to learn a foreign language.

For what purpose? What is the purpose?

?? communicate freely with clients at the sales and project implementation stages

?? select highly qualified foreign candidates???

?? Conduct HR activities for foreign employees

For?whom? Target audience: Sales, HR, Recruitment, development

The war was the trigger for the start of corporate English. And we found super-professional teachers among our VA team. We killed two birds with one stone: we found teachers, and we provided them with a full-time job.?

Preparation and brainstorming on the format and tricks of our corporate English took about 2 weeks from conception to start.?

In these two weeks we have done a tremendous amount of work on:

• Questioning training requests - "What do you want, dear team, to pump?"
• Development of an interesting training program with interactive methods of material assimilation, working in teams, business and role-playing games
• Development of a motivation system: from Roadmap to the system of bonuses for active learning and receiving corporate benefits with elements of gamification

What was the response? In one week, we received 40% of all employees wishing to become a member of the English Club!?

What were the requests?

80% - the need to remove the conversational barrier when communicating with clients and job candidates?

40% - the need to learn grammar and speech clarity?

20% - the need to learn business correspondence with foreign clients and candidates?

And we set about satisfying the team's requests!

? Meetings twice a week: Speaking Club and Grammar Club

? The format is online at ZOOM and Google Meet, in groups of up to 10 people, but work takes place in classes of 2-3 people

? All materials are posted on the company's internal LMS (learning management system) for easy and quick access.

The LMS also allows the submission of homework (videos, audio, tests, etc.), which makes it possible to access the progress of the team

Bottom line:

We have just begun, but there are already notable successes, as well as pitfalls (of course, without them).

Among the pluses:?

• we are making progress in our English skills;
• online platforms allow you to work in small groups, which is an obvious plus in training, one way or another everyone is involved in 90-100% of the class;
• team building - an obvious plus of informal communication;
• team motivation in person!

Among the Pitfalls:

• Some employees did not overcome the conversational barrier and after passing the selection tests did not come to class
• No one cancelled the "sick grannies" because of whom we do not work at home on progress
• It has not been a long time to see the impact in practice, but everything is ahead!

But! We are 100% confident that this will be "LEGEN-wait for it-DARY!" and?will?bring?tremendous?benefits?to?the?company!

Share in the comments your experience with corporate foreign language learning???? What motivated you and what fruit did it bring?