In a previous blog post, I highlighted 6 failures in traditional English language training for companies. William Jones has developed their own, unique approach to resolving these prevalent problems – we treat each company and course for the unique foray into the English language that it is.

There are specific issues related to the course material.

A few months ago, we posted a blog on PARSNIPs (LV) in English language course books. This blog post is about general English course books, but the same arguments can be made about business English course books. The content and themes stifle communication and, which is even more important for English in a business environment, are often not applicable to either the day-to-day work of the group members, nor fit into the needs of your industry and/or company.

Furthermore, we live in a much faster-paced time period than the course books, which can take years to plan and publish, can handle. Activities and examples are often outdated, so covering them will waste precious class time.

Let’s take the case of Latvia. The Investment and Development Agency of Latvia highlights 8 sectors and industries where Latvia has a competitive advantage based on experience and expertise (LIAA). They are the following:

• Woodworking
• Metalworking and mechanical engineering
• Transport and storage
• Information technology (including global business services)
• Green technology
• Health care
• Life sciences
• Food processing

And that list does not even include the pharmaceutical industry, online businesses, or the banking sector which all have their own complexities when trying to find a niche in the global market.

At a very general level, you need to have a certain skillset and competency in selected topics to be able to effectively excel in business English. These include being able to discuss your industry and your company’s niche in it, succinctly describing your product and its benefits, communicating with partners and clients both formally and informally, as well as communicating to subordinates, peers, and superiors within your company.

However, the specific language used in woodworking, health care, logistics, and the banking sector vary greatly.

The essence of our programme is that they are designed to fit the needs – grammatical, lexical, and content-wise of your company and industry while encouraging real engagement between colleagues.

How do we do this? We have created the unique Everest Strategy approach to company language training. This time-efficient course covers the topics which are relevant for all your participants, while also covering key grammatical structures and introducing vocabulary for your industry.

During this 10 x 60-minute programme, we seek to answer such questions as:

• What does your company do, and what differentiates it from your competitors?
• What are the keys to effective internal and external communication in a written form, on the phone, through videoconferencing, and face-to-face? And how do you integrate them into your communication strategies?
• How will your company develop over the next 12 months, 2 years, 5 years, etc.? Where is your company going, and what do you need to get there?

These types of questions provide the opportunity for your participants to develop their vocabulary and fluency about your company and industry while reinforcing key grammatical structures in a time and cost-effective manner.

Upon completion of the Everest Strategy, we will also provide you with a written report how to improve the English in your company, and we will do this in a way that is specific to your company.

At William Jones, we do not believe in providing a standard product to our clients, each of our clients have unique language needs and wishes, and we will customize our product to be able to meet those needs, whatever they may be.