Business English: Intensive One-to-One Training

Client: BAT (China)

British American Tobacco China, also known as BAT China, has been operating in Taiwan since 1989. In 1995 it became a branch office of parent company British American Tobacco. BAT China exists not for the fabrication of tobacco products, however, because such activities are not legal in Taiwan; rather, it is focused on trading, marketing, and distribution of BAT products, as well as the propagation, promotion, and protection of the BAT brand.

Problem:

BAT approached ClarkMorgan Corporate Training to organize a ten day, intensive one-to-one Business English course, for one of their key employees. This employee was being transferred to Hong Kong and it had been decided that her Business English level and general confidence needed to be raised before she left the mainland.

ClarkMorgan Corporate Training was set the task of custom designing a ten-day course. Each day would last for eight hours and should cover a wide range of topics, including oral and written Business English as well as soft skill training. An additional request was that the course be delivered by a variety of trainers, both male and female and of different nationalities.

The final ClarkMorgan Corporate Training program was designed to be intensive, cover all topics equally, entertaining and to provide the variety of trainers.  This was further complicated with a lead time of only five days.

Implementation:

Step 1: Content and Schedule

ClarkMorgan Corporate Training conducted a mandatory consultation with BAT regarding the specific content that was required. This involved a meeting with both senior management and the trainee in question.

The topics to be covered in the training were:

  1. Cultural Differences 2
  2. Global Business 1
  3. Management
  4. Presentation 1, 2 & 3
  5. Goal Setting
  6. Time Management
  7. Building Clarity
  8. Sports & Leisure
  9. Western Dining Etiquette
  10. Vocabulary Enhancement
  11. Motivation & Team Building 1
  12. Networking 1
  13. Problem Solving
  14. Planning A Message
  15. Presenting Opinions
  16. The Economy
  17. Business Psychology 2
  18. Technology 1
  19. Chinglish
  20. Writing Business Emails – Goodwill
  21. Offering Alternatives
  22. Business Psychology 1
  23. Meeting 1 & 2
  24. Technology 2
  25. Writing Business Emails – Format & Style
  26. Expression Confidence
  27. Business Jargon
  28. Writing Business Letters – Circular

Step 2: Language Assessments

The language ability of the trainee was assessed using the ClarkMorgan Assessment System (CMAS). This was done in order to firstly gauge the level at which the classes were to be taught and secondly, in order to judge the improvement of the trainee by the end of the course.
To give a clearer idea of the CMAS scoring system, here is a comparison with BULATS (Business language Assessment Testing Service)

Step 3: Assignment of Trainers

Each trainer was chosen for their ability in specific areas. Four ClarkMorgan Corporate Training trainers were chosen to provide the training:

Rupert Munton UK- Corporate Training Manager, Beijing – Soft Skills
Andrew Sadler UK- Materials Developer, Beijing – Business Writing
Pam Hulme UK- Trainer, Beijing – Conversational English
Adam Guli, USA- Trainer, Beijing – Oral Business English

In order to keep the training fresh, the trainers were rotated. The trainee received classes from at least two different trainers a day, but normally three.

Results:

A training evaluation, consisting of 14 criteria, was completed by the BAT trainee at the end of the course, with a scale of 1 to 5 indicating the following opinion of the respective trainee:

  1. Fails to meet job requirements
  2. Essentially meets job requirements
  3. Fully meets job requirements
  4. Meets job requirements with distinction.
  5. Exceeds job requirements

A total average mark of all 14 criteria was calculated and then averaged across the entire group.  The results are as follows, with the scale from 1 to 5:

Rupert Munton – 4.9
Andrew Sadler – 4.9
Pam Hulme – 4.4
Adam Guli – 4.5

Conclusion:

These results indicate that the ClarkMorgan Corporate Training intensive 10 day one-to-one Business English training conducted for BAT more than successfully ‘met job requirements with distinction”