Why you should care about your business English trainer’s background
When you are looking for a business English training solution, how much value do you put on a trainer who understands your business needs? Are you confident that your training is being delivered by a committed, experienced professional? If you want your training to have a real impact, you need somebody who has the skills and speaks the jargon of your industry. Being an effective business English trainer means more than having an English teaching qualification. Your business English trainer must be able to draw upon personal experience and must have the ability to effectively tailor the training material to the needs of the client.
The training investment will never pay off with the wrong trainer
If participants don’t want to go to the training because they feel it’s a waste of time, you should rethink the training program and the trainer. You have the freedom not only to find a qualified English trainer, but, more importantly, one who also better understands your needs and industry. If you need help with technical English, look for a technical background or alternatively extensive experience training technical English. If you have a need for soft skills development, find a trainer with direct experience in this area or impressive experience training these skills. Bottom line, you want a trainer who knows what they’re talking about.
Symptoms of having the wrong business English trainer
- There’s a disconnect between participant needs and training delivered. The participant needs help with presentation skills but receives conversation training.
- The participant is dissatisfied after the training.
- The participants stop using the training because it isn’t useful.
“Imagine you are to make the most important business presentation of your life. Does your English trainer have the ability to help you get the right messages across successfully?”
Find the right trainer
The training will have more impact, the participants are more satisfied if their training is relevant, and ultimately, you’re getting more for your money. Don’t settle or become complacent with your training provider. Search the market for specialists, compare services. Ask for references. Try different trainers. Work with trainers who evolve as your business evolves.
Qualities of the right business English trainer
- Has a minimum of 3 years experience in business English training and a relevant business background
- Uses a variety of approaches: group training, on-the-job support, coaching sessions, 1 to 1s
- Bases training on participant needs and uses internal documents as a source for training material
- Understands your business
The market is saturated with training providers. Business English training is on offer, along with different levels of flexibility, success and partnership…and the list goes on. A lot of companies are successful at what they do and there are websites full of competent trainers looking for work.
But before you hire anyone, have you considered what the training program should look like?
For me, the most important thing is to use internal documents as a base from which to train from. This highlights key needs and shows exactly how you can tailor your training to your learners. WIthout the skill to successfully exploit this, the quality of training can be below standard.
Also, I agree with Will in that it is important to slowly and steadily work towards goals and not expect miracles after one session of training!
You’ve hit the nail on the head with your list of “Qualities of the right business English trainer”. As an example of how trainers can adapt training to participant needs, just last week I was visiting the office of a factory manager for technology products to get an update on the progress of his team’s English skills. He reported that his own workload had reduced, thanks to his team being able to write their own technical texts now. This just blew me away, of course, as I couldn’t wish for a greater confirmation of the effectivity of my training.
One of the keys to this success, I believe, is that the training is relevant, using important texts from the participants’ jobs to build vocabulary and to improve fluency. The connection between job-based need and the training program which I create for each individual group or one-to-one is another method for increasing effectivity. This provides a SMART goal to aim for, and structures the training. In this way, we slowly, but steadily move towards achieving the aim, which means overall success for the training.