Sharing Best Practices in Corporate Language Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sharing Best Practices in Corporate Language Education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

Corporate Language Education (CLE) is very special sub-segment of the language education that is currently not served properly by the teacher educating system. The differing needs of the participants and the financers of these types of courses require special approach. These courses are financed by the corporations i.e profit oriented institutions, as the language knowledge of their employees is not sufficient. Corporations consider these courses as an investment i.e. on cost benefit basis.
Having found that the issue of CLE is not unique, but existing in Europe as well, the project’s idea is rationalized in national and European level and led us to form a partnership of 4 countries to share the best practices in the special field of teaching English. The project partners were Antener Kft. (Hungary), Bridge Language Study House (Romania), GHOTI KG (Austria) and Nista d.o.o. (Slovenia).
The main aim of the project was to share the best practices of the participants in the field of CLE and to get deep insights into the related markets of each other.
By the 21-month-long project, the participating institutes aimed to have an increase in the indicators they had defined due to their participation in this project. By learning and adapting best practices from each other, all the four participating institutes showed increase in the level of the satisfaction of the customers/learners and also in the results of the mid-term or end-term tests.
The main activities of the project included 10 transnational meeting, where the participating institutes could discuss those best practices which worked for their school in their business environment. These discussions were based on the following questions:
1.) What are the general characteristics of corporate language education (CLE) in the country of the participating institutions?
2.) What methods are used to assess the purpose and expectations of corporate clients regarding their courses? What are the results of these assessments?
3.) What methods can be used to evaluate the satisfaction of clients? What are the findings of these evaluations and what are these findings used for?
4.) What curriculum is used in CLE courses and in what ways is it different from the curriculum used in general language courses?
5.) What teaching methods are used in CLE courses and in what ways are they different from teaching methods used in general language courses?
6.) What measurement methods are used, or should be used, to assess the progress of language acquisition and other communication skills of participating students?
7.) What teacher training tools and materials are used, or should be used, to develop teachers working in CLE in order to fulfil the requirements of corporate clients?
8.) What is the general opinion of stakeholders (teachers, students, human resource managers of corporations, etc.) about CLE (utilizing surveys and deep interviews)?
9.) What are the general characteristics of retail language education compared to CLE?
10.) Further project ideas for Corporate Language Education
11.) What methods can be used to market CLE courses and what are the main steps to acquiring CLE clients?
12.) What methods are used in managing customer relationships (problem solving, administration and management of CLE courses and clients, contracts)?
13.) Ways to motivate students (the minimum number of hours necessary to advance one CEFRL level, inclusive of the additional hours required of students outside of class.)
14.) What are the characteristics of using new technologies in CLE courses?
15.) A Case Study: designing a course based on the outcomes of the project.

As a by-product of the project – besides the outcomes of having an increase in the indicators and sharing best practices- was a booklet of 300 pages that contains the findings. This booklet is freely available for everyone for downloading at the project website: www.corlanedu.eu
With access to these best practices we do hope that the quality of CLE courses can be improved at other institutes as well.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 55950 Eur

Project Coordinator

Antener Oktatásszervezö Kft. & Country: HU

Project Partners

• Ghoti Professional English KG
• Nista d.o.o.
• Asociatia Bridge Language Study House