Benefits to Companies

The Workplace English benchmarks allow companies to use and develop guidelines to identify the levels of language skills necessary for particular job types or for particular purposes. They can be used both externally and internally.

Externally: Using this standardised test, a company and organisation can know  its position within the industry – both nation-wide and regionally; review and set new goals to remain competitive within the industry.

Internally: Internationally standardised testing allows multinational corporations and internationally operating organisations to handle personnel and training issues more flexibly and reliably on an international level.

Recruitment

• to screen applicants to ensure they are up to the English level required by the company or organisation

Training

• to identify deficiencies and training needs
• to divide language classes into levels for more effective teaching
• to better monitor and evaluate the training process

Career development within company

• to select the right employee for promotion and/or transfer
• to select the right candidate for overseas training
• to help the employees/applicants understand the basic requirements across sectors/regions
• to guide the employee to plan for their self-improvement and career development

Successful Workplace English Benchmarking Projects
In early 2003, the Cultural and Educational Section of the British Embassy/Consulates- General launched the Workplace English Campaign in collaboration with the China BULATS Network agents and 68 client companies  The campaign aimed to heighten public awareness of the importance of English and to raise the awareness of the necessity for a good standard of English in the workplace. By conducting a series of BULATS tests throughout Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and some nearby cities, the Workplace English benchmarks were established.

The benchmarks are guidelines reflecting the minimum level of English required at the workplace. Three job types found in a wide range of companies were selected for benchmarking across five sectors. In each company a number of candidates, representative for each job type, were tested. On the whole, selected participants had been working in the company for at least one year and met the minimum language requirement for their positions.

 The three job types were:

• Sales & marketing professionals
• Finance professionals
• Human Resources (HR) management professionals

 The five sectors were:

• Hotel and Catering
• Information Technologies
• International Trade/Purchase
• Manufacturing and Engineering
• Financial Service

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