1. In collaboration with BULATS Agents and British Council, the Human Resource Manager or Training Manager of a company completes the Language Use Questionnaire to identify the importance of English within the company. We anticipate that companies will have broadly similar levels of English requirements, so data generated from the project will be useful to a variety of companies.
2. The company selects job types to be benchmarked, completes the Language Use (Job) Questionnaire and nominates participants (two to three staff per job type) to take one or more of the BULATS Standard Test, Writing Test and Speaking Test. Choosing the right test depends on which language skills are most relevant for the job. It is very important that participants are selected on the basis of their language skills, and not their professional skills, to ensure that the data relates to language skills only. Selected participants should have been working in the company for at least one year and meet the minimum English requirement of his/her post.
3. Selected participants and their Training or Human Resource Managers complete the Can-Do Questionnaire. British Council staff may need to see if any changes need to be made, and, if so, these will be discussed with the Human Resource or Training Manager.
4. Selected participants take the BULATS tests and return all the related questionnaires. Four different test types are available.
5. An ELT specialist appointed by British Council re-interviews the selected participants and/or the HR manager if this is felt to be necessary, to ensure the results are valid and to discuss any other related matters.
6. British Council and Cambridge ESOL work together to produce a set of guidelines generated by correlating the test results and the responses to the questionnaires. A detailed "Can-Do" statement is attached.
7. British Council presents the results with suggestions on how to best make use of the benchmarking guidelines within the company.
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