Course Logistics
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Course Logistics
How long does it take to organize a course?
Once a course is confirmed, the average period is three to four weeks before the first session, although for workshops and more standardized programs, the lead time may be shorter.
How long should a course run for?
There is no specific duration, as it would all depend on your objectives for running the course, the skills to be covered (business writing, presentation etc.) and therefore the specific content. Some programs which have a very defined focus may be in the form of a one-day workshop while other programs containing more objectives and skills may run twice a week for three to four months. To best the training result, we highly recommend at least 6 hours a week, 48 hours a phase.
What is the recommended class size?
Certainly, the smaller the better, to allow for more interaction with and feedback from the trainer. However, usually due to the cost per head issue, average class sizes are about 15 staff.
As a rule, for oral skills courses, you should look at 10 to 12 staff. For writing skills courses, a maximum of 15 staff. Workshops, about 10.
Can we organize the course in our office and after office hours?
Yes, 95% of our programs are conducted in-house, although we do have training facilities available for groups. Training can take place any time of the day, but it is very common to organize classes after office hours, or partly in and partly after office hours, so classes do not finish too late.
Do you pre-test our staff? How do you pre-test?
Of course we pre-test. This is critical to the effectiveness of the program. We provide a number of alternatives when it comes to pre-testing. These include simple oral, written to highly tailored assessments focusing on a specific language element related to the target participants’ work. Yet, when it aims to improve the oral English skills, we would like to highly recommend the one-on-one oral test.
What happens if the staff have varying levels of English proficiency?
After pre-testing, we provide you with our feedback regarding your staff’s levels of English, which level they should be placed into as well any other useful information we have uncovered. This may include changes to the outline to reflect the staff’s objectives for attending the course. If you are only arranging one course, we will advise you on which staff may struggle or which staff may be too strong compared with the average level of proficiency. We would suggest you to arrange the class based on the English level, together with the consideration on the class size. However, we only consult, and the final decision on enrolling staff into any course is your decision.
How do you tailor-make a course?
If you are looking for a tailored option, then we specialize in providing skills-based language programs that allow your staff to put the language into immediate practice. Through research, pre-course discussions, pre-course assessments and collection of samples (written and spoken), we will redraft the outline until you are satisfied with it. Then, the Program Manager, working with the trainer/designer will design the program. We design as we go, working one week in advance. This allows us to be flexible and adapt the course to reflect the needs of the participants as well as incorporate errors and further examples such as real-life role-plays, case-studies or writing analysis.
Can we arrange a pre and post assessment to assess the staff’s performance?
Yes, this is quite common, especially with tailored programs. A tailored pre-assessment is designed and administered and this is then compared with a similar post-assessment. For speaking skills, we usually test on their presentation skills which highly reflect their overall English performance after the course. Results can be recorded on MP3 and with writing skills, hard copies can be scanned, if you want to do so. These can then be given to you in order to check and analyze your staff’s performance for yourself.
How do you evaluate the effectiveness of the course?
There are a number of possibilities. These may include:
Tailored pre and post assessments work well as these can be reviewed and tell an accurate story of your staff’s performance.
We will also write a detailed report for each participant incorporating clear learning objectives. This can be used to assess their performance.
Course evaluation forms are not always the best practice, since you may not get a true reflection of the participant’s feedback if they complete it in the final session and return to the trainer or the coordinator.
Some companies prefer to have an evaluation system built into their intranet system that correlates all the results and allows staff more time to think about the questions before completing the form.
Probably the best option to evaluate the effectiveness of the course would be to liaise with the staff’s supervisors to see what improvements their staff have made before and after the program.
We can help with this side of the evaluation process as well.
Project
What’s your SOP to initiate a training program？
The following picture will give you a general idea about the SOP here.
What are the qualifications of your trainers?
All our trainers have an internationally recognized teaching certificate. This is either a CELTA, TEFL or TESOL certificate.
In addition, we only recruit trainers who have at least a few years corporate training experience and have a number of years working in a business environment.
We try our best to place trainers into courses where they may have had some experience working in that particular industry.
Furthermore, we like to recruit trainers who have a familiarity with Hong Kong or Chinese learners of English as they have a greater understanding of their weaknesses.
Do you have any foreign trainers who can communicate in Chinese for very low level staff?
Yes, we have a few native-English trainers who can speak at least intermediate-level Chinese.
How do you monitor or evaluate the trainers during a course?
The trainer is observed at least once by the Program Manager and a detailed observation form is completed.
After about 5 days, a meeting is organized between the Program Manager and the trainer to discuss the trainer’s performance. If the score is below average, then a further observation may be conducted during the same course.
We also encourage our trainers to go and observe each other and give feedback.
What’s your specialty in corporate training?
We are a rapidly developing provider of professional language training, business communication skills training and consulting services. The mission of our young and committed international team is to provide guidance to our clients in developing communication solutions that support their efficiency and success in every aspect of their work, every day.
