Corporate language training & online learning

In an increasingly global world, the ability to communicate in multiple languages is becoming imperative for the successful growth of any business. Lack of language skills can cause misunderstandings and conflicts between international teams, suppliers and clients; impacting the bottom line. Developing a business language training strategy is key to breaking down communication barriers and building a truly global and collaborative organisation. Companies of all sizes benefit from strong language and communication skills.

Implementing a corporate training program is a tough job, but it is even harder to implement a corporate language learning program. According to the British Chamber of Commerce, investing in language and cultural skills can increase export sales by 45% and it has a positive impact on overall performance, including employee productivity, communication and customer service. However, the majority of employees think that language learning is too difficult and boring; ironically, most of them acknowledge that knowing an additional language would be good for their careers.

• Personalised Learning: Learners can choose topics they are interested in or the way of memorising words that is the most suitable for them.
• Time Efficient: You could plan your lessons to fit your personal schedule - just 10 minutes is enough.
• Engaged Learning: Interactive lessons help learners become engaged and retain more information.

While it becomes a necessity for companies of all sizes to implement efficient corporate language learning programs, a vast majority is still spending their budgets on individual tutorials, in company and group courses, language coaching and video classes. All of these options are very costly, hard to implement and, more importantly, not what your employees are looking for.

The good news is there are digital solutions for companies that can be implemented within weeks and rolled out to a large number of employees. Digital language training done in-app is not only cheaper, but also more engaging. On average, learners who use digital tools are 3 times more likely to be successful in their quest to learn another language.

Technology is quickly becoming an important tool to stoke interest and engagement. It offers a fresh approach to the way languages are taught. Online language learning programs are growing substantially and according to Ambient Insight, the worldwide market for the digital English learning products is worth over $2.8 billion, and projected to grow to $3.8 billion by 2020.

For strategies on how to choose and run your digital language learning programme, access one of our eBooks.

At Busuu, we are confident that our methodology helps people learn to speak a new language, but we wanted to prove this through an academic efficacy study. We decided to work with an independent research team in the US, who had previously conducted efficacy studies into a number of other language learning software providers. The results of the study have shown that:

• 84% of participants who used Busuu improved their language skills.
• Of those, 42% improved by the equivalent of one full college semester or more.
• 10% moved up by the equivalent of 2 college semesters and 6% by 3 semesters.
• Of those who studied with Busuu for 16 hours or more, 100% made a significant improvement to either their written test result, oral test result or both.
• 100% of those who answered the exit survey said that they would continue to use Busuu after the study ended.

Busuu is an award-winning language learning app with over 120 million users worldwide. We provide high-quality language learning solutions for businesses created by our team of language experts and tailored to your company’s needs.