How Business English Can Leverage Your Career
Learning Business English Online Can Leverage Your Career
The globalised world of commerce opens up countless opportunities for ambitious and adventurous individuals to enjoy a fruitful career.
Whether you have designs on working overseas or landing your dream job in a recognised corporation, learning business English online will help you diversify your communication skills and leverage your career prospects.
English is the language of the corporate world. A study undertaken at the University of London to examine the importance of English in business and commerce reveals that participants confirmed: “English is essential in some ways or within some aspects of their jobs.”
There is no question that the relationship between global businesses is critically important to the world economy. Being able to speak business English proficiently enables you to speak with people from all over the world, regardless of what their level of English is.
In some ways, being able to communicate proficiently in English will give you a higher ground; not only in leveraging your career in competition with colleagues and job applicants but also in negotiating deals and landing lucrative contracts for your employers.
A business English course online is not the same as a general English language course. You will learn how to communicate more effectively in every facet of your professional life including:
- Writing CVs, letters, emails and reports
- Speaking on the telephone
- Giving presentations
- Chairing and contributing to meetings
- Preparing for interviews
- Expressing strategic ideas
- Negotiating
- Understanding legal English terms in contracts
- Small talk
- Socialising
By speaking, reading and writing business English online with native English speakers, you will dramatically improve your language skills in the employment marketplace.
For individuals with ambitions to pursue a career in finance, medicine, law, politics, science, engineering, tech, marketing, commerce and sales business English is a very useful skill to have in your locker.
If your ambition is to work overseas or for any of the world’s leading companies or positions of governance, business English is essential.
How do business English courses online differ from general English courses?
Whilst general English courses teach you how to speak English in everyday situations like shopping, going on holiday and speaking about yourself, business English specifically addresses the type of language that is commonly used in corporate and legal environments.
When you work for international companies, you will find the corporate language is filled with vocabulary and expressions that are not typically used in everyday language.
For example, if a work colleague says to you: “Just to give you a heads up …”.
Would you know what they meant?
This idiom has nothing to do with lifting your head up or even keeping your head up when you’re having a bad day.
Giving someone the ‘heads up’ is to give someone a prior warning something is about to happen.
Unless you’re familiar with business English terms you will spend most of the day confused.
Our online business English course introduces you to professional language that will increase your career aspirations. Whether you’re applying for jobs and networking in business English speaking environments or impressing senior executives, our professional English teachers ensure you can communicate with confidence.
When you can speak confidently in business English, you will feel comfortable meeting new people and will have confidence speaking with colleagues at all levels.
Subsequently, the ability to speak fluently in business English gives you the edge in the job market – not only in the early stages of your career but all the way to the top.
And if you want to get to the top, you need to be proficient in business English.
Why is learning to speak business English so important?
Language unites people and companies from different backgrounds and cultures. It allows you to communicate effectively. English has been adopted as the most widely spoken language in cross-border work environments.
The global demand for business English has not gone unnoticed. Politicians and CEOs recognise the importance of English for international diplomacy and a growing number of international firms use English as their main language.
A report published by the British Council reads:
“According to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, nearly 70 per cent of executives said their workforce will need to master English to realise corporate expansion plans, and a quarter said that more than 50 per cent of their total workforce will need English ability.”
Because business English is so influential worldwide, mastery of the language – for both native and non-native English speakers – is a necessity to land top-tier roles with leading companies.
English is also the lingua franca of academia. New College Group notes “many international students choose to study a course in Business English as a means to improve their career and educational prospects.”
English tuition and proficiency exams are dominated by European students. Around 75% of international students taking up seats in English Universities are European nationals.
People learn business English because every country adopts the English language for business use.
As a matter of fact, English is spoken in more countries than any other language. Statistics show that 1,348 million people (at the time of writing) are fluent in English. Only 360 million are native English.
It’s not a coincidence that English has become the language of the Internet.
Networking in business English
Networking is vitally important for ambitious professionals. Making connections can play an important role in landing your next job and climbing up the corporate ladder.
Unless you’re a naturally social person who is comfortable talking to anyone, networking events can be a challenge. Networking is even harder if you are trying to impress people in a foreign language.
Our online business English courses enable you to practice typical conversations you will have in a networking environment. Our native English tutors will help you refine your business English so that you feel confident speaking about yourself to all kinds of people.
We also take your language abilities to the next level and help you develop an ‘elevator pitch’.
An ‘elevator pitch’ is a business English term we use for describing a method of grabbing somebody’s attention instantly – in the brief amount of time you might expect to speak with someone in an elevator (or lift as we say in the UK).
What can you expect by learning business English online?
Whether you’re already working for an English-speaking company or you have designs to leverage your career with an international giant, learning business English online is a convenient way to improve your fluency and accuracy.
Our online business English courses are specifically designed with your professional future in mind. We cover a range of skills you will need in everyday work environments from hosting meetings, writing letters, speaking with your boss and writing emails to clients.
Our goal is to help you maximise your ability to communicate in English at all levels – from a casual chat around the water cooler to an important presentation in the boardroom.
We structure online classes to meet your personal needs. Our native English teachers have years of experience in preparing students for the workplace including interviews, learning key vocabulary and refining your pronunciation.
Classes will focus on what you need right now, but we will eventually expand to cover every facet of corporate life so that you feel confident in any given situation you may experience in the future.
The course is dissected into manageable lessons so that you can easily digest the new vocabulary you learn and practice your business English in a live environment each week. This will help you learn to become fluent faster.
If you are applying for a job with an English-speaking company, we can start by preparing a professional CV in business English, together with cover letters, interview rehearsals and mastering telephone etiquette.
Advanced lessons include writing professional emails, letters, reports and business contracts, negotiating with clients in meetings, giving various presentations, selling services and troubleshooting potential communication problems when conversing in English.
Learning how to understand non-native English speakers is a skill in itself – especially when they are not as proficient as you. There is also a strong chance that you will encounter individuals from all over the UK – and some of the local pronunciations can be difficult to grasp when you have trained your ear to speak business English.
In your first lesson, our professional English teachers will determine:
- What your objectives are for the course, both short-term and long-term
- Whether business English online meets your learning goals
- Develop vocabulary you need to use for your job or targeted work environment
- Address your most immediate situation and build your course out from there
Improve your Business English writing skills online
A paper published in the Journal for Research Scholars and professionals of English Language Teaching, notes “communication skills in English…are indispensable workplace tools for success in business.”
Researchers also note that employers regularly cite a lack of writing skills in business English as a key reason for not employing otherwise qualified candidates.
Business English writing is central to career success. With email and messenger apps a major part of how we communicate in business settings, the ability to communicate your ideas and opinions in a clear and concise manner is a skill that will enable you to climb the corporate ladder.
It has been noted that bilingual employees earn as much as 7 per cent more than monolingual employees. Given English is the dominant language in the corporate world, sharpening up your writing skills in business English gives you a useful tool to leverage your career.
In our online business English courses, you will learn to hone your writing skills, write effective emails, craft tag lines and subject headers, address recipients correctly, communicate clearly and persuasively and close letters and emails appropriately.
Learning to write in business English online will improve your confidence to communicate in writing, express yourself clearly in messages, expand your business network and increase your chances of landing jobs with English-speaking companies.
Preparation for a business English course online
To maximise the benefits of your online business English course, we typically plan lessons around skills you want to develop. Progression through the course can be flexible.
We can also focus on the language used in specific industries such as finance, law, medicine and engineering. Feel free to bring reports you are working with or a PowerPoint presentation you are preparing to the class with you.
Our professional English teachers will also find relevant newspaper reports and studies that will help you expand your vocabulary and perfect your pronunciation.
If you have a pressing matter in your professional life that your English teacher can help you with, let us know in advance and we can develop a lesson plan in readiness.
For example, you may want to apply for a job. We can help you prepare your CV in business English and run through some interview questions with you. Or you may need to compose a letter to a client and would like some help with the wording, grammar and structure.
We have previously posted an article focusing on letter writing that will help. The article also gives you an insight into what you can expect to learn when you learn business English online with E4P.
The benefits of learning vocabulary used in specialist industries helps you demonstrate that you have the knowledge and the competence to fulfil your role successfully.
This not only enables you to communicate more confidently but also gives your colleagues and superiors more confidence in your ability. It can even help you become a valued member of a company – especially if you are new to the job and want to make a good impression.
Native English Speakers Online
Our online business English courses are geared towards ambitious professionals looking to improve written and spoken English in a business environment.
Improving your vocabulary in a professional environment can present you with opportunities all the way through your career. Whether you have aspirations to work for an international business overseas or in Vienna, learning how to speak business English with a native English speaker gives you a valuable tool to climb the career ladder.
Start today! Our native English teachers have busy schedules and places for our online business English classes are limited. There are only so many hours in a day!
