For HR professionals

How to choose a language school?

Selection procedure. This is a nightmare par excellence for many professionals in the field of work with human capital. A large number of companies, from the smallest to the international ones, struggle with the question of how to select service providers well and correctly. For language training, this is all the more complicated because for many HR professionals, languages are not their domain and they find it more convenient to turn to a language school or agency. But how to choose so as not to get burnt?

At the beginning, of course, perfect preparation is needed. If it is not clear what the goals of the training project are, who is in the target group and what the method of evaluating the cooperation will be, all the effort will be wasted. Therefore, it is always necessary to clearly define the requirements and establish what criteria are relevant for the selection.

There is no doubt that there are companies that want to buy services the same way they buy goods, i.e. as cheaply as possible. On the other hand, we probably feel that, in the case of education, we also need to think about quality and try to find a balance between quality and price. Of course, it is difficult for everyone to assess the quality aspects, but one of the most important signs of a quality supplier is references. These must not only be verifiable references, but also verifiable references, i.e. references where the client actually finds out how satisfied the potential supplier’s other clients are.

Another important principle is to be aware of what we expect as a customer. Then it will be easier to specify the criteria by which we make decisions. On the one hand, it may cost to provide complete administrative services such as reports on student attendance and progress, statistics on success in final tests, and so on. In this case, it is best to see how the language school handles these outputs and whether it meets our expectations.

However, if the focus is more on the content of the learning, i.e. on the precise linking of the content of the learning to the needs of the participants, then we need to find out whether the supplier has the capacity for such a project and we will ask more about the experience of the lecturers and methodological staff, as well as the way the learning is planned. Again, it is a good idea to ask for real outputs and to compare them between bidders. On the one hand, this is a very difficult criterion to quantify, but it is not a problem of the criterion, but of the very nature of the delivery of training services. It involves intangibles. But it is always possible to compare the outputs of two competing suppliers and assess which one best suits our needs.

The fear of some contracting authorities is that bidders will present these non-quantifiable outputs only by eye and there will be no trace of them after the contract is concluded. Therefore, it is necessary to include these non-quantifiable commitments in the contract, such as templates of deliverables, commitments to deliver them regularly, maximum allowable turnover of trainers, etc. This will ensure that the contracting authority actually receives the services it has requested.

Language training in companies

It may seem that corporate language training is such a time-tested product that it is only possible to add more technical innovations. Today, many corporate training providers are able to prepare the terms of tenders very precisely and professionally, but often end up selecting only a language school. The person in charge of monitoring language training is not always competent, or it is just one of their many tasks, which they then deal with only superficially. On the other hand, it happens that the school is not selected on the basis of a well-prepared selection procedure and the person in charge then finds that he or she is not able to lead the staff to the set goal.

So how do I approach the selection of a suitable language school?

1. First of all, the company should specify its longer-term goals based on generally given criteria for determining language proficiency. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages can be used for this purpose, in which the different levels are described in precise and simple language that can be understood even by ‘non-linguists’. The ability of a company to distinguish what level of knowledge it will require for each job is also essential. A professional language school is able to carry out a relevant needs analysis to help determine realistic targets without necessarily then being selected as a training provider.

2. The next step is to approach potential suppliers who submit a relevant portfolio. Before doing so, it is important to check, for example, the company registration and other formal attributes.

3. During the actual selection process, it is essential to check whether the school is willing and able to provide:

• information about its infrastructure,
• details of teachers and their qualifications,
• information on the range of courses and services normally provided and the ability to adapt teaching flexibly,
• a clear and well-defined method of providing feedback,
• references.

It is certainly useful to visit the school directly, to get to know the facilities and the staff responsible for corporate training. At present, the technology allows to create a perfect virtual presentation meeting all imaginable quality criteria, but the “brick and mortar” school may have a capacity of a room 4×4 m2 for 120 lecturers and administrative facilities.

4. It is a good idea to start the implementation of a language project by determining the current level of language students and the target level for the positions, within a specified timeframe and with continuously measured results, or checking the progress of the students. This is the only way that teaching can be effective. The guarantee of quality is undoubtedly the qualified lecturers, guided and monitored by the academic staff of the school, as well as the syllabi of the individual courses. These are definitely not of the “past” when we were used to directive descriptions and regulations. The syllabus should have clearly described objectives using “can do statements” that allow even the student, not just the lecturer, to get an idea of the skills they will acquire upon graduation, the course content, the materials used and the methodology for assessing success.

5. During project implementation, the sponsor should require effective and easily evaluated information such as attendance records, clearly and “user-friendly” presentation of the results of continuous testing. Today, this information is already routinely available to sponsors online with the ability to export data to a variety of reports. In language teaching, however, it is not only the numerical data that needs to be processed, but also the ‘description of language skills’, which tends to be the most difficult aspect of assessment.

6. The most difficult part of language learning in adulthood is the real MOTIVATION. Without it, success cannot be achieved. Many students imagine that they should be motivated by an outsider. I see motivation as a purely intrinsic issue. Finding a motivator is extremely difficult; for example, the goal of passing a certified, internationally recognized language exam can serve that purpose. A quality school should offer preparation for such exams in its portfolio.

7. Not everything always goes according to plan and optimally. Language is learned by people and usually taught by people, so we are bound to encounter complaints. These can be avoided by regular enquiries (on-line; direct mailing). If it does come to a complaint, a good school should have a system for dealing with non-standard situations, which includes replacing the teacher if there is a good reason.

What is the quality guarantee?

– The definition of the services provided by the school,

– meeting internal quality standards,

– verification of quality standards by external inspection.

The Association of Language Schools brings together language schools that are inspected every 3 years. The quality standards set by the internal scheme and verified by this inspection are based on the standards of the European Association of Language Schools and Institutions EAQUALS and correspond to all the above criteria. AJŠ is an associate member of EAQUALS, an association with many years of experience in verifying the quality and effectiveness of language education.