All along, Hult EF has been helping enterprises to build learning organizations, unleashing talents’ potential through learning and driving change, promoting all-round improvement in language and communication, coaching skills, leadership and organizational development, and responding to the business challenges in the current BANI environment with a more agile attitude. Recently, the "2023 Hult EF China Annual User Summit" was held in Shanghai, with the theme of "Change with the Times, Come for You", which brought together human resources and talent learning and development executives from leading enterprises in various industries to talk about the way of change.
In the era of BANI, enterprises will face greater challenges, and talents will become the key to success. How to release the potential of talents and drive change has become the focus of multinational enterprises. Steven Ellis, vice president of Hult EF Asia Pacific, pointed out that English language learning can stimulate the innovation and vitality of internal organizations and promote the rapid development of enterprises.
"Everyone has a say." Steven Ellis said that when the working language of multinational companies is English, talents from non-English-speaking countries will lose their right to speak if they don’t know English, thus reducing their sense of belonging to the company. More importantly, the company may miss the innovative ideas brought by these talents.
"I think the most important thing is to give everyone an equal opportunity to speak. From silence to dialogue, the whole organization will become more agile and employees can better advance together." Steven Ellis said.
A few days ago, Hult EF released the latest EF EPI(EF English Proficiency Index), which ranks the English level of 113 countries and regions, providing an important reference for talent cultivation of enterprises. At the summit, David Bish, head of global academic affairs at Hult EF, deeply interpreted the report.
He pointed out that this report shows some trend changes in English language learning, such as the widening gender gap in English proficiency. In the past decade, men’s proficiency in English has improved, while women’s proficiency has declined slightly, and their relative level has been reversed, especially in the age group of 18-25, and the gender gap is three times that of the working population. In addition, the English level of young people in some areas is declining. Although this trend is only in a few big countries, the survey shows that the English proficiency of the youngest age group (18-20 years old) is declining. And, the English level of grass-roots employees is generally lower than that of management in enterprises. From the trend of specific industries, Europe and Africa are the only areas where the English level of junior employees is higher than that of managers and executives, while Asia is the opposite. This also means that potential reformers may not be good enough in English to participate in the dialogue.
David Bish believes that these trends will have an important impact on the future talent training of enterprises. In today’s rapidly changing and uncertain world, enterprises need to take the initiative to undertake the responsibility of training employees in language learning. "Most organizations, enterprises and individuals agree that mastering English can bring advantages, but not everyone knows how to master English skillfully." David Bish said. As a professional enterprise learning and training institution, Hult EF covers a wide range of learning fields, provides forward-looking insight into educational trends for enterprises based on global resources, and cooperates with enterprises to explore innovative talent training modes with advanced online learning concepts and new learning methods such as Hyper Class to help enterprises tap their talent potential.
HULT EF has always been committed to helping enterprises "change with time" through educational innovation. Steven Ellis pointed out that there are some trends in language training at present, the most important of which is to pay more and more attention to using data to understand people’s needs and provide adaptive personalized training, but at the same time, it also faces some difficulties and challenges.
For example, the training of enterprises is scattered, but language learning needs systematic design. Many companies want employees to actively use English, especially to develop effective oral skills to promote communication and teamwork at work, and provide opportunities for English learning. However, employees need not only learning resources, but also long-term planning and guidance to help them grow continuously.
For another example, whether digital tools can be used well will also determine the effectiveness of language training. In the digital age, good data capture and data analysis skills can help enterprises to understand the needs of employees, and also understand the investment of employees in training in real time, and provide better and more suitable training solutions according to the characteristics of different employees, either quickly or slowly. Steven Ellis believes that this kind of question will bring more beneficial inspiration and thinking for enterprise talent training.
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