Leading banks and outsourcing companies shared how leveraging technology could upskill their employees and improve the organization’s language levels

In the business world these days things have been shifting rapidly, and the pandemic has brought forward some remarkable changes that we have to adapt to. Working from home has become the new normal, pushing businesses to transform the way they function and develop. The demand for skills training however, specifically English skills training, has been rising more than ever since the 4th wave of COVID19 hit Vietnam. As most organizations are under obligations to work and study from home, businesses and schools are looking for effective English training solutions which allow remote learning experiences since all learners stay at different locations, and still can prove its effectiveness. 

“Nowadays businesses are approaching more and more international partners. Our employees and management levels come from different countries, especially South Korea, making it compulsory for us to communicate and discuss in English daily at work, so we decided to look for the most optimal solutions of English training for our staff.” – said Mr. Vu Anh Tuan, Training Supervisor of Shinhan bank Vietnam.

According to Mr. Tuan, English training for the staff requires much more than just a suitable curriculum. They need to be able to track the progress of their employees, in order to measure the ROI of such an investment. Cost efficiency and scalability are also equally important, not to mention learning experience has to be considerably accessible and enjoyable, as everyone is staying at home and for every training program the self-study spirit of the staff really matters. “Through observation and evaluation, we found that “ELSA for Organizations” would be the right solution for us during this time. Every month we have statistics on the number of hours practiced of each employee to know how much their learning progress has improved. Over a long period of time, we believe that all employees at the bank will improve their pronunciation by at least 50%, and be able to have a decent level of pronunciation as well as intonation, to communicate with their boss, colleagues and also with management levels.” Mr. Tuan added.

Shinhan bank is among the leading companies that have been using “ELSA for Organizations” – a significant English training solution for businesses and schools from ELSA – the rising EdTech startup with an English pronunciation app powered by AI. With its refined and updated B2B end-to-end solution packages and a special discount of up to 40%, ELSA hopes to contribute its part in flattening the curve, assisting businesses and schools to stay above the bottom line, ready for post-pandemic settings.

Recruitment has always been a challenge to the HR Department, especially during this unique period. As globalization is everywhere, the need for English-speaking candidates has never been neglected. Recently, ELSA has also introduced its comprehensive testing system to help businesses and organizations recruit the right talents and assess their current workforce’s skills and competencies. Ms. Thea Phan – Head of Growth and Strategy of fram^, a leading Swedish-Vietnamese company that offers IT Development services and builds digital consumer brands, shared: “We mainly offer software development services to Nordic and Western European clients so English is our primary language. We have recently built up a large recruitment pipeline across a number of business functions and tech stacks, and needed a fast, effective and economical solution to assess the English levels of potential candidates.”

ELSA stood out as the most suitable provider that can be a partner in our quest for growth, based on our research and referrals from other companies we have affiliation with.” She also added that besides strong competencies in relevant tech stack or business function, English ability on Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing is also essential to them and will be carefully evaluated. For current employees who would like to improve their English skills, the ELSA tests also provide a simple baseline so they can check their current skills level and identify where to improve. Fram^ then offers their employees additional training programs through their in-house academy.

The ELSA testing system offers an all-in-one experience with a one-stop shop, which provides a simple process for both test takers and administrators. The tests cover a variety of English skills such as Listening, Reading, Pronunciation and Speaking, Grammar and Vocabulary compiled by ELSA’s language experts, and the TOEIC equivalent test focusing on Reading & Listening, provided by OOOLAB – a provider of TOEIC equivalency tests that are academically certified in Vietnam. The content is built based on business-related content and designed to give organizations insights into each member’s English capability.

Since its launch in 2015, ELSA has set its vision to become the best and most accessible pronunciation training tool for more than 1.5 billion language learners around the world. Not just stopping there, the company’s ultimate goal is also to help businesses and organizations regardless of industries to unlock the potential of their workforce, by then strengthening and improving their business performance during this tough time. You can reach out to ELSA for Organizations at bizdev@elsanow.io to get a demo and learn more about what they can offer.