Consultant or Teacher? 

Consultant or Teacher?

Just have to get this off my chest. One of the recruiters I work with (a British guy) asked me "why couldn't we just ask people on the phone to count to ten or something" in order to verify their level of English. He was frustrated with me because I told him that there would need to be a proper test, which would include an oral test to verify level of English and this would neeed to be a part of the recruitment process. He thought this would be a waste of time.
Why is English language always the thing that people think isn't necessary to spend money or time on? Nobody would ask a couple of questions on the phone to verify if someone was able to drive or verify any other kind of work-related skill.
Firms are prepared to spend thousands on recruitment experts and specialists but don't see the same need for English language specialists.
Recruitment projects of workers from other countries succeed or fail on the English language questions; how to successfully verify, assess and train people who need English for their jobs. It is often the first thing anyone notices about a worker when they are assessing their competence to do a job. This is the same for doctors, bus drivers, and anyone else.
The problem may be due to the confusion between seeing English language as an academic area, or one of business. English language is a 1.3 billion pound industry for the UK alone. God only knows what it is worldwide (any ideas out there?) But instead of hard-headed decisions being made about how much for example teachers and trainers are worth (and of course paid), it is still seen as a soft skill; rather like motivation trainers or suchlike (most of whom by the way are paid much more by firms than the average English language trainer).
English language experts (yes that's you if you're a badly paid English teacher somewhere around the world) should be among the highest earning consultants in the business world. After all, what can be more important than being an expert in international communication? Business and trade depend on it.
Julian
julian@bes.info.pl
or
info@polishrecruitment.com

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Comment I'm in Poland. I've just had a look at your blogsite; great stuff. I'll be a regular visitor. Cheers

Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:22 am MST by Julian

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