Business by Janice

It’s been some time since I’ve written a post related to the language training sector in Madrid so I thought it was time to remedy the situation before my TEFL readers completely abandon my blog!

The beginning of a new academic year is always unsettling for everyone, especially  for teacherswho anxiously wait for  timetables to get confirmed, but this year seems to be flowing really well. All our company clients are confiming to restart classes, we have new clients on board and the best bit of all is the quality of teacher profiles that we’re seeing. There seems to be a boyancy in the market that is reflected in all areas;my contacts in the sector are saying the same.

Teachers are applying who are properly qualified, with exceptional experience and it appears that the tightening up of “illegal” teachers, (those without working papers) has had an effect as we rarely receive CVs from teachers without papers now.

Are we at last seeing the start of a period where more participants in this market are taking it serously? I hope so. Even the clients are getting in on the act and CARING about the profile of teachers who  are assigned to their classes. This is great news.

Or perhaps our school is seeing the fruits of the long term investment in a humane and professional culture which ultimately attracts the type of client and teacher we  want to work with?

Although many of the teachers this post could be dedicated to won’t read this, I would like to say thank you for your professional applications and communication, and to your dedication to improving your skills which ultimately raises the reputation of our profession.

One tip I would like to give to teachers still looking for work - if your CV hasn’t had a response from a school you’re keen to work with, send it again - even though I myself organise the CVs I receive into appropriate electronic files, it’s often about timing. If I’m running out of available teachers so decide to do another round of interviews and several CVs land in my inbox that day, it’s often those teachers who will be contacted for interview.

And be assertive; follow up with a phone call. We receive so many CVs that some slip through the net. A quick chat on the phone may be just what is needed to make the difference between getting invited to interview or not. It doesn’t always work, but you have nothing to lose.

Here’s to a great year in English language training! I won’t be around much longer as I make my move  to Business Coaching but it would be very satisfying to leave with the feeling of “we did it”; we survived the recession, we came out the other side stronger, more positive than ever before and with an improved skill set all round.

Up to now we’ve concentrated on face to face language training but have recognised that to keep up with the times it was essential to have an on-line or “blended” product in our portfolio. And of couse the advantage to the client on this product is price.

As we’ve been hearing so many comments about budgets contratints from our existing clients, you would think that the offering of a product which allows language training to continue and at the same time meets new (much lower) expectations on price would be welcomed or at least considered.

I don’t know what other schools’ experience has been so far this year in this area, but we just can’t seem to raise any interest for this type of product.  Every time, the reaction has been that there is nothing like having a real flesh and blood teacher to motivate the student and on line classes are a very poor substitute.

Quite frankly, I totally agree. And so I wonder if I’m  projecting my beliefs on this subject subconsciously onto the client which then accounts for the results I’m getting? At the end of the day we are really only successful in selling what we feel passionately about.

I’d be interested to know if other schools have seen an increase in their on-line products this year and whether they feel this can be attributed to prices sensitivity in this recession.

The TEFL sector is dynamic to say the least. A busy school dealing with company and private classes sees their class vacancy list change almost daily as classes are covered and new ones come up. For this reason it’s very difficult to make committments to teachers very far in advance especially mid academic year.  Perhaps it’s related to the recession, but in our case we are receiving applications several months in advance of the teacher actually coming to Madrid. I’m all for planning ahead but teachers often run the risk of their application getting swamped and eventually going unnoticed if they try to secure a post too early.

Even though our applications are filed appropriately it’s human nature to fix our attention on those CVS which just arrive at the time we are ready to recruit.

Even planning for the new academic year, when we know we will need a large number of new teachers can be problematical if we interview too far ahead. People’s circumstances change and on several occasions we have made a committment to a teacher for a full time contract and they have then not followed through.

So what is the ideal time to send in CV for the new academic year?

While we are still in the previous academic year, our attention is on wrapping things up and organising summer intensive courses. Any CV sent before June will just go into the “file” often buried “forever”. My recommendation would be to contact schools in early July with a follow up mail or phone call approximately 10 days later. September is also a good month. Some may think that this is leaving it a bit late but there’s still a lot of shuffling around going on at the beginning of September and many company clients don’t even start classes until October.

One last point, face to face interviews are always the most effective. When teacher supply was scarce last year we promoted telephone interviews because we were desperate to get teachers into Madrid. With the recession the situation has changed dramatically. To be successful in securing a teaching post it is necessary to be here, to send your CV just at the right time and to be available immediately.

I know this is a subject that I’ve written about before from many angles but I wanted to revisit it this week after the publication of an article that I prompted on 20minutos.es published yesterday entitled “¿Quién da clases de inglés en tu empresa?” which you can see o:

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/454809/0/clases/ingles/empresas/.

Ok, the “escándalo” bit is a tad exaggerated but we need to get attention somehow.

And the article has definitely caused a stir with over 150 comments. Most of these comments focus on three areas, whether it’s better to have a native or non native teacher,  the attitude and behaviour of Spanish companies and the quality of teachers sent into companies to teach.

So, I’m going to hand the larger part of this post over to the Spanish public to hear their views on our ongoing debate. I’ve selected some comments which most intelligently represent the overall feelings:

To begin, let’s hear some views on the native/non-native issue:-

“La explicación para este fenómeno también está en la demanda: la gente, sobre todo las empresas, casi exclusivamente quieren profesores nativos, y como quieren enfocar en la comunicación, les da igual la formación del profesor, si al final y al cabo solo van a charlar. Como ése en muchos casos no sabe enseñar, las clases parecen a una sesión en casa con la televisión puesta con una peli en V.O., pero en realidad no se aprende nada.”

“No vale de nada tener titulo si no sabes ni pronunciar “Hello” como es debido……..

Prefiero un nativo que me enseñe como costruir las frases hablando y pronunciando perfectamente a alguien con una carrera que solo me enseñara los tipos de verbos y contruir una frase en un trozo de papel que no me sirve para nada……cuando quieras ir a un pais de ingles nativo estas totalmente perdido!!!

Que preferis un profesor como en los colegios publicos (que no tienen ni idea mas que de la gramatica) que te enseñan durante 10 años lo mismo y sales sin saber nada de nada; o uno nativo que te enseña todo ( pronunciacion, gramatica, didactica, TODO) en 1, 2, 3 años?

Ademas que os creeis que un idioma se aprende con 2 horas a la semana sin practicar??

Venga ya!!!”

Love this one - I wonder how they convinced the company on the methodolgy to be chosen?

En mi empresa las clases de inglés las da un señor nativo que lleva como metodo un libro para niños…….

Lo mas fuerte es que son OBLIGATORIAS y en horario no laboral. Mi jornada termina a las 6 y los lunes y miercoles me tengo que quedar de 6 a 8 a hacer el tonto con un libro que usa mi sobrina en el cole.

Y encima si digo que no voy me ponen unas caras de asco…”

On a more serious note and in my opinion one of the most insightful comments left;-

“Soy formador, y no de inglés, pero algo tan importante o más como son el Marketing y las ventas. Y credme, que es aún peor. Todo esta contaminado por el coste. Se quiere una buena formación, pagando poco y mal al formador, que lo dé en poco tiempo, y sobre todo que sea muy barato. Y ESO ES IMPOSIBLE. Un profesor no puede enseñar lo que ha aprendido en 5 años de carrera y en su experiencia profesional. El alumno necesita tiempo para: aprender, entender y asimilar. Y eso necesita tiempo. Creo que se banaliza la ensañanza porque la gente no sabe realmente lo dificil que es enseñar. Y sobre todo, por formarte no vas a conseguir inmediatamente un trabajo o ascenso, solo mayores probabilidades de conseguirlo. Hemos de cambiar la mentalidad. La buena formación tiene un coste, sino pues ahi tenemos las escuelas de negocios, o los institutos privados. Pero como siempre, será para aquellos que puedan pagarlo. Resumiendo: hay profesores que quieren vivir de su trabajo, que quiere ayudar. No lo veamos solo como un negocio, ni como un coste, Sino una necesidad para invertir para el futuro.

Is the general mentality of the Spanish towards learning at fault?:-

“El problema principal es el españolito que no quiere dedicar tiempo a nada, menos para estudiar, y con el profesor el único que quiere hacer es tomar unas cañas. ¿Para qué esforzarse y estudiar en casa? Por eso los españoles estudian el inglés toda su vida sin aprender nada… TODOS LOS IDIOMAS REQUIEREN MUCHO TIEMPO Y MUCHO ESFUERZO PARA APRENDER, POR ESO SE HABLA MEJOR EL INGLÉS EN TODOS OTROS PAÍSES EUROPEOS, POR LA MENTALIDAD DIFERENTE QUE TIENEN…Lo más fácil, como siempre, echar la culpa a los profesores”

Several comments focus of course on the practices of unprofessional schools:-

“Todo esto viene por contratar a gente sin cualificaciones ni madera para la docencia. Profesión con mucho intrusismo, creo que hay lugar para todos pero que sea un servicio profesional, un docente preparado, puntual, serio, con metodología y con conocimientos de lo que vaya a enseñar. La culpa es tanto de la empresa que no selecciona a su personal como de la empresa contratante que con decir “nativo” piensa que viene todo dado y perfecto. Y al decir selección me refiero a que no se base tan solo en titulación, que se midan más aspectos (manejo del salón, experiencia, conocimientos…). Seamos serios y profesionales en lo que hacemos.

And here we have someone who gets right to the point:-

“Es muy fácil arreglar, la empresa tienen que pedir el certificado CELTA o DELTA y pagar un sueldo que atrae más que a mochileros. Si las empresas no arreglan el nivel de enseñanza es que quieren que las cosas sigan tal y como están ahora.”

Now it’s my turn to get right to the point: If  the Spanish really took language training seriously and demanded quality, prepared to pay the price that quality costs, perhaps we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now. Just yesterday a colleague in the sector, a business owner in Bilbao told me that he had quoted for a contract and absolutely refused to negotiate on price when he was informed by the company that another school has said they would provide the service for 24 euros/hour!!! It’s a vicious circle, if companies are paying peanuts, they’ll get peanuts because they force us to pay our teachers peanuts.

Those of us who focus on language training in companies have probably heard the words “sorry we have no budget for training this year” from HR departments many times now.

This happened to us last week on following up a company who had contacted us before Christmas for information.

It just so happens that in the office we have been renting in central Madrid since September, there was some additional space which has just been let to a Human Resources company , (a very appropriate “coincidence”) and who happen to be specialists in managing the training funds of companies. Many of you in Spain reading this will know that I’m talking about what used to be called FORCEM but is now the horribly unattractive sounding “Fundación Tripartita“. - we’ll use the term FORCEM here on in.

The thing is, all companies have access to money for training via the social security contributions they have made on behalf of their employees but many don’t take advantage of these funds for two reasons - either they’re not aware they exist or they believe that to get access and to use them is a bureaucratic nightmare (partly true, remember we are in Spain after all!).

I’m not an expert on this subject by any means and admin details bore me to death, but after a quick meeting with the HR company and their “FORCEM” specialist, I realised that there’s probably a lot of business out there that could be gained by promoting the use of FORCEM funds for language training if we were just to find  collaborative partners who could look after the offical administration.

The best companies to target would be the medium sized ones and upwards, those who have a minimum of 200+ employees. Companies smaller than this are not going to have accrued sufficient funds within a year that could be used effectively for an ongoing training programme. And the amount of subsidy allocated  to each employee for training purposes is only 9€ or 13€ in exceptional cases, so for the company to be able to cover the language school’s tariffs we would also be talking about training to groups.

Everyone these days is short of time and many companies are short of money in the sense that yes, a lot of budgets have been cut. Workers in many sectors have lost their jobs and those remaining are often having to take on the work of those made redundant. If companies haven’t already got people in admin to mangage the FORCEM paperwork or have found a gestoria to do this, they’re probably not going to have the resources right now to set it up themselves. By approaching these companies and providing this administrative service in addition to  the actual language training, you’rs saving them a lot of pain.

Of course, many very large companies, particularly the multi nationals have their own people to administer the paperwork and regularly use up all their funds as it saves them a huge amount of money each year.

In the case of the company who enquired about our services but then said they had no budget, (although I admit this may be a lie and perhaps they’ve actually selected another provider), it’s obvious they have a NEED for language training which is there to be satisfied.  Satisfying that need by promoting the use of the FORCEM subsidies may be an option.

There’s lots of gloom and doom talk around the recession but at the same time there’s lots of people who are focusing on how we can take advantage of the opportunities that recession provides. Looking for opportunities at the moment and following through on them will make us stronger, it will make us grow and it will mean that when the better times come, we will have acquired new creative ways of thinking and managing our businesses that will lead to even greater success.

I’d be very interested to receive more information on exactly how FORCEM is managed from anyone out there reading this - but just the important bits please, too much detail and jargon would make my eyes glaze over!

I had a meeting the other day with one of our most important clients and the HR manager said something which has had me thinking ever since…

This company invest a lot of money in language training and work with several providers - they have to,  one provider wouldn’t be able to satisfy all their needs. We were talking about the usual… the ojectives of the client, the individual objectives of the students, how different students are motivated in different ways etc., when she casually commented that in general, there doesn’t seem to be a particularly high degree of satisfaction with any of their providers.

WHAT?!!

Now I didn’t take this personally (I’m too resilient for that), but it’s been niggling at me for the last few days. What can we (or any language provider) do to address this sensation that probably many clients have. Is it to do with us, is it to do with the set up in the companies or is it to do the individual students?

In essence I really feel that the companies hold the key and that it often comes back to how seriously they take their language learning programme.

Many teachers having first gone autonomo, then decide to set up (or fall into) their own agency. It seems a relatively easy way to make a living. But at the same time there are lots of academy owners who consciously take the decision NOT  to work with companies for the following reasons:

• Many companies want the the best teachers at the lowest price
• Many companies won’t pay for cancelled classes
• Many students cancel over half of their classes
• Teachers become demotivated and drop classes…

And the list goes on (covered in other posts). There really is something that is a BIG challenge in corporate.

Yet when there is a situation that is not ideal, isn’t this the perfect opportunity to look for new solutions?

Is this a case for specific methodologies? But specific methodologies don’t suit every learner or every circumstance.

Do we need to be more flexible? But can we be more flexible and run a profitable business? Can we be more flexible and at the same time provide our teachers with a stable  income?

And whose satisfaction are we actually talking about? The students’ or the HR Manager’s? Perhaps the perception of the HR department is not totally accurate. I use the word “accurate” but using what criteria?

All very interesting stuff. As you can see I’m in quite a reflective mood…

Perhaps we should be talking to our clients and students a lot more and asking them the most important question of all… WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Teachers should be the first to be asking this question in class, and I really think they don’t ask it often enough. (Perhaps they’re scared of receiving honest feedback). But it also needs to come down from the top - What do our clients want? Perhaps they don’t know what they want, they only know what they DON’T WANT. If that’s the case then as professionals we can advise them and possibly together come up with new ideas for their training needs.  Thinking out of the box is often what’s needed.

Try as I might I can’t get away from hearing  the word “crisis” at least 5 times a day, even though I deliberately DON’T watch any news. It’s getting to be a more common topic of conversation than the weather ever was!

I must say though, I’m thinking about the sales and budgets forecasts for the second term for company classes and attempting to balance my always overflowing positivity with the “reality” that’s out there.

Yes, it is proving hard to find and get new business (although there’s still lots to be had) so I got to thinking that it’s even more important to look after the clients we already have.  I read an interesting statistic on a marketing web page the other day - apprarently 68% of clients stop buying because businesses don’t communicate with them. This statistic is probably higher in a service industry such as ours.

So what can we do to make sure we retain our customers and even possibly get more business from them?

If you’re a business owner ( or a freelance teacher in fact), here are some ideas you may want to think about:

• Just phone. All of us are guilty of not speaking to our customers enough. Just pick up the phone to ask how everything’s going and thank them for their business, they’ll be very pleasantly surprised as very few people do this.

• Send a postcard. Send a postcard with a compelling offer that ADDS VALUE  to your current service. In times like these it’s VALUE that we have to be promoting, so that customers feel confident that their expenditure is an INVESTMENT.

• Reward referrals. In fact referrals is often something we don’t concentrate enough on. If your current cusotmers are really happy with you, encourage them to refer your name to others and offer clients an incentive to do this.  If you got two referrals from each of your current clients, just think what a difference this would make to your business.

• Send a gift to your best customers. How would you feel if you received an unexpected gift from a supplier? Would that increase your loyalty to them. Just the gesture of a small “detalle” as a thank you for their business goes a long way. (I reckon this is more effective outside of Chrismas time though).

• Offer your expertise. What one piece of information or knowledge about your business could help your customers save money, make their life easier etc?  Write a personal email and share it with them.

• Ask a great question. Phone your clients and ask this one simple but extremely effective question: “What are we currently not offering that you would like us to?” Quite often we concentrate on what we THINK clients want without ever asking them. This very powerful question could set you off in all sorts of interesting directions!

I know I seem to be concentrating on marketing quite a lot lately, I must say it’s a whole new area for me which I’m learning about and in fact is more than relevant in these times of (sorry, here it goes again…) crisis. For those companies who focus mostly on corporate clients, we ARE facing a challenge, but as I mentioned in my post “Let’s say NO to the Recession”,  we must maintain positive, imaginative and pro active to combat this situation.

Again I want to thank Chris Cardell for most of the marketing information contained in this post: http://www.cardellmedia.co.uk

In order for Spain to prosper in international markets it’s imperative that employees improve their level of English. But this is not happening fast enough or efficiently enough. At some stage, if it’s not already happened in some cases, this will directly impact on the bottom line of a company.

But are companies prepared to do what it takes to rectify this?

LEARNING A LANGUAGE TAKES TIME AND COMMITTMENT

And committment is NOT demonstrated by the following behaviours from companies:

• Insisting that students with several levels are put into the same group due simply to budgetary constraints. If companies have a limited  budget they should select those employees who need English the most. Otherwise they  are throwing your money away.  As reputable schools we  should challenge clients who try to mix too many levels in a group

• Providing English classes to employees simply as a perk. They will not possess the necessary motivation to make any reasonable progress.

• Allowing cancellations of classes. If students can cancel a class they will, as they bow to the pressure of their work. Too many cancellations means progress is slowed down and objectives are not met. Teachers are often not paid when a class is cancelled, if too many classes are cancelled teachers will drop the class as they begin to suffer economically.

• Insisting that a class is covered immediately even when the school is saying that they can’t find a suitable teacher. Companies run the risk of receiving a sub standard teacher .

• Choosing a provider on price alone. Schools who employ bad teachers pay them badly which allows them to give their classes at a cheap price. You get what you pay for and again, companies are throwing your money away.

• Not being flexible on the times of classes. Clients will get the BEST teachers if the class timetable is arranged in blocks of more than 2 hours and  classes are allowed at off-peak times.

Now, more than any time, is the time to be seriously looking at return on investment. Those companies who are wise enough not to completely eradicate language training from their budgets when their future performance depends on how well an employee can negotiate in English, should be doing all they can to ensure that they make it easy for us to give them a quality service.

If any HR manager is reading this (hopefully there’ll be quite a few one day!), I would suggest that you take the time to really examine the service you are receiving. Be demanding with your provider so that you ultimately get the results you’re looking for. However, you must play your part fairly and treat your provider as a partner and as a professional. Professional schools will bring up most of the points listed above and they will bring them up for one reason - to ensure your employees learn and achieve their learning objectives which will ultimately benefit the company bottom line.