Putting in a good word for language skills

Updated: 2012-02-15 08:54

By Jiang Xueqing and Wang Hongyi (China Daily)

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A year earlier, the company waived the cost of an eight-year training course worth 10 million yuan ($1.58 million) for 420 officials with the Beijing municipal government.

Shanghai signed up with Wall Street English in 2002, and so far 200 senior officials have participated in its training program, which includes interactive multimedia tools and social activities.

"We've seen notable results," said Li at Shanghai's Education and Training Center for Officials, who added that the city plans to invest 1 million yuan a year into English courses in the coming years.

The program also provided free by Wall Street English was renewed another eight years last year and is expected to cover an additional 240 officials. This time, those who fail to reach set targets will be axed from the class, making room for others to learn English.

"It's a way to motivate them to work harder and avoid wasting education resources," Li added.

Party heads in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, also hired Wall Street English in 2010 to train more than 40 officials who were set to study at Harvard University.

"In the early days, we offered English training programs to the government for free," said Xenia Tse, director of English First Corporate Solution Group China, a business unit of the English First education company. However, since 2008, the Chinese government has attached even greater importance to English training and government agencies have begun to pay a part of the costs.

"Now, more government departments are looking at language training as a long-term strategic investment and have included it in their annual budget, so they consider training as a commercial activity rather than a nonprofit one," she said.

Tse said English First provided training for Guangzhou officials in 2007. At the time, the city had a clear goal: to perfect the language skills of administrators, as well as give them a world vision. All attendees were divisional heads or the equivalent.

In response to a request from the Guangzhou authorities, the company appointed an advisor for each class to help keep officials informed on their progress. The students paid course fees out of their own pocket in advance and were reimbursed, as long as they attended at least 80 percent of the classes.

This year, officials will also take a business English test, which will be administered by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

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