Case Study: How IMO Car Wash improved their English language skills with dedicated language training company Commercial Language Training
Company Background
Founded in Germany in 1965, IMO Car Wash operates through a network of 800 sites across 12 European countries and Australia and they have washed over 800 million cars. They own 260 sites in the UK. So, being able to speak English well is essential for key members of staff. For CLT, this is one of the many sectors we work in.
What did we do?
As IMO employees had varying levels of English skills prior to the course, pre-course assessments helped to place the candidates into either Beginners or Intermediate groups. The groups then focussed on general and business English communication skills. Finding out the current level of language skills of the delegates plays a key part in the planning and design of all CLT language training programmes.
At the beginning of each course we set out the objectives with the company and the tutor, such as:
– Improve telephone skills and increase confidence in speaking with English colleagues
– Improve written skills for emails
– Improve reading skills for emails and documents
– Improve understanding of English colleagues
– Increase vocabulary
– Improve basic grammar skills
When we started teaching English to IMO Car Wash delegates in August 2015 there were 2 large groups (False Beginners with some knowledge from years ago and Intermediate) who were placed on weekly classes for a block of 15 weeks. The Beginners class had studied English at school but not for many years and the Intermediate group could read English quite well but not speak it confidently – they tended to want to make sure everything was absolutely correct before committing themselves to saying it. The delegates were mainly office based and communicated over the telephone to their English colleagues in High Wycombe, UK.
Assessment
At the end of each 15-week course we ask the tutor to complete a Progress Report detailing the current level of each student using the Common European Framework so that we can give feedback to the customer and delegates on how well they are progressing. This assessment allows us to amend the group structure, content and learning methods where necessary.
One IMO Car Wash employee said of the course:
“We appreciated the English training very much, because our trainer took into account all our individual wishes and requirements. So now I’m feeling quite confident about writing emails and also responding to phone calls without any effort. We also discussed specific technical vocabulary, which enables myself to use these words successfully during my daily work. The training also really helped us to correspond with our business partners and our customers in a more professional way.”
What now?
Since starting classes in Germany with IMO Car Wash in 2015, we continue to teach 1-2-1 classes for delegates needing extra practice. We have taught delegates from a variety of areas of the business including Senior Management, Sales, Service Dept, Warehousing and Logistics.
If you would like more information on language training with CLT please contact us today! You can also find out more about our courses and the languages we teach on our website or you can read some of our case studies.