Students
Taught
Industries
Supported
Years of
Experience
Nationalities
Served
Our workplace ESL courses are designed for manual labor workforces of foreign origin who do not speak English natively who work in manual labor environments. The workplace ESL learning space is unique in that it focuses on English that is aligned with the types of language associated specifically with a vocational work context as well as accommodating the learning style of participants who often come from more limited formal education backgrounds in their home countries. These types of students often learn in a more tactile and visually oriented manner that requires a teaching approach that is more nuanced.
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Manufacturing and production facilities of all kinds be it for heavy equipment for the oil and gas industry, furniture, trailers, etc.
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Distribution centers and warehouses.
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Industrial work environments.
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Local fabrication shops.
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High-end, upscale apartment residential complexes and communities that have maintenance technicians and other support staff needing to improve their English skills to better serve tenants.
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Hospitality and food services operations; hotels, restaurants, etc.
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Any workplace environment where there is a population of blue collar, vocational, or manual labor workers who do not speak English natively and are deficient in their ability to communicate in English effectively.
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Houston, TX
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Austin, TX
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Arkansas
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Tennessee
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New Jersey
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California
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Oregon
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Washington state
These are some of the top benefits of utilizing our specialized workplace English training program:
With improved ability to independently interpret written safety protocols and changing operating procedures come improved safety and a reduction of safety incidents.
Improved communication ability in English means more effective interpretation of production related directives from supervisors (bypassing the need for the “bilingual co-worker” attempting to translate for his fellow co-workers) as well as the ability for workers to ask for clarity when something is confusing or quickly report issues that might interrupt production. With improved English comes the increasing ability to interpret new operational protocols independently and to communicate problems and issues up the chain of command more efficiently which improves productivity overall.
Many times, there are incredibly knowledgeable and valuable employees who would normally be targeted for leadership roles but due to their deficiencies with communicating effectively in English, they are unable to be considered. As they develop and evolve their English communication skills through our on-site workplace ESL program, their improved abilities to communicate in English both verbally and in writing will open previously closed doors to promotion into leadership roles thus enhancing their value to the client by giving them a wider pool of internal talent to develop into future leadership roles.
With improved English communication skills comes enhanced integration of the foreign employees with the native English speaking workers which contributes to a more cohesive and unified work culture. Without a foundation of English as the lingua franca, the work culture can feel fragmented linguistically and culturally with foreign and linguistic subpopulations being naturally inclined to coalesce into their own groups and resist broadly interacting with others.
Of the 22+ years we have been operating, over 16 been focused on developing and refining our specialized workplace ESL program. We’ve worked with businesses of all sizes ranging from small family run production facilities all the way up to large Fortune 500 manufacturing facilities. We have hard won knowledge about how to work with these special types of ESL learners in a vocational setting.
Our core informing belief at Premiere English is that great teachers create great learning experiences. We have learned from experience that in addition to the need to work with exceptionally skilled ESL teachers, a vocational ESL program requires an ESL teacher that possesses unique qualities that best support the creation of an effective learning environment for vocational ESL students. These are the specific types of teachers that we assign to our blue collar ESL programs and are huge reason why they have been so successful. We don’t compromise on this standard of excellence.
Although there are many overlapping similarities between the client sites our Vocational ESL programs operate on, we also know from experience that each client can have unique concerns that a “one-size-fits-all” approach can’t address. Every client site has a different operating environment with different jargon and communication needs so we work to incorporate those concerns into the shaping of our approach for each client site we work on.
Although our workplace ESL program is now well established and mature, it is not static. It has been in a constant state of evolution over the last ten years as we continually appraise what works and doesn’t work effectively with each program that we’ve run. With each iteration at a new client site, we seek to make refinements as our understanding of how these unique types of vocational ESL learners acquire language skills.
Whether or not you have 10 or 400 participants, we can scale our program to accommodate any population size.
Our company used Premiere English to bring English as a Second Language courses to a portion of our Spanish speaking Maintenance and Labor crew. Chris worked diligently with our team, first helping to organize the individuals who would be right for each class level, single handedly assessing their understanding of the English language and then providing prompt information on next steps. Chris organized the instructor who was very capable and seemed to be enjoyed by the students. Above all, Chris and Phillip, our instructor, provided an invaluable tool for our crew when dealing with our clientele – the confidence to communicate effectively in English. I would refer Chris and Premiere English to anyone with a goal of their employees to communicate effectively orally, written, and in reading while gaining confidence. I am very happy to have been a conduit for successful learning with the help of Premiere English and am ecstatic with the results of a few months of instruction.
HR Associate, Garden Communities
The staff of Premiere English was great because they took the time to understand the needs of our company and our employees. The instructor was dedicated to the success of our employees in improving their English speaking skills, and our employees responded with enthusiasm. Not only was good will developed between the employees and the company, as the employees saw that the company was interested in their success and well being, but the before and after tests provided clear evidence of the impact this program has in improving the English skills of individuals.
Change Manager,
National Oilwell Varco
These are some of our more high profile national and multinational clients.
Industry
Global E-Commerce
Retailer
Program Type
Workplace ESL & Spanish
Participant Count
30-40 participants
Delivery Method
On-site/in-person
Location
Linden, New Jersey
The Wayfair Talent Management division contacted us about providing English classes to their foreign born warehouse staff in at the Linden, NJ regional distribution center. The population in need of English language training came from a number of different ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds occupying a range of different manual labor roles in their warehouse. They needed them to acquire English at a level that would enable them to communicate effectively with English-speaking supervisors as well as interpret new safety protocols and equipment operating procedures independently without need of a fellow staff member to attempt to translate.
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Conducted an assessment of the group to determine if all participants' starting levels of English were within complimentary degrees of variance to warrant being in a single leveled class and based on the results, we created to leveled groups; one comprised of true beginners and the other of a high-beginner level.
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Assigned ESL teacher, constructed a workplace English based curriculum that was relevant to their warehouse vocational work environment, obtained appropriate class materials, and coordinated a weekly schedule around their shifts.
Delivered a very satisfying learning experience for both the students and the ESL teacher, who quite enjoyed working with this population and supporting their palpable performance gains that were noted by their English supervisory staff.
MORE CASE STUDIES
Every program starts with a needs analysis that looks at your industry, team roles, and specific communication challenges. We take that analysis and we integrate it with the foundational workplace English curriculum that we have built over the last almost twenty years so that the specific language needs of your specific work environment are accommodated.
It's common to see variance among the English proficiency of a population of foreign workers. Even in a group that is largely thought to be beginners can have a surprising amount of variance in abilities. This is why we recommend starting with an assessment to determine what each participant's general level of ability is and when warranted due to a high separation in abilities, organize participants into leveled groups of complimentary abilities. These leveled class groups are much better able to progress in a uniform manner.
Yes. We can provide progress tracking if desired in the form of quarterly reports.