The Online Teach Business English course is a 30-hour continuing professional development course aimed at teachers (or student teachers) of English who wish to acquire or refresh skills for teaching English for work purposes. This can be to working people or vocational students. You can take the Teach Business English course as an individual or group of up to three teachers.
We love welcoming our course participants to our wonderful UNESCO city of Bath but for now, we are keeping our courses online. You will find that this method of delivery has its own advantages.
Course Leader – Sara Helm
Sara has over 25 years of experience running trainer training courses as well as English language courses for adults in the fields of business, politics, civil service, medicine, and education.
Online Teach Business English
Even though EnglishMeansBusiness offers a fully tutor-mediated course that allows a generous amount of time for personal tutorials, you can start the course when you like and continue it flexibly for up to six months.
There is no fixed time or day for tutorials. We simply schedule the next tutorial when you are ready for it. No pressure. There’s nothing to stop your continuing professional development from fitting into your busy life.
In our experience of delivering training to teachers, this has proved invaluable for many of our participants, due to their changing circumstances during the course: changing jobs, moving countries, other studies, the odd pandemic….
Some participants hurtle through the course at an impressive pace; others plod happily, and almost all need to take a break or two along the way.
How do we meet?
We use virtual technologies such as Zoom and WhatsApp or Signal, as appropriate for our course sessions.
Will I receive course materials?
Yes, you will receive a substantial body of course materials, many of which are now delivered in a smartphone-friendly way, as this has proved convenient for some of our past course participants.
We also include resources you could use in your lessons, as well as links to the major Business English and English for Specific Purposes publishers and some of their sample resources.
The course materials will prompt you to answer a series of questions, either before or during your next tutorial, as appropriate.
The thirty hours is split between your tutorials and the offline work you will do in preparation for them, depending on your own personal circumstances and approach to the course. We will give you guidance and feedback at every stage of the course.
Course Fee
Small groups of up to three may attend.
Single participant £500
Two-person group £900
Three-person group £1200
Course Outcomes
- Greater confidence in delivering lessons
- Understanding of variety of lesson formats
- More efficient course and lesson planning
- Wider range of supporting exercises
- Expanded business English vocabulary
- Awareness of communicative techniques
- Clearer pronunciation and delivery
- Broader knowledge of published and online resources
- Access to free classroom resources
Course Content
Topics and course materials reflect typical management topics and and communication skills areas needed in a variety of jobs such as telephoning, emailing, presenting, selling and negotiating and providing customer services.
The exact content of your course will be based on discussion with you and other participants before and during the course, but will generally include sessions on:
- Syllabus Design and lesson formats
- Dealing with mixed levels or mixed needs
- Business management vocabulary
- Classroom activities for a range of situations
- Key business functional language skills
- Methodology refreshers
- Online materials and resources
- UK Business English and Specific Purposes published resources
- Experience and ideas sharing between participants (if applicable).
What some of you said :-)
“I just wanted to say thank you again for this really helpful course. When my school asked me last year to do business English courses, I really didn’t think I could do that. I had no idea what was expected of me. Thanks to you I now feel quite confident that I will be able to conduct a course in a professional way and adjust to whatever students I might get.” Arianne H, Belgium
“I learned lots of things that will be very useful in my teaching.” – Sébastien S, France
“The course was well planned and executed, and adapted for individual needs. Worth every penny.” – Elizabeth C, UK
“Thank you very much for your commitment and dedication during our course.” Thorsten W, Germany
“Caring about our individual needs has really made this course particularly valuable.” Mary S and Roberta R, Italy
How to apply
Email Course Leader (click) Sara Helm
Please include:
- your name(s) and nationality
- your school and country
- brief details of your teaching experience to date
- the age group(s) / typical profile of your learners
- your contact details