World Wide English Country 
Changing from in-company to online language training with improved results
Background
With offices in over 150 countries and more than 155 000 employees, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is one of the largest professional service firms in the world. PwC has 22 industry-focused practices specializing in audit, assurance, advisory, and tax service. Being a company with a vigorous global network it is vital that PwC employees have a strong command of English as a professional language.
For many years, PwC provided their employees with onsite language training through numerous suppliers. However, they were not fully satisfied with the results. PwC cited three major problems plaguing their existing programs:
- A lack of professional English teachers for all branch offices
- Programs were demanding of conference space and administrative time
- Difficulties measuring progress and comparing the results of suppliers
Execution
In short, an administratively heavy program was producing inconsistent results. Therefore, PwC sought to create a more scalable language program that could provide the motivation and social interaction of onsite training, but operate at considerably lower costs and use fewer administrative resources. For this, PwC selected EF Corporate Language Training’s market leading, teacher-led online training school Englishtown.
Working closely with EF, the program implementation was a major success. PwC used EF´s EFekta system to measure the company’s learning needs by assessing the employee language levels in comparison to the company’s language goals for its staff. Through this system, EF was able to specify the exact type and amount of training needed. No more, and no less.
By changing from onsite training to Englishtown, PwC witnessed dramatic results; study time increased steadily with increased student satisfaction, while administrative time was cut by 80% and participation costs were cut by more than 30%. Moreover, access to native English speaking teachers was no longer limited to a few specific job sites, it was now open to all participants 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The student’s learning objectives were met, leading to major efficiency gains with enhanced communication skills.
Benefit
Thanks to the program, PwC was able to assess and identify a greater number of talents for international projects, and increase its global reach. And since committing to language training throughout the company at all levels, PwC has also seen steady increases in employee satisfaction as emonstrated by their recent inclusion in Fortunes Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For”.
