Rolling out a Global training program with Local support
Philips is a Fortune 500 company with several business lines from consumer electronics and lighting, to healthcare. Philips Healthcare simplifies healthcare by focusing on the people and care providers, developing tools that deliver value throughout the complete cycle of care – from disease prevention to screening & diagnosis, to treatment, health management & monitoring.
Philips Healthcare employs more than 6000 service engineers in 80 countries, of which 4000 are non-native English speakers. The operating language is English, including all manuals and instructions. It is crucial that service engineers are able to conduct their work in English, so their English level must be appropriate.
Since 1999, Philips Healthcare has run its own online learning center allowing medical professionals to study world- class educational materials to maintain certification as well as further their careers. Therefore Philips was already well aware of the advantages of online education and was looking for a language provider with a market leading online school who would be able to implement a program worldwide.
This made EF’s Online school Englishtown the ideal choice for Philips Healthcare.
Together with EF, Philips set a language level which was appropriate for all service engineers. Out of 6,000 engineers in 80 countries, roughly 80% required language training. EF’s customized Englishtown Online courses enabled each and every engineer to work with a program specifically designed for their needs. Moreover, thanks to EF’s global presence and local reach, engineers received local support throughout the program implementation phase.
Engineers were able to interact in real-time around the clock with EF’s expert native speaking teachers, giving them a flexible and individualized learning schedule. EF provided monthly reports to monitor progress and further assisted those in need, and also provided Philips with a way to monitor the administrative costs of the program.
The target levels set by EF and Philips were reached rapidly and the flexible online training with Englishtown helped to provide Philips with the highest possible return on their language training investment.