Professional Business Skills

Communicate with confidence, clarity and purpose to achieve more

  • Benefit from personalised content linked to your professional learning goals
  • Receive individual feedback on presentations, spoken interactions, and a range of written business communication

On these courses, you will:

  • improve your spoken and written communication skills through a range of common workplace themes
  • connect with people from a wide variety of professional backgrounds
  • put new skills into action instantly through realistic communicative activities.

Course content

Our courses are designed to improve written and interpersonal communication skills. Participants benefit from our trainer’s extensive subject knowledge and experience. The focus of these courses is on developing the skills which are essential for effective written and spoken workplace communication. The courses have some language development, but this is not the main objective.

Practical results

Our courses are designed to help you get real results. You will be introduced to leading edge tools, strategies, and techniques that can be immediately applied in your workplace.

Interactive approaches

Our courses use the latest training and facilitation methods to help groups work together effectively. You will be encouraged to interact with your classroom peers throughout the course, making the learning process productive and collaborative. This means that you will be engaged, challenged, and stimulated to learn more and do more. 

How are our courses delivered?

Our team of highly qualified and experienced teachers are dedicated to supporting you throughout your learning journey and helping you to achieve the results you desire through guidance and feedback which is specific to you and your goals. Our courses are delivered conveniently at the weekend and weekday evenings, each course lasts for ten weeks. The class size is a maximum of 12 as we believe in keeping our classes small to maximize student-teacher interaction. 

Track your English language progress

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) is an international standard for describing language ability. Track your progress.

Learning outcomes

Professional Business Skills is offered in two levels:

  • Intermediate
  • Upper-intermediate 
Intermediate Upper-intermediate

Intermediate level consists of one Professional Business Skills module and MyClass Workplace lessons.

Intermediate Professional Business Skills

  • Term 1: Effective Meeting Skills + MyClass Workplace lessons
  • Term 2: Grammar Skills for Business Writing + MyClass Workplace lessons
  • Term 3: Delivering Service Excellence + MyClass Workplace lessons
  • Term 4: Presentation Skills + MyClass Workplace lessons

MyClass Workplace 

  • MyClass Workplace lessons provide Intermediate students with a solid foundation in the business English vocabulary and essential grammar they need in the workplace.
  • In each term, MyClass Workplace lessons will cover a variety of business English areas, which complement the Professional Business Skills module.

Upper-intermediate level consists of two Professional Business Skills modules.

Upper-intermediate Professional Business Skills

  • Term 1: Intercultural Communication Skills + Business Writing Skills
  • Term 2: Negotiation Fundamentals + Communicating with Executive Presence
  • Term 3: Positive Influencing + Email Writing 2
  • Term 4: Working With Emotional Intelligence (EQ) + Report Writing Skills

 

Assessment

Both levels include:

  • mid-course assessment and consultation with the trainer
  • end of course assessment and consultation with the trainer
  • end of course reports and certificates will be provided upon completion of each course.

Please see below for more information on each Professional Business Skills module.

Intermediate

1. Effective Meeting Skills

Objectives:

  • Prepare and deliver relevant and impactful messages for meetings
  • Actively participate in meetings and decision-making discussions to enable productive outcomes
  • Build relationships with meeting attendees and present a confident, credible image in your face-to-face or virtual meetings

Benefits:

  • Participants will participate confidently in face-to-face and virtual meetings
  • Meeting attendees will be more engaged, productive and focused, leading to improved collaboration and decision-making
  • The organisation will benefit from increased productivity and performance and project a professional image to external stakeholders

MyClass Workplace includes lessons on:

  • Presenting an action plan
  • Company structure
  • Corporate social responsibility

2. Grammar Skills for Business Writing

Objectives:

  • Write clearly and accurately to avoid miscommunication and get results
  • Adapt your grammar to better influence a range of readers
  • Project a professional image in writing to connect positively with and influence stakeholders

Benefits:

  • Participants will be better able to achieve the goals of their written communication
  • Internal and external stakeholders will better understand written messages, saving time

MyClass Workplace includes lessons on:

  • Job interviews
  • Motivation in the workplace
  • Presenting a review of a project

3. Delivering Service Excellence

Objectives:

  • Map the customer journey and examine how it can be improved 
  • Practise techniques that focus on proactively seeking out and understanding customers’ needs and expectations 
  • Practise techniques that aid the management of customer complaints and recovery from service problems 

Benefits:

  • Participants will be empowered to support, coach and partner with customers based on a better understanding of what is valuable to them
  • Customers will experience a journey that requires less effort, is consistent, and is more sensitive to their needs
  • Build customer relationships that create an emotional connection with the brand

MyClass Workplace includes lessons on:

  • Networking
  • Making cuts and savings
  • Business trips

4. Presentation Skills

Objectives:

  • Plan your presentation to meet audience needs and expectations
  • Communicate your ideas in a clear, concise, and coherent way
  • Use body language, words and your voice to present a professional, confident image

Benefits:

  • Participants will be better prepared for common presentations, avoid miscommunication, and make a positive impact on the audience
  • Clients and colleagues will better remember and be able to act on presentations, saving time and improving performance
  • The organisation will benefit from increased productivity, performance, and an enhanced professional image

MyClass Workplace includes lessons on:

  • Job and performance reviews
  • Planning a product launch
  • Reaching agreements in meetings

Upper-intermediate (Part 1 of 2)

1. Intercultural Communication Skills

Objectives:

  • Use a greater awareness of self and others to respond positively to different perspectives.
  • Adapt verbal and non-verbal behaviour to communicate clearly and confidently in intercultural situations at work 
  • Build rapport and trust with people from diverse cultural backgrounds

Benefits:

  • Participants will be able to use core intercultural skills to improve key relationships and performance at work 
  • Diverse teams will be able to work together effectively through improved communication, collaboration and decision-making 
  • The organisation will benefit from increased productivity and performance, greater trust with external stakeholders and an enhanced brand and reputation

2. Business Writing Skills

Objectives:

  • Use modern business writing conventions to plan, write and edit documents
  • Produce clear and coherent documents that avoid miscommunication
  • Build good relationships with your readers through reader-friendly language and appropriate levels of formality

Benefits:

  • Participants will be more productive and better able to communicate in writing
  • Clients and colleagues will be better able to understand messages, take appropriate action and save time
  • The organisation will be able to project a more professional image both internally and externally

3. Negotiation Fundamentals

Objectives:

  • Apply a systematic approach to preparing for and participating in negotiations
  • Build relationships with and earn the trust of negotiating partners early in the process
  • Make a persuasive pitch

Benefits:

  • Participants will be able to achieve better performance and relationships by negotiating in a more structured and strategic way
  • Negotiating partners will be more engaged resulting in greater empathy, flexibility and an increased likelihood of reaching agreement
  • The organisation will benefit from more positive negotiation outcomes

4. Communicating with Executive Presence

Objectives:

  • Pinpoint how to build presence through credibility, confidence and connection
  • Project a credible, confident image when communicating with others
  • Make authentic connections with diverse audiences

Benefits:

  • Participants will be able to leave positive lasting impressions and build authentic connections with a diverse range of people
  • Stakeholders will benefit from developing valued and trusted professional relationships
  • Organisations will benefit from improved performance and an enhanced professional reputation 

Upper-intermediate (Part 2 of 2)

5. Positive Influencing

Objectives:

  • Use a variety of techniques to positively influence others
  • Build trust and rapport with your colleagues and clients
  • Influence across organisational levels 

Benefits:

  • Participants will be better able to engage key stakeholders and achieve positive outcomes 
  • Cross-functional teams will be able to collaborate in ways that meet the needs and expectations of both parties 
  • Organisations will have team members who can influence internal and external stakeholders to achieve organisational goals 

6. Email Writing Skills 2

Objectives:

  • Write credible and clear emails that influence your reader positively
  • Adapt your writing style to your reader and the context
  • Write complex and challenging emails that are considerate of your readers

Benefits:

  • Participants will be better prepared to write and respond to complex and challenging emails, ensuring credibility, clarity and connection
  • Clients and colleagues will be better able to build trust and understanding
  • The organisation will benefit from increased performance, improved relationships, and an enhanced professional image

7. Working with Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Objectives:

  • Optimise your EQ for your personal development and to contribute to best practice in your workplace
  • Adopt an optimistic and resilient mindset to handle challenging situations
  • Maintain positive and supportive working relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders

Benefits:

  • Participants will be more adept at using emotions, thoughts and behaviour for improved job satisfaction and performance
  • Teams will collaborate more positively and effectively in working towards shared goals 
  • The organisation will benefit from greater productivity and a more compassionate and inclusive culture

8. Report Writing Skills

Objectives:

  • Plan, structure and write coherent, clear, insightful reports 
  • Engage and maintain readers’ interest from the start 
  • Influence others to act through persuasive writing techniques

Benefits:

  • Participants will be more confident and productive in their report writing 
  • Teams and management will be better able to make effective strategic and tactical decisions based on analysis and recommendations
  • The organisation will be able to respond more quickly and effectively to recommendations, boosting business performance