International Language Academy’s (ILA) Corporate English training programme has awarded English language certificates to twenty immigration officers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

The three month course was funded by the Australian Embassy in Vietnam, and according to David Danielson, Director of Corporate Training at ILA, the course was aimed at improving the participants’ English proficiency, in particular, their listening and speaking skills needed for their work.

According to one of the EFL trainers, James Murphy, “the course was very successful and all of students were dedicated to developing their English language skills. It was a joy teaching the officers and I look forward to seeing them on the next course.”

The course follows in the footsteps of a similar successful programme for immigration officers run by ILA last year.

On January 24th, 24 Vietnamese health care professionals graduated from a specialised five month English language programme at ILA, funded by The Population Council of New York.

The Population Council has been a major supporter of health-care projects in Vietnam over the past 10 years. Since 1994 part of their strategy has been a major project to send Vietnamese health care professionals to take part in Post Graduate fellowships in the USA. The training at ILA was designed to prepare them for these fellowships. The trainees came from all over Vietnam, and have been studying at ILA on a full-time basis for the past five months.

"The programme was designed to prepare the trainees in a number of ways", says ILA's Director of Corporate Training, Mr. David Danielson. "There was a major focus on the skills necessary for the TOEFL and GRE exams. We also gave training in the study skills which they will need when studying overseas in America."

"Our multi-national team of teachers and instructors performed at the highest standards in meeting these needs," Mr Danielson says. “The trainees were mostly doctors, and so had very high expectations about educational standards. Use of ILA’s state of the art computer facilities formed an essential part of the training.”

ILA’s partnership with the Population Council is very well established, as this is the fourth time that the Council has chosen ILA as a provider of English Language training.

Eighteen managers from PetroVietnam Exploration and Production (PVEP) were awarded Business English Certificates from the International Language Academy’s (ILA) Corporate programme on 26 December 2003.

One of the trainer, Richard Fuller said: “the participants in the presentation skills course were extremely motivated ant put a lot of effort into improving different presentation techniques> The participants are now able to deliver professional business presentation.”

ILA Director of Corporate Training, David Danielson said: ’the seven-month course was designed specifically to help improve the business English skills of the learners. The managers are now equipped with the knowledge of business English, giving effective presentations, negotiation skills, and writing professional business letters and reports.”

Since starting its English language centre in Vietnam in 2000, ILA Vietnam has conducted training programmes for a number of oil and gas companies in both Ho Chi Minh and Vung Tau City.

ILA Corporate was selected by the Sheraton Saigon Hotel to deliver a pre-opening English language training programme for over 300 newly recruited staff. Sheraton Hotels are the largest brand of Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

The aims of the programme were to provide the course participants with English communication skills necessary to complete their working duties to a level acceptable to a 5 star international hotel.

To accomplish this, ILA Corporate designed and conducted an English language assessment test which was customised to measure competence in the specific language skills needed for different job areas. Following the assessment ILA Corporate designed and delivered a series of hospitality English courses in the following areas:

• Front Office
• Food + Beverage
• Housekeeping
• Security
• Engineering

According to the Director of Corporate Training at ILA, David Danielson, the training programme was very successful; all of the participant improved their job specific English and it is definitely one of the strongest teams in the Ho Chi Minh City hospitality industry in terms of English language skills and hospitality experience.

ILA is currently conducting a similar training programme of the Sheraton Hanoi Hotel and it will finish in 2004.