UK corporate training doing business in Madrid

Large turnout at UKTI event highlights potential for UK companies in Spain’s corporate training sector.

Twelve UK companies, offering a wide variety of specialist skills training and language services in both Spain and the UK, set up their table-top displays in a Corporate Training and Business English Exhibition, in February 2010, at the British Embassy in Madrid. They had come prepared to demonstrate their wares to potential buyers and partners in the Spanish market.

Over 80 attendees packed the seminar room, and once the presentations were over, they moved to the exhibition area to tour the mini-trade fair. Senior HR managers and training directors from large corporates (including Gas Natural, Iberia and KPMG) joined representatives from Spanish training providers, academic institutions and regional government, to explore the offer of the UK companies.

Spanish market has a great potential. There is a strong and growing appetite throughout Spain for English language and skills training, across a wide range of organisations.

Spain is a world leader in business studies, with 3 Spanish business schools in the Financial Times’ top 20 of full-time MBA programmes in 2009 – second only to the United States. And many companies are interested in the Anglo-Saxon model of corporate training, covering a wide area of sub-sectors such as leadership skills, personal development, performance management, life coaching and a wide variety of marketing skills.

BUT – and this is a big but - Spain is third from bottom within the EU ranking in terms of speaking other languages. While it has long been recognised that English is the language of international business, this reality has not yet translated into widespread use by senior executives in the public or private sector. 47% of the population admits to speaking no foreign language (compared to 36% average in the EU), and only 18% speak English at conversational level. At the same time, 20% of all job offers in Spain require fluency in a foreign language (usually English).

Before the exhibition opened its doors, Belinda Coombes, Director of UKTI Madrid, gave a welcome speech, emphasising the widely-recognized need to train in these times of global economic uncertainty. “The UK is a world leader in helping to meet this growing demand for professional education and skills, including specialist English”, said Belinda.

This was followed by a series of short presentations by special guest associations from the UK and Spain. Amanda Selvaratnam, Director of the Training Gateway, explained how her organization can act as a “one-stop shop” for information about training solutions provided by the UK´s 160 universities. “The seminar was an exceptionally well organised event with a very high calibre of attendees… For the Training Gateway it was a fantastic opportunity to promote the expertise of the UK Higher Education sector, and I believe will open up a wide range of business opportunities for UK universities,” said Amanda.

Sarah Wang from Business English UK, a not-for-profit association acting as a quality ‘kitemark’ and business promoter for its 30 member companies, spoke of how the need for English language training is growing and becoming more specialised.

From Spain, Vicente Fernández of AEDIPE, the Spanish Association for Training and Development, gave a fascinating overview of the sector in Spain. There is a strong need for a more highly-trained and mobile workforce in Spain, and improvement of “soft skills” and specialist English is an important part of the mix.

Richard Johnson, Chairman of FECEI, the Spanish Federation of English Language Training, struck a chord with many when he said that despite the multitude of cheap English language providers here, the market is surprisingly underdeveloped in the area of executive skills and specialist English or ESP (English for Specific Purposes, such as Aviation or Legal English).

“There was a real buzz in the room, and every table had its fair share of visitors”, said Belinda Coombes, Director of UKTI Madrid. “We hadn’t expected such a large turnout, especially as this was the first time we have organized an exhibition in this sector. It looks like the market here for UK skills training is even bigger than we thought”.

“Several of the attendees told me that there was a real need for this type of event where corporate training and business English is differentiated from standard English language training”, recalls Marianne Carlin, Senior Trade & Investment Adviser, UKTI Madrid. “I received a lot of encouragement to organise further events in order to get the message across to corporate clients that it is an essential requirement for their business if they wish to become more competitive and progress internationally.”

Feedback

As for the participants and visitors, this is what some had to say:

“Thanks for inviting myself and FECEI to the event. It was instructive for me and productive”, Richard Johnson, Chairman FECEI (Spanish Federation of English Language Training Centres).

“Thanks and appreciation for your hard work in organizing such a brilliant event today. I am a great believer in using events like this to network, and thought it was a perfect setting to make new and interesting contacts”. Paul Nightingale, Director, Business Learning Solutions (exhibitor)

“I find it highly useful and have made some very valuable contacts”. Sarah Wang, Business English UK.

Future events

There is clearly room for more promotion of UK expertise in this sector in Spain. “When we were recruiting for this event, twice as many UK companies applied to exhibit as we had space for”, said Belinda Coombes. “It was a shame to disappoint them, and we will definitely repeat the offer, perhaps with a roadshow to other parts of Spain, before too long”.