Business case studies – PSA Peugeot Citroën
PSA Peugeot Citroën, a major player in the global automotive industry selected World Speaking to train over 10,000 employees located across 25 countries. Ten months into the program and the first evaluations show a satisfaction rate of over 97%.
The company
PSA Peugeot Citroën is a French manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles sold under the Peugeot and Citroën brands. PSA is the second largest automaker based in Europe and the sixth in the world.
The challenge
When the board of directors decided that English was to become the official working language of the group, PSA faced a huge challenge. 10,000 employees were required to reach an operational level of English in the space of three years. PSA’s specific needs resulted in a global search for a solution that would be easy to roll out in 25 countries simultaneously. Last but not least the group wanted to guarantee a high and measurable ROI by ensuring that the trainees enrolled on the program would reach the required level at the end of the training.
After conducting several pilots, PSA chose the World Speaking solutions for their language training project.
“This choice was motivated by Telelangue/World Speaking’s ability to implement a global training project that met our requirements of customization, efficiency and costs.”
Jean-Francois Martin – Director of Training and Recruitment PSA
The partnership
In April of 2010, a joint decision was made by PSA and World Speaking to deploy Blended Learning courses to all 10,000 trainees over a three year period. A wide range of training courses was offered consisting of 60, 80 and 120 hour blended learning programs. These included individual telephone lessons, group workshops, virtual classrooms, and an online preparation for the TOEIC® test (Test of English for International Communication).
Through World Speaking’s extensive catalog of industries and job specialties, the training programs were customized to the automotive industry and personalized according to the different job roles.
“More than 100 native teachers were mobilized around the world specifically for the PSA trainees. A coaching program was equally designed to motivate learners throughout their training course and push them to progress.”
Christina Bork – Senior Vice-President and Product Development at World Speaking
After completing five hours of training, learners were asked to fill out an online quality questionnaire. The survey responses were analyzed by the World Speaking team in order to adjust the program as necessary, ensuring the trainees’ satisfaction and motivation levels remained high.
PSA’s Director of Training was able to monitor participants’ progress, attendance and satisfaction levels via a real-time online Learning Management System. Dedicated World Speaking Project Managers were assigned to the World Speaking international platforms (Europe, Americas, Australia and Africa) in order to provide multi-lingual support across different time zones.
The World Speaking difference
World Speaking established an unprecedented commitment to results. The participants’ progress would be accredited by an independent certificate, the TOEIC® This would allow PSA to ensure that their employees’ level corresponded to corporate demands.
The TOEIC® is an internationally recognized examination that measures the English language level of non-native speakers. The test scores are currently used by over 10,000 companies, government agencies, business schools and language centers in over 120 countries.
First, PSA defined the target levels for each group of employees. World Speaking then translated these specifications into customized programs. At the end of the course, a TOEIC® test measured learners’ progress. For the first time, a language training provider was able to guarantee results on a large scale. World Speaking even went a step further to ensure learner progress, by offering additional lessons completely free of charge, to trainees who had not attained the required level in the time allocated.
The Results
In less than a year, 3,800 employees were already enrolled in the program with very positive feedback, “especially concerning the very interactive e-learning platform, CyberTeachers and their efficient monitoring tools”, states the Director of Training.
The outstanding participation of PSA employees put the company ahead of schedule. In only ten months, more than 100,000 hours of training were completed. This impressive achievement was further consolidated by 97.3% of students responding that they were satisfied with the program.
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