Engineering students, engineering graduates and anyone who has been working in engineering for up to two years.

The course is designed to develop participants’ language and communication skills in a professional context. The course focuses on active speaking and writing skills and communication strategies. In order to provide a framework for the course, language areas may include:

• describing experiments
• comparing results
• measurements
• facts and figures
• systems
• engineering processes
• tools and equipment
• technical functions and applications
• health and safety
• new technology
• engineering design
• problem solving
• describing processes

The key language skills and communication strategies you will learn in the course include:

• effective communication skills for meetings
• effective participation in discussions
• giving presentations
• giving instructions
• written communication including email, reports, CVs and letters of application
• effective telephoning skills
• hosting visits, socialising, meeting and greeting
• making proposals, offers, suggestions
• being interviewed

When professional people are speaking with their counterparts, discussion often turns to broader matters. The course reflects this with practice in the context of a range of topical issues such as:

• current affairs
• social, political and environmental issues
• political systems and developments
• written communication including email, reports and formal letters
• effective telephoning skills
• hosting visits, socialising, meeting and greeting
• making proposals, offers, suggestions
• opening/closing meetings

Professional hospitality, entertaining visitors and handling social situations are important for many professional people. Areas covered include:

• meeting and greeting
• dealing with enquiries and offering advice
• arranging and cancelling appointments/social engagements
• travel arrangements, bookings and reservations
• giving and understanding directions
• restaurants and pubs
• small talk

Whichever course you take with us, you can expect to improve your English in the following ways:

• communicate more confidently
• speak more accurately and fluently
• participate more successfully in meetings
• improve your written English including emails
• expand your professional vocabulary
• improve your understanding of grammar
• socialise and network with greater confidence
• work successfully in a cross-cultural environment

In addition to the benefits outlined above, you will be able to express yourself with precision and clarity on technical matters, liaise with colleagues, manufacturers, subcontractors and clients, and discuss technical subjects with more confidence.