Mexicans See English as Key to a Successful Career

MEXICO CITY, December 8, 2015

Employees in Mexico and across the globe see English as a crucial tool to advance their careers, according to new research from learning company Pearson.

Pearson's research shows that 48% of learners in Mexico see job promotion as a key driver for learning English compared to those in Europe (39%), China (71%) and the rest of Asia (42%) and, on average, feel they can earn almost 5,000 US$ more per year with improved English. Over a third of Mexicans (39%) also said that they expect their jobs to require ongoing improvement in English if they want to advance and 91% want to become completely fluent in English.^[1]

Looking at whether learning English helps to improve job prospects, almost all learners in Mexico (97%) agree, while those in countries such as Germany (69%) and Japan (57%) perceive less benefit in learning English to improve career chances.^[2]

To help employees progress their professional English skills effectively, Pearson is launching tailored learning objectives. These objectives are part of the Global Scale of English (GSE), a granular, numeric scale from 10-90 that provides a far more precise measurement of a learner's abilities across each of the four language skills - reading, listening, speaking and writing - in comparison to other methods.

The GSE helps learners understand the individual capabilities of their employees and identifies the specific skills they need to perform their role successfully. The GSE learning objectives are rooted in practical everyday business English. For professionals who wish to develop their English the GSE learning objectives are a tool that can be readily used to plan a path to greater English proficiency. For example,

• a Chief Executive who faces complex discussions and problems, may want to strive for a GSE score of 75 in speaking to be persuasive and convince others
• a lawyer who fulfils key responsibilities such as questioning witnesses during trials, would be advised to aim for a score of 68 in speaking to ensure questions are asked politely in sensitive situations
• a mechanical engineer who takes readings and follows instructions, may want to aim for a reading score of 62 in order to interpret messages from diagrams and visual information

Tas Viglatzis, Managing Director, Pearson English, said: "It's in everyone's interest to ensure that learning a language isn't seen as just a 'training opportunity', but a solid investment in personal growth and career development. Now more than ever, English is the common language of multinational businesses and candidates compete in a global talent market. Having a global scale will not only help them to be more efficient, it will also give learners direction on the specific English skills they need to develop in order to perform their role successfully."