Many HR managers find corporate English training that looked like a good investment on paper ends up failing in practice.
The reason is simple. Without an individual level test, you risk half the group getting bored while the rest run out of steam.
And while Denmark prides itself on ranking high in EF’s English Proficiency Index, the picture is more nuanced. Denmark ranks 7th in the 2025 edition, and Danes score lowest on speaking.
There is a long way from fluent holiday English to presenting a critical business strategy to international investors. Here is a practical guide to putting together a course that actually develops your employees’ skills and pays for itself.
What can you expect from an English course for employees?
A good course always starts with a thorough level test of each learner. Only once the starting point is clear can the training reflect your everyday work.
After all, the best learning happens close to reality. That’s why we start from the documents, presentations and emails your team works with every day. A buyer might practise on your own contract appendices, while a project manager prepares for the next international status meeting.
A course typically runs over a set period with regular sessions. Between sessions, employees work on tasks from their own desks, so the language becomes part of their routine.
We follow up closely along the way. That way, you as HR manager always know how employees are progressing and what the company gets from it.
Individual training or closed groups?
The choice depends on your employees’ roles and your goals. Both models have clear advantages:
- Individual language training (1:1): Fits into a busy calendar, and the content follows the employee’s own tasks and industry challenges. It is often the right choice for managers, key staff and specialists.
- Closed groups: A cost-effective option when a whole team or department needs to raise its shared level. The group offers a safe space where colleagues can exchange ideas and practise role-plays together.
Many companies combine the two. Employees with a particularly heavy communication responsibility then get individual sessions on top of the group training.
What makes corporate English training effective?
When you choose an external partner for corporate English training, there are four things to look at critically:
- The language consultants’ background: Are they native English speakers with business experience? Textbook English won’t get you far if your employees work in technical procurement or with complex agreements.
- Content from your everyday work: Is the training built around your industry and your employees’ actual tasks, or do you get a standard course from a book?
- Flexibility: Can the training take place both online and on-site, so it fits into the working week without unnecessary travel time?
- Documented results: Does the provider set clear goals and follow up during and after the course? As HR manager, you need to be able to show management what the investment has delivered.
Corporate English training at SprogEU
At SprogEU, we run corporate English training with small groups and high intensity. In our experience, this delivers the fastest results – and they last. You can see the four course formats, and how we adapt them to your industry, on our page about business English.
Our language consultants always teach their own native language and combine language training with cultural insight. It shows when English is needed in tough negotiations and important meetings. See how we train this in our English meeting and presentation training over two half-days. Or read why buyers need supplier English.
Training takes place online or on-site at your workplace anywhere in Denmark. And after each course, you receive a clear summary of the results.
English is one of the seven languages we teach. Read more about our corporate language training, or contact us for a no-obligation chat about what a course could look like for you.