Pace helps pros master language, culture of U.S. business

Westchester County Business Journal, Feb 25, 2008 by Golden, John

Raised in Shanghai, China, PepsiCo Inc. employee Jie Yan came to the U.S. for graduate school, earning master's degrees in engineering and applied statistics. At PepsiCo headquarters in Purchase, she has worked four years as a senior scientist.

Her work is in statistics, "so I have to talk with my clients a lot," said the analyst. "Sometimes communications skills are really, really important in my work."

Her facility with English, however, was not at the level of her math and science skills. Speaking with business clients, "Sometimes I do have a problem. Sometimes it's the pronunciation, sometimes it's the tone, sometimes it's the word." She realized "it really was a problem and I really needed improvement in this area."

Yan contacted the English Language Institute at Pace University, which serves both matriculating and non-matriculating international students at Pace and, through its English for Professionals program, corporate and government professionals such as Jie Yan. The program offers classroom courses, private tutoring and custom-designed corporate programs and workplace training in practical business English and U.S. business culture at Pace campuses in both Manhattan and Westchester County and at company sites.

At Pace's Lubin Graduate Center in downtown White Plains, Yan took a seven-week evening course in business writing. She worked on improving her spoken command of the language in individual sessions with a program tutor.

"My company paid Mr the class," Yan said. "I talked to my boss and they agreed to pay because they really believe it's a good investment in employees." The training complements PepsiCo's own employee enrichment programs and talent sustainability initiative, she said. "Building this skill is part of that."

"I really think it worked," she said of the Pace training. "At least the result is noticeable." Colleagues "asked me about it. I think they could see the difference" in her command of English. She has recommended the program to several co-workers who are non-native English speakers.

Brian Hlickey, director of the 15-year-old English Language Institute at Pace, said trainees in the professionals program come from Europe, Asia and Central and South America and typically work for corporations in Westchester, New York City and southwest Connecticut. The program's long list of corporate clients includes Hitachi America, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co., Goldman Sachs, Verizon, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Deutsche Bank and Pepsi Bottling Group in Somers.

One of its biggest New York City clients is Lehman Bros. "I feel like we're a preferred provider for Lehman Bros.," Hickey said. The program's courses are listed in the investment banking and financial services company's database.

The program also has provided one-on-one coaching to an executive preparing to interview for a top post at Doctors Without Borders, the French-based non-profit medical organization - he got the job, Hickey said - and to a French-speaking ambassador from Benin. A new client is the Bank of Brazil, which sent its incoming head of North American operations for training.

The institute's newest program, started last summer, is an English for Lawyers course at the Pace School of Law. Conducted in partnership with the law school, the program's first class included a judge from Thailand, Hickey said. "The law school has a growing international reputation in environmental law and that's what's attracting a lot of (international) lawyers there," along with its degree program in comparative law, he said.

"We have upper-level corporate, we have middle-level management people, we have administrative assistants - it runs the gamut," Hickey said of the English for Professionals program. "Receptionists, support staff. We have doctors, lawyers, diplomats. English as a second language is a great equalizer."

"The one thing they have in common is they need to improve English for professional communication. They have enough English skills so that they're able to work here." In some cases, especially for professionals hired for their technical expertise or financial and accounting skills, "What's keeping them from performing well on the job or advancing their career, getting a promotion, are their English skills. They're very good with numbers, but can't convey economics, can't give presentations in English both written and oral."

"We have a lot of Asian professionals - mostly China, Japan, Korea," Hickey said. "Indian students typically need to work on their accents. While they're fluent. they have very strong accents, which makes it very difficult to communicate on a professional level."

Much of the program's accent reduction coaching is done by professuonal actors, he said. "I can't meet the demand. I don't have enough staff. Some of my accent reduction trainers have their own companies, that's how big it is."

Run "on a shoestring budget," Pace's English Language Institute competes in its professionals program (EFP) with other city universities, especially New York University and Baruch College of the City University of New York, Hickey said. "In Westchester, I really don't think we have much competition as far as EFP is concerned."