Dutch language training at SCIOTEQ.
20 foreign-language employees.
Branches in Belgium, the United States, Singapore and Israel. It is quite logical that they speak English on the shop floor within the Scioteq company.
Nevertheless, the subsidiary from Kortrijk in West Flanders noticed a big language barrier between its non-Dutch-speaking employees and their Dutch-speaking colleagues. And that stood in the way of their integration. Both on and off the shop floor. A real challenge!
Despite the fact that English is the working language in the company, the Flemish colleagues often speak Dutch:
The solution? SCIOTEQ strengthened all their foreign-language staff thanks to Dutch language training.
Enrolling all your non-native employees in a Dutch language course. It may seem obvious. But in reality, unfortunately, it is not.
Because a very diverse audience works at SCIOTEQ. Not only do all participants have a different function and each their own job content, they also come from all over the world. From participants with English and French ancestry, to Indians and even Japanese. On top of those different linguistic and cultural backgrounds comes different levels of Dutch: from starters A0 to advanced B2.
We managed to get all that info during the oral screening beforehand. And our language trainer Arjan very cleverly anticipated this with his trainees:
Arjan Kwakkenbos, Dutch language coach at BLCC
"As a Dutch language teacher, I teach three groups at SCIOTEQ, a total of 16 trainees divided according to their level. The trainees come from different countries and cultures; there are English, Indian, French, someone of Japanese and someone of Vietnamese descent, as well as some French-speaking Belgians. Fortunately, for the language training, it did not really matter which country or culture the trainee comes from or what his mother tongue is. Indeed, during the game of 'Who am I', it is a dreamed opportunity for one of the English speakers to play Boris Johnson against his will. I only had to intervene because one of the students thought Madonna was from England... (laughs). By the way, it is always interesting to see what people in other countries are doing. For instance, the Tokyo Olympics and the severe consequences of the coronavirus in Japan provided the necessary talking points.”
Do you recognise your employees in SCIOTEQ's story? Would you also like to offer Dutch language training to your non-native employees? Take a look at our Dutch language training offer here. Or contact us!
SCIOTEQ was reimbursed part of their training cost thanks to mtech+ grant opportunities.