Our courses rely on specialist insights to ensure all lessons are relevant to industry - we carried out extensive research to bring you the most effective courses:

• We spoke with professionals who had moved to the UK, to understand the challenges they faced.

• We spoke with businesses globally, to understand the challenges they faced in reaching global markets and how they could best be supported. We continue to engage with industry (as outlined in our blog) to ensure our courses are relevant.

• We invited over 20 people to a focus group, including professionals from a range of industries, including legal, tech, accounting and sciences; individuals who had moved to the UK for work and qualified teachers (with a combined teaching experience of over forty years).

• We distributed hundreds of feedback forms covering every aspect of our courses - from learning content to activities.

Our course design took the following stages:

1. Course content - initially designed by an experienced teacher, with extensive experience in designing Business English content for major publishing companies.

2. Focus group feedback. In December 2022 we held a Focus Group in central London, a stone’s throw away from the iconic Shard building, and hosted by an experienced marketing insights manager. We invited over twenty participants to come and help us shape our courses through productive, lively discussions and feedback. Participants included professionals from a range of industries, including legal, tech, accounting and sciences; and individuals who had moved to the UK for work and wanted to share the language challenges they had faced along the way and how a provider such as ours could assist them. Participants also included qualified English teachers with a combined experience of over forty years, who used their CEFR knowledge to help design learning content and study timetables. The insight shared at this focus group has helped to shape what we do, and we are very grateful to those who travelled far and wide to be a part of the Connected Business English journey.

3. Courses were tested further with English learners.

4. We interviewed professionals from across a range of industries, we have included insights in our ‘Business English’ blog, to ensure we are up to date on latest challenges and opportunities in the legal, tech, accounting and science industries.

5. Refined our courses. This is an ongoing process, we will always keep our courses up to date and relevant.