SouthernDC Post: Philippines: World's best country in Business English

GlobalEnglish Business English Index Reveals Skills Shortage and Unequal Odds for International Business Success in 2012

Countries including Brazil, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Turkey are at a disadvantage
Nearly four out of ten workers can’t understand the basic information shared on global conference calls, read or write emails in English, or deal with complexity and rapid change

Brisbane, CA, U.S.A. – April 3, 2012
— GlobalEnglish Corporation (www.GlobalEnglish.com), the leading provider of cloud-based, on-demand software to advance Enterprise Fluency™ for global organizations, today announced the results of its annual Business English Index (BEI), the only index that measures Business English proficiency in the workplace. The 2012 BEI shows that a lack of Business English proficiency is threatening the productivity of companies, industries and country-specific economies this read more

Struggling, Fast-Growth and BRIC Economies at a Disadvantage
Only the Philippines attained a score above 7.0, a BEI level within range of a high proficiency that indicates an ability to take an active role in business discussions and perform relatively complex tasks. This is particularly interesting because the Philippines, a country with one-tenth of the population of India, recently overtook India as a hub for call centers.4 Joining the Philippines in the top five were Norway (6.54), Estonia (6.45), Serbia (6.38) and Slovenia (6.19).

It is not surprising that both the Philippines and Norway—the only two countries in the top five in both 2011 and 2012—are improving their economies, based on the latest GDP data from the World Bank. The increased Business English capability for global workers from these two countries is an indicator of continued economic growth and business success.

Both struggling economic powers (Japan, Italy and Mexico) and fast-growth emerging markets (Brazil, Columbia and Chile) scored below a 4.0 in Business English proficiency, placing them at a disadvantage when competing in a global marketplace. Three out of four BRIC countries did not attain a spot in the top-ranking 25 countries, including Brazil (2.95), Russia (3.60) and China (4.44). India earned a BEI score of 5.57, placing it within the top 10 countries.

Shifts in global talent have put even English-speaking countries at risk. Surprisingly the BEI score for global workers in the U.S. declined from 6.9 to 5.09 since the original 2011 BEI benchmark, which is attributed to a majority of test takers being foreign-born engineers and scientists. One in five global workers employed in the U.S. across the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields are foreign-born, according to a U.S. Department of Commerce Report published in 2012. read more