Guide for HR and L&D teams
How to set up a corporate language training programme
A practical, step-by-step guide to planning language training for employees, from business goals and budgets to choosing a provider and reviewing results.
Timing depends on the requested languages, schedules, and confirmed tutor capacity.
Start with the work, not the course
Language training succeeds when it is tied to situations employees face at work: meetings, customers, presentations, relocation, or collaboration across offices. A programme built around those situations is easier to justify, easier to schedule, and easier to evaluate.
The steps to a working programme
Use these steps as a checklist. Smaller companies can combine some of them, but skipping the early ones usually causes problems later.
Define the business reason
Write down why the company needs language skills now: entering a market, serving customers, relocating staff, or improving collaboration. One clear reason per group of employees is enough.
Identify participants and languages
List who needs which language, for which situations, and at roughly what level. Different employees can learn different languages inside one programme.
Choose the format
Decide between individual and group lessons, online and in-person delivery, and how often sessions should happen. Individual online sessions suit employees with different levels, languages, and schedules.
Set the budget and duration
Language progress takes months, not weeks. Plan a budget per participant for a realistic period and decide how to handle employees who join or leave.
Choose a provider
Compare providers on tutor quality and continuity, workplace focus, available languages, scheduling, reporting, and how they handle learner data.
Agree reporting and privacy
Decide what the company needs to see, such as participation and progress towards goals, and what stays private between the employee and the tutor.
Run a pilot
Start with a bounded group to test scheduling, tutor fit, engagement, and administration before a wider rollout.
Review and scale
Review participation, progress towards agreed goals, and employee feedback at fixed points, then adjust the programme or extend it to more teams.
Questions to ask a language training provider
These questions show how a provider works in practice, beyond the brochure.
Will each employee keep the same tutor?
Continuity matters. Ask what happens when a tutor becomes unavailable and how the learning history is passed on.
How is practice connected to our work?
Ask how lessons use the employee's real situations instead of a fixed course sequence.
What will HR see?
Ask for an example of programme reporting and check that it supports decisions without exposing private lesson content.
How is learner data handled?
Ask whether recordings, transcription, or AI analysis are used, whether they require consent, and who can access the results.
How does pricing work?
Ask what is included per participant, the minimum commitment, and whether a paid pilot is available.
Common mistakes to avoid
Most programmes that stall do so for predictable reasons.
Buying a generic course for everyone
Employees with different roles and levels lose interest quickly when lessons do not match their work.
Expecting results in a few weeks
Short programmes rarely change how people communicate at work. Plan for months and measure progress along the way.
Reporting too much
Sharing recordings or individual mistakes with managers discourages honest practice. Report participation and progress, not private content.
No internal owner
Someone in HR or L&D should own the programme, follow participation, and keep the link to business goals.
How Landfield fits this approach
Landfield runs company programmes with a dedicated primary tutor for each employee, 4+ individual 60-minute sessions each month, focused practice between sessions, and programme reporting for HR that keeps private lesson material private. A paid pilot of 8 to 12 weeks lets a company test the fit first.
Programme pricingQuestions and answers
Questions about setting up language training
How long should a corporate language training programme run?
Plan for at least several months. The standard Landfield programme is designed around 12 months, with a paid pilot of 8 to 12 weeks as a bounded starting point.
Are group lessons cheaper than individual lessons?
Often, yes, but groups only work when participants share a language, level, and schedule. In mixed teams, individual lessons usually waste less time.
Who should own the programme internally?
Usually HR or L&D, working with the managers whose teams take part. The owner follows participation and keeps the programme linked to business goals.
How do we know if the programme works?
Agree goals at the start, then review participation, progress towards those goals, and feedback from employees and managers at fixed points.
Start with your team
Make room for the conversations ahead
Tell us which languages your employees need and where they use them at work.