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Another business that has benefited from ESL is Case Swayne Co., a food-processing firm in Santa Ana that packages taco sauce and dry seasonings. Case Swayne began teaching English to its Spanish-speaking employees as the company prepared to increase its computer use and statistical-assessment strategies. Managers believed that workers’ basic competency in English was fundamental to the company’s growth plan.

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Fifty of the company’s 250 employees participated in the three-month program. They met after work and were paid at time-and-a-half rates for their hours in class. “Students developed enormously,” says Patricia Tappan-Coppel, the company’s coordinator of training and development. “Together with ESL and math, it was like magic. People grew and developed, which is part of the mission of our company. Workers at Case Swayne can now answer questions from customers who visit the plant, she says. Before, all communication with suppliers went through the managers.
Both Case Swayne and SICPA say one of the major benefits of the English instruction was that their workers developed confidence, which has had a positive effect on their jobs. They began to participate and show more initiative; when they didn’t understand a job function, they asked. “They start to see their own potential,” says Tappan-Coppel, “a,,nd their own contribution to the company.
To encourage employee participation in the training, experts recommend holding part of the instruction on company time. Some employers, though, have found that it’s important for employees to have a stake in the process, too–in time or cost.
Bill Harris, president of FMI, Inc., Tru Lingua’s first VESL client, has his workers, collectively, pay 20 percent of the $30-per-hour instruction cost. Each worker has $1.50 per week deducted from each paycheck. An alternative is to have workers pay the cost and then reimburse them when the training is completed.
VESL training costs vary with the number of employees, the materials used, the length of instruction time, and students’ proficiency. Fairfax County charges $5,000 for a minimum 60 hours of instruction per group of workers.
But for companies with only a few workers in need of training or for firms that must keep costs down, there are alternatives, says Sheila Acevedo, ESL manager of adult vocational and community education programs for the school board in Palm Beach County, Fla. Companies can subsidize part or all of the cost of general adult-education English classes. Or they can get similar firms to form a cost-sharing type of cooperative. She cites three Florida hotels that are sending their housekeepers to a combined class.
Tru Lingua, itself a small business with eight full-time employees, has begun working with its five competitors in Orange County, Calif., to develop affordable programs specifically for small businesses by sharing instructors and students.
“We are trying to group together students from different companies,” says Tru Miller. Miller says the group intends to promote its services through local chambers of commerce.
A bill introduced in the House by Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Mo., would give businesses a tax credit for half the money they spend on English language training for employees. Should the bill become law, business interest in ESL could become even greater.
For information on VESL companies or instructors in your area, check the telephone book under “Languages,” or contact Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), a professional organization of 23,000 ESL educators and administrators, in Alexandria, Va., at (703) 836-0774.
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