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September 7, 2010, 6:27 am
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KnowledgeBase article #3 |
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Toyota Canada Inc. |
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Program: |
Programs for Corporations [en] |
The Company:
Toyota Canada, Inc. (TCI)
Toyota Canada Inc. began operations in 1964 and today, it is the exclusive Canadian distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, and Toyota lift trucks. The productivity and success of Toyota Canada Inc. continues to grow, and in 2001, they sold more than 125,000 vehicles.
Toyota Canada Inc. offers products and services throughout Canada. The head office is located in Toronto, and regional offices are positioned in Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Halifax. To effectively cover this vast geographic region, Toyota Canada Inc. vigorously provides full support to its coast-to-coast dealer network. This support includes marketing, and customer satisfaction training and guidance.
The Operational Challenge:
Due to Canada's bilingual status, French is an important component of Canadian business and cultural lifestyle. This is an especially important concern for companies operating within Quebec. Toyota Canada had several employees who were interested in conversational French language training. These employees used French to varying degrees in their work at Toyota and were of varying proficiency levels. Due to these heterogeneous French proficiency levels, a generic French training program would be ineffective and would have resulted in a poor return on Toyota's investment.
The schedules of the employees differed substantially. As a result, any training program had to be flexible and offer a range of scheduling options.
The Complete Solution:
SpringHills met with Human Resources Representatives from Toyota Canada Inc. to map out the most appropriate and customized training program that would maximize their return on its investment.
Fifty-one students were committed to receive conversational French language training. Due to diverse French proficiency levels, SpringHills conducted on-site comprehensive needs assessment and placement testing, for each Toyota employee.
SpringHills analyzed these assessments and divided employees into classes with sizes ranging from 6-11 students per class. Class divisions were based on assessments results, schedule preference and defined proposed learning outcomes.
As this training focused specifically on enhancing conversational French skills, SpringHills created a program that was level specific, interactive and complemented by outings. Classes were held twice a week over a 12 week period. This frequent meeting timetable ensured consistent verbal communication practice.
Classes were lead by certified, experienced French-speaking second language teaching specialists.
Training Tools:
- Instructors integrated a range of authentic community resources such as French TV, radio, relevant video and audio resources into their class curriculum.
- Classroom teaching was enhanced with the use of interactive tools that allowed Toyota's French language learners to interact by email and audio-conferencing with their language instructors.
- SpringHills orchestrated several events, such as wine & cheese French social and French film/restaurant outings, which allowed students to observe and participate in the many unique aspects of French culture.
- This use of varied materials, relevant to the lives and interests of the employees, gave learners increased exposure to the French language, enhanced their listening and speaking skills and motivated learners to increasingly practice and improve their French skills outside of the classroom.
Although this program emphasized building French verbal communication skills, SpringHills provided students with concise, customized grammatic resource booklets, which reinforced their French language proficiency.
Flexibility:
Employees were offered a range of scheduling options including on-site full day, half day training, lunch & learns and after hours (evenings & weekends) training options. A majority requested half day training, while a substantial number requested after hours training (on-site).
Quality Assurance:
Throughout each Training Program, SpringHills instructors conducted comprehensive and systematic individual learner and group assessment reports, to gauge and define each learner's progress. Components that were measured included the degree of proficiency level increases and ongoing feedback. As training progressed, clients' evolving needs were consistently evaluated and incorporated in the training and goals of their language program.
SpringHills shared this report with Toyota and their employees in each specified training environment, with associated recommendations. This process encouraged systematic and consistent communication between SpringHills, employees in training and Toyota to ensure a consistent, high quality and industry-specific service.
As the training program concluded, a final detailed report was prepared, on each employee, outlining their progress and relevant recommendations were made for maintaining and enhancing their proficiency levels. This report was given both to Toyota Canada Inc. and their employees.
The Return on Investment:
-SpringHills trained Toyota's employees over a period of 12 weeks (3 months). At the end of this period, clients felt more confident communicating in French with business colleagues and in social environments.
-At the end of the training period, there was overwhelming demand from Toyota's employees to continue to upgrade their French communication skills. This contract was renewed for 2004.
-SpringHills provided French languages CDs of varying levels, tailored for Toyota's employees. An important reason for creating these tools was to provide opportunities, through which employees could continuously practice and preserve their upgraded French verbal skills. This constant usage of their French communication skills ensured that it became a permanent fixture in their skills set. |
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