English for Project Management Course in Portsmouth

What are the course objectives for the
English for Project Management Course?

Project Management is effectively having all the balls up in the air and keeping them there until the time is right for them to come down. It takes skills and planning and needs excellent communicative abilities to be able to perform effectively. This is where LSI/IH Portsmouth and our Project Management course comes in. We tailor our course to work for each client’s specific requirements. We help develop the lexical range required for the particular field, we focus on the structure that is needed and gives the tools to aid our clients to be the most effective they can be in their work.
We have many clients who come to us with good skills but lacking greatly in confidence, which when dealing with teams of people can make life harder than it needs to be. We work with them to develop their English competence, their structure, their lexical range as well as build their confidence.
Recently we had Jose from Spain who explained the following elements to his work:
“Well, my job as a project manager is to set up various projects internationally to do with civil engineering, so to do with building tunnels or bridges. I am there to oversee the project from the beginning to the end. I have to find the people who are going to work on the project. I have to look after the budget and most importantly I have to make sure the project is on schedule.”
It is clear that a lack of language and or confidence would make doing that very difficult.
The course is designed to develop the communicative performance of professionals working in project management in an international context. It is also intended to enable them to use specialist professional terminology with the appropriateness of linguistic context and style.

English for Project Managers: Communication Skills

On our Project Management courses, we focus on effective communication, on providing clear instructions, on the language of business functions, on how to communicate with remote teams or outlying suppliers, how to be clear when laying out the goals and objectives and the specifications for the project. We may discuss how to motivate people, discuss delegating, look at how to resolve issues, how to deal with conflict resolution or just manage to come to an agreement in a diplomatic way.
As well as formal classroom teaching to learn English, study activities include role-play, case studies and simulations, video and audio recorded simulations

The focus of the course is on practical & effective business English for professionals and communication skills may include:

• Meetings and Teleconferencing – dealing with internal and external teams
• Negotiations – possibly with conflict resolution or coming to an agreement with a client
• Making Presentations – presenting information clearly and effectively
• Dealing with Numerical Data – as and when required
• Telephoning – checking and clarifying and getting the required information quickly
• Socialising and Networking – Building contacts
• E-mail, Letter, and Report Writing – confirming details, giving information.
• Cross-cultural awareness – dealing with international teams and suppliers

Project Management English for Project Managers: Lexical Content

Subject to needs analysis of the participant’s requirements, the course may include vocabulary development in the following areas:

• International challenges
• Building Relationships
• Managing People
• Keeping projects on Schedule
• Dealing with Conflict
• Cultural Awareness
• Marketing the project
• Making and Meeting Milestones
• Completing Successfully

Special emphasis is placed on the relevant vocabulary, register and grammatical structures that are used in this field and the client is given the opportunity to practice using the language that he or she has acquired by means of seminars, group sessions, and communicative practice activities.

English lessons for Project Managers: A Case Study

We spoke to Jose – a Spanish Project Manager about his work and his course – click here to read his interview.