News

Air France chooses Cambridge ESOL to assess the English Language skills of its staff

19 March 2010

Air France has appointed the experts in language assessment, Cambridge ESOL, to assess the language skills of its workforce of nearly 63,000 employees. The three year contract with Cambridge ESOL is to use its Business Language Testing Service (BULATS).
 
Cambridge ESOL, a department of the University of Cambridge, won the tender issued by the airline last December. Air France will be working with Cambridge ESOL to replace the existing language assessment tests used by the training department of the group to evaluate nearly 6,000 employees each year.
 
“These tests are on demand and adaptive, which allows them to fit our needs perfectly,” explains Frederic Mesplès, general purchasing manager at Air France. “I believe that Cambridge ESOL is a benchmark for certification in English.”
 
Dr Mike Milanovic, Chief Executive of Cambridge ESOL, said:
 
“English is the global language of business and in today’s highly competitive global economy, effective communications is a must for businesses who have staff and customers spread across the globe. BULATS was designed for companies like Air France who need an accurate and reliable business language testing service for training and staff development. The aviation industry relies so heavily on communication and this project will allow the airline to benchmark the English language skills across their entire organisation”