The PEP project encourages employers in both the public and private sectors to adopt higher standards of English certification for the hiring and advancement of employees.

The PEP project encourages companies to:

  • Require applicants to be certified using an internationally accepted test;
  • Conduct certification testing company-wide;
  • Determine and establish the minimum certification score needed in order to meet the English proficiency requirement for a given position;
  • Use certification as one of the criteria for promotion or for training;
  • Conduct a benchmark study with a sample of employees in your company.

If these are carried out, the PEP project believes that Filipinos will be motivated to improve their own English skills. At the same time, establishing certification standards is a valuable management tool that can benefit a company in many other ways:

  • It helps ensure the quality of the workforce;
  • It provides an objective and quantifiable measure of English skills, as opposed to subjective phrases like "fluent in English" or "good communication skills";
  • It facilitates the recruitment process and reduces the administrative workload of interviewing and screening so many job applicants;
  • It helps identify and determine the training needs of existing employees;
  • It enables individual employees to assess their own English communication skills and motivate them to improve it for their own professional advancement.

The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) used in many countries - a PEP project partner - is an internationally-recognized but relatively affordable test of English. TOEIC is represented in the Philippines by Hopkins International Partners. TOEIC is the world's leading test of English Proficiency in the workplace context, used by more than 4,000 companies worldwide and administered to more than 4,000,000 test takers every year. TOEIC is developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) based in Princeton, New Jersey, which is the same world-renowned organization that constructed TOEFL, SAT, GRE, GMAT and TSE.

Other internationally-recognized tests may also be used.
View a comparison among different tests for English proficiency.

Contact us to learn more.





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