Measuring the success of language training: KPIs, GSE and ROI

Why language training needs to be measured

In many companies, language training is booked readily and evaluated rarely. Learners are satisfied, the teacher is likeable, attendance is fine. Whether the team negotiates better, answers emails faster or presents more confidently afterwards often remains unclear.

That becomes a problem as soon as budgets tighten. What is not evidenced gets cut. According to an article on the Pearson blog, only around 15 per cent of organisations actively measure the return on investment of their training. The good news: language skills can be measured more precisely than many other soft skills.

In this article we show how to approach it, which KPIs make sense and how to express the benefit in terms finance will understand. We draw on our work with corporate clients and on the two-part series our Head of Studies wrote for Pearson.

CEFR and GSE: two scales, one goal

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) describes language ability in six levels from A1 to C2. It is internationally known and well suited to defining role requirements, such as “B2 in sales”. For measuring success it has one drawback: the bands are broad. Many months of learning can lie between the bottom and the top of B1.

Pearson’s Global Scale of English (GSE) solves this with a scale from 10 to 90 that is aligned with the CEFR. A rise from GSE 48 to 53 can show genuine progress even though the person is still B1 on the CEFR. Łukasz Pakuła describes exactly this effect in the first part of the Pearson series.

Our recommendation: define requirements on the CEFR and measure progress on the GSE.

Which KPIs actually make sense for language courses

Good KPIs connect three levels: learning, application and business impact. If you only measure attendance, you are measuring organisation, not impact.

Level 1: learning progress

• Change on the GSE between placement and interim test
• Share of learners who reach the target level for their role
• Progress in individual skills, such as speaking or writing

Level 2: application at work

• Number of meetings or client calls staff lead in English themselves
• Self-assessment and manager assessment, via a short repeated survey
• Fewer queries and correction loops on English documents

Level 3: business impact

• shorter sales cycles with international clients
• less rework caused by misunderstandings
• faster onboarding of international staff

Choose two or three KPIs per level. More creates reporting effort but not better decisions. Our team has published a practical guide to choosing KPIs on choices.com.pl (in Polish).

From progress to ROI: a simple calculation

The ROI of language training can never be calculated to the cent. It can, however, be estimated transparently. A four-step approach has proved its worth:

1. Record the baseline. Placement of all learners and two or three business KPIs before the start.
2. Capture all costs. Course fees, but also learners’ working time.
3. Quantify the impact. For example hours saved through fewer corrections or deals closed faster.
4. Calculate conservatively. Only count the share of improvement that can plausibly be attributed to the training.

In the second part of the Pearson series, Łukasz Pakuła sums it up: KPIs provide the continuous signal, the GSE makes it credible and granular, and ROI translates it into boardroom language.

Putting measurement into practice

Measurement only works if it is planned from the start. These steps have proved themselves with our corporate clients:

• A language audit before the start. A language audit provides baseline values and shows which roles need which level.
• Small groups at the same level. Only then can progress be attributed cleanly. Four learners is ideal, six the maximum.
• Material from the working day. People who practise with real emails and presentations apply what they learn faster.
• Regular reports. Short, with few KPIs and clear recommendations.
• An interim test after a fixed period. For example after three or six months, depending on intensity.

We describe how we support companies on our page Language courses for companies. For teams who need English mainly for meetings and presentations, we recommend our Business English training.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

• Measuring satisfaction only. Satisfied learners matter, but say little about impact.
• No baseline. Without placement at the start, every claim of progress is just a claim.
• Too many KPIs. Reports nobody reads help nobody.
• Mixed levels in one group. The weakest fall behind and the strongest get bored.
• Unrealistic goals. A jump from A2 to C1 in a few months is rarely realistic. Honest goals build trust.

Case studies from our work, such as a language audit for an IT company, are available on choices.com.pl (in Polish).

Frequently asked questions

Łukasz Pakuła

Head of Studies at choices®. Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Global Campus, lecturer at HM Business School Munich and Kempten University of Applied Sciences. This article was written with the choices® methodology team. More about us