The Institute has spent a great deal of time modernising its offering to take export education into the 21st century. Using digital platforms and hosting its materials on an online campus, it gives any student or exporter the opportunity to access the materials in their own time and work through them at their own pace.
Our students are always telling us how this has benefited their careers, however they are mainly within the manufacturing or physical product areas of international trade. As the manufacturing sector dwindles to around 11% of UK GDP and service industries hit a record 78%, it is clear that our work professionalising and providing competence must extend to these potential exporters too. (It must be said, though, that manufacturing still accounts for 54% of UK exports whilst employing 2.6 million people and worldwide output contributes £6.7 trillion to the global economy).
After successfully launching our Diploma of World Customs Compliance & Regulation last year, we began to investigate the competences needed for the 78% of businesses that represent the service industry, to help them to increase their exports.
Hot off the press! We have our new Selling Services Overseas module, which can be taken as an Award level qualification or as an Elective in our Advanced Certificate in International Trade (Level 4).
Selling Services Overseas (SSO) will take you through the service offer; global business services; planning an overseas business; international marketing services strategy; managing your intellectual property; licensing and contracting; managing a service overseas; handling eTrade in services; creating service value; dealing with local clients and delivery; getting paid; and the branding issues you may face.
It is a very comprehensive module designed to leave the business or student ready to face the issues of trading overseas in services. It is fully supported by case studies showing M&S to The Football League internationalising their service offerings and assignments to help you through the preparation for a new overseas market.
However, innovation doesn’t end there – to continue and widen the elective module concept we have also researched and developed, in collaboration with the International School of Linguists, a series of Awards or Elective Modules at level 4 in Doing Business and Communicating… in five different languages, namely Chinese, Russian, German, Spanish and Arabic. These will leave the student or business fully prepared to work and operate in one of these markets. They will not be fluent but using the blended learning and sound recordings to help study, they will become proficient and confident enough to start speaking and impress potential customers with their commitment to the market.
The Doing Business and Communicating… modules have two sections. The first is about doing business in the market or region and the second covers the language skills needed and culture that will be encountered. This is vital learning for anyone entering a new market or someone who may have an interest in a language.
One thing is for sure: we must both broaden our understanding of how languages work to work effectively overseas and value the translators and interpreters who support our businesses internationally.
Look out for the courses: they are due to launch first week of March and we will be providing more details here and by social media, email and other communications routes. If you want to indicate an interest earlier, do let us know and we will make sure you speak to some about the programmes.
Buena suerte!
For additional information, or if you have any questions, contact qualifications@export.com, call us on +44 (0) 1733 404400 or visit the IOE website for more about our training, qualifications and business membership.
