Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Objective: learning by the engineering staff of the English language.
Problem: probable lack of personal motivation to commit their free time in this activity.
Consequences of failure: failure to learn the language, with repercussions on the effectiveness of corporate policies.

In a company where no one has ever occupied about need to "growth" of staff, which have never made training plans etc.. to introduce scratch training programmes impacts on the corporate culture of collaborators. They hardly see as something "done for them" learning a new language. They will see it, as you suspect, as a "work after work."
Also, the existence of a common lack on English language and a common distance from their families, makes them very united, with the possibility that the refusal of an individual element is soon shared by the rest of the "group ".
This could also means that policies like to reward the best (ie, passing the three highest scoring test English final), are ineffective because are in struggle with the spirit of the group.

How to act:
It must be clear that if one company play a session of training, it is because it "invests" on people. This means that there may be a higher cost than the simple training cost, like more days of holidays for people involved or prize for the reach of results. These costs must be addressed from the perspective that will generate a return in terms of skills of its staff.

I think you could act in two directions:
First create a language training program that follows the following steps:

1. Locate one or more tutors able to motivate in a positive way staff members capable of organizing courses stimulating participation, and able to help those who remain behind.
2. Consideration of the original language skills of each participant
3. Division of persons involved in several classes, depending on the result obtained in the entrance test. Each class will have a different program difficulty level and attends a different exam. There should also be an aspect of the training focused on teamwork, which can involve more people.
4. People should be motivated by the simple fact that the company has the need to compete with competitors, to have engineers able to understand and speak English. But if this is not possible, then you must try to motivate your employees with the premiums linked to the results (both final intermediate) and possibly, given the situation that I have presented, related to the emotional sphere (one week in over holidays, a vacation with your family or loved ones etc.).
5. Providing a conversation between post evaluation examined and tutor, able to bring out points of improvement.
The role of tutors is essential, they are the real carriers of knowledge, and their selection must be careful. Watch if there are good language schools that have relationships with businesses, who know how to manage relationships with adults and know how to motivate them and understand their needs, but also getting their attention and participation.

Secondly, to identify which people in your group of engineers have the ability to motivate others, and among those which are the most attentive to the needs of the company, or show more interest in the Corsican English.
If these explain why learn English is important, they will do as an example to others relying on charisma, and will be able to explain to other employees why the company has the need for its engineers speak English.
It is important that the company is sincere in explaining the reasons why it's important for engineers to learn the English language.

I hope to have you provided useful advice. If you need more details ask!
Good bye, and tell me about how it was!