Developing language skills for international success

BACKGROUND

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) is a leading, global, omnichannel specialty retailer of apparel and accessories for men, women and kids through five renowned brands. The iconic Abercrombie & Fitch brand was born in 1892 and aims to make every day feel as exceptional as the start of a long weekend. The other brands are Abercrombie Kids, Hollister, Gilly Hicks, and Social Tourist.

The brands share a commitment to offering products of enduring quality and exceptional comfort that allow consumers around the world to express their own individuality and style. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. operates approximately 730 stores under these brands across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, as well as the e-commerce sites www.abercrombie.com, www.abercrombiekids.com, www.hollisterco.com, www.gillyhicks.com, and www.socialtourist.com.

Lara Panzini has been organising their language training since 2009, in London and abroad, delivering intensive and extensive language training face to face and online.

(source https://corporate.abercrombie.com/our-company/about-us/company-history )

CUSTOMER’S REQUIREMENTS for intensive onboarding language training

• To enable managers, the majority of which were complete beginners in the language, to reach high level language skills to an operational level. Specifically to be able to recruit and train local staff.
• To provide managers with an in-depth understanding of the target culture and working styles.
• To prepare managers for the practicalities of living overseas and alleviate any concerns they may have about their new environment 

CHALLENGES

The main challenges were seen as:

• Designing a consistent training approach to be delivered anywhere in the world, with content and materials tailored to enable managers to live and work abroad.
• Integrating Cultural Awareness in all our language programmes,  to ease as much as possible the transition.
• Delivering a succinct yet high impact training programme to accommodate the limited time available: 4 to 12 weeks.
• Protect the high level of confidentiality of their expansion programme when selecting and training partner schools abroad.

RESULTS

Working closely with the Abercrombie and Fitch Team, we produced a language training programme which combines general language skills and work specific language competencies, bearing in mind that most managers started as complete beginners and had to achieve an operational level by the end of the programme.

As for the majority of the selected managers, this would be their first experience of living and working abroad, cultural awareness is integrated in the language programme and not delivered separately. This is because we believe language and culture are inextricably linked. 

We organised:

• Intensive language training programmes, 6 hours a day for 4-12 weeks, depending on the language.
• Weekly tutorials and progress assessment.
• To include in the training as many practical tasks within their surroundings to enable managers to interact with local people and test their language skills in the real world 

SUMMARY

Feedback on all programmes has been consistently positive over the years. 

The project value lays in Abercrombie’s highly branded managers (their eagerness to learn a new language and living abroad, their total dedication to the success of each opening in a new city), and teachers dedication (linking every new piece of language to its effective use in a work situation) including organising tasks outside the classroom. 

The key points are:

• Clear and realist objectives
• Strong curriculum
• Careful selection of schools around the world
• Highly professional language trainers

Written by Lara Panzini

About the author

Lara Panzini started her carrier in education as a qualified primary school teacher. She holds a BSc (First Class Honours) Professional Studies from London University – Academic research methods applied to the workplace. She specialised in language teaching by obtaining a TEFL certificate and a certificate in Teaching Italian as a Foreign Language, RSA Diploma in Teaching Foreign Language to Adults (DTFLA), RSA Assessor Award: Training and Development (NCVQ: Level 3) and is a Business Cultural Trainer.