Many businesses face challenges ensuring their workforce has the necessary English skills and industry-specific vocabulary for effective communication and operational success. Strong language skills are important for improving employee engagement and are often a missing link for getting people into or helping them to remain and progress in work.
For employers, it can represent significant health and safety risks, reduced productivity, wellbeing concerns and increased costs relating to onboarding and staff turnover. The Learning and Work Institute's 2018 report indicated that poor language skills cost the UK economy £48 billion annually. There is a need for targeted language training – current options are often too generic to meet the specific needs of industries and developing bespoke training has been prohibitively expensive.
Leap powered by FlashAcademy® will address this challenge by using advances in large language models (LLM) to develop a platform using artificial intelligence (AI) to create tailored, pedagogically-robust English training and assessments that address industry-specific needs. Employers will be able to simply upload their diverse company materials from induction guides to sector-specific resources to create a fully bespoke learning programme. AI tutor-assisted learning, in both the learner’s native language and English, will empower independent and contextualised learning and boost learner engagement. Employers will be able to validate employee progress and proficiency while improving productivity, safety and satisfaction.
The project will take a systemic approach to address this challenge, gathering feedback at each stage. FlashAcademy® will complete pilots with existing industry partners, including FE colleges, training providers, Local Authorities and charities. The next stage would be to further scale adoption through partners, such as Palladium, who have identified use cases ranging from support for driving theory tests to cleaning company and school support staff.