A new international index released by GlobalEnglish—which ranks over 100,000 employee test takers around the world—revealed a lack of English skills is undermining staff performance in many countries.
Hong Kong employees, although showing the best English competency skills in Greater China, still have poorer English skills than their counterparts in countries such as the Philippines, India and Singapore.
The Business English Index (BEI) ranks business English competencies of employees from beginner to advanced skills based on a scale of 1–10. A BEI score of 1 indicates the basic ability to read and communicate in English while a score of 10 represents an ability to communicate like a native English speaker. The average 2012 BEI score is 4.15, reflecting a 7% decrease from the index recorded in 2011.
Graph showing ranking of employees in terms of English proficiency
Despite the growing popularity of Mandarin for conducting business in Hong Kong, English is still essential for career advancement, as leadership positions for Hong Kong and China based employees require communication with business partners from around the world.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
