Participating Effectively in Meetings

B1 or above in the CEFR levels.

The course is designed for professionals who are looking to improve their vocabulary/techniques in English meetings. To access the course effectively it is helpful but not essential to have professional experience of participating and/or managing meetings in English.

Participants will be able to apply their English language skills to manage, participate and take notes in meetings in English. Participants will improve both their fluency and accuracy when using the English language and enhance their wider professional skills in ensuring success in meetings.

In the framework of the English language development and upon successful completion of this course, the participant should be able to:

• Use a wide range of expressions in participating in professional meetings.
• Use a wide range of expressions in managing a professional meeting.
• Deploy vocabulary needed to make proposals in meetings and highlight support or disagreement in a professional manner.
• Understand a wide range of common phrasal verbs, acronyms and business idioms used in meetings.
• Use the conventions of reported speech in taking notes in meetings.

In the framework of the professional skills development, the participant should be able to:

• Develop strategies to ensure successful meetings.
• Overcome obstacles and resolve conflict.
• Improve techniques in time management and planning.
• Develop an awareness as to how meeting conventions can vary across cultures.
• Manage and respond to difficult questions.
• Business writing: Write clear and concise meeting agendas.
• Business writing: Write clear and concise minutes and actions.

An interactive case study approach The course is based on a set of interactive case studies. These case studies are designed around realistic scenarios at work which develop the professional skills and English language skills of participants.
Course structure: Part 1 The first part of the course focuses on the key vocabulary, expressions, techniques and conventions used in participating and managing meetings. Key themes are highlighted below.

• Exchanging ideas and best practice
• Key expressions to use in both contributing to and in managing meetings
• Using examples to explore how professional meetings can vary across different cultures
• Acceptable and unacceptable ‘jargon’, acronyms and abbreviations in professional meetings
• Working in teams to identify best practice in managing meetings Course structure: Part 2
• The second part of the course focuses on a professional case study in which you need to deploy the vocabulary and techniques developed in part 1. The case study focuses on both an internal team meeting and externally focused meeting with a customer or supplier. In the case study, you write and structure both an agenda and minutes and actions.

At the end of the training, the participants will receive a certificate of attendance delivered by the House of Training.