To benefit from globalisation, organisations need employees who understand the language of business in terms of following up export leads, making logical sense of company reports, research papers, economic journals and, of course, the Internet.

Having a workforce capable of conducting business through the medium of English brings economic advantages including; entry to all English speaking markets, access to a large pool of potential employees and a widening skills base through employee mobility.

The need for top executives to communicate with their counterparts in other countries has long been a requirement. What is changing, with the globalisation of the economy, is the increasing need for employees, at all levels, to communicate with their counterparts.

A recent survey, based on evaluation by businesses themselves, estimated that approximately 40% of opportunistic leads were lost annually, because an employee was unable to communicate at a basic level. This is not at the level of chief executives, failing to negotiate an acquisition, but at the level of administrative staff unable to respond to routine enquiries or people at exhibitions being unable to give a product synopsis.

Businesses need to know that employees and potential employees really can do what they profess to be able to do, and that they have been trained to some form of recognised standards.

This requirement is not new; what has changed with globalisation is the increasing anonymity of the labor force. It has become impossible for the employer to know potential recruits personally, where as previously they were still likely to know their school, college or place of former employment.

No employer can now be expected to know the quality of all available learning routes. In this context, credible and reliable qualifications are gaining in importance.

These economic implications in turn impact on the skills and qualifications needed in the workforce. Two of these are particularly important, the need for transferable skills and the need for trust in assessment systems.

Qualifications are used as a short-hand means of providing employers with the knowledge that the standards their employees have been measured against are fit-for-purpose and consistent across countries.

London Chamber of Commerce & Industry International Qualifications examinations test practical business skills that have purposeful application in the workplace and are available at a variety of levels to suit the ability of the candidate and provide progression routes. This is the rationale behind offering 5 levels of English for Business (EFB), Spoken English for Industry and Commerce (EFIC), and ELSA.