English Courses in Portsmouth for Insurance

The course is designed to develop the communicative performance of insurance staff in their dealings with clients, other insurers and other contacts and relationships in the financial services field, in an international context. It is also intended to enable them to use standard insurance terminology with appropriateness of linguistic context and style.

As well as formal classroom teaching to learn English, study activities include role-play, case studies and simulations, video and audio recorded simulations

The focus of the course is on practical & effective business English for professionals and communication skills may include:

• Meetings and Teleconferencing
• Negotiations
• Making Presentations
• Dealing with Numerical Data
• Telephoning
• Socialising and Networking
• E-mail, Letter and Report Writing
• Cross-cultural awareness

Subject to needs analysis of the participant’s requirements, the course may include vocabulary extension in the following areas:

• Company Structure
• Describing Markets and Trends
• Branches of Insurance: Marine, Property, Life, Pensions
• Trade – Import/Export, Shipping, Export Guarantee
• Securities and Underwriting and Re-insurance
• Micro and Macro Economics
• Fiscal & Monetary Policy
• Company finance: Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow
• Project & Real Estate Insurance
• Risk Assessment
• Economic Communities
• Unit Trusts and Derivatives
• Brokers, Syndicates and the Lloyds Market
• Loss Adjustment and Claim Negotiations
• Mergers and Takeovers

Special emphasis is placed on the relevant vocabulary, register and grammatical structures that are used in this field and the client is given the opportunity to practice using the language that he or she has acquired by means of seminars, group sessions and communicative practice activities.

Course duration can be for between 1 and 4+ weeks (2 weeks is the average). The programme is highly intensive and includes 25 contact hours plus 5 to 10 self-access study hours plus 7.5 hours social English over optional teacher accompanied lunch per week plus optional evening social activities (such as restaurants, guided tours, live music, cultural events). We would recommend that most students do a combination course: 1:1 in the morning, giving the students the opportunity to not only study English but work on individual and specialised needs necessary for professional communication; mini group of maximum 4 people the afternoon, focusing on professional communication in an international context with students of different nationalities and cultures.

8:30 - 9:15 Optional guided self-study.
9:15 - 10:30 Period 1 with Morning Tutor (1:1)
10:30 - 10:45 Morning Coffee Break
10:45 - 12:00 Period 2 with Morning Tutor (1:1)
12:00 - 13:15 Lunch with teacher/s and fellow students (optional)
13:15 - 14:30 Period 3 with Afternoon Tutor (mini-group – max 4 participants)
14:30 - 14:45 Afternoon Coffee Break
14:45 - 16:00 Period 4 with Afternoon Tutor (mini-group – max 4 participants)
16:00 - 17:30 Optional Self-Access Study
Evening Social Activity Programme (optional)