President Peter Burman meets ANA CEO Shinobe, both pledge increased support for stronger English at ANA
ANA has endeavored this fiscal year to step up its global readiness as part of its Medium-term Global Human Resources Strategy. To prepare for globalization, it is essential that ANA employees improve their language skills, and in July 2014, ANA signed a partnership agreement with Education First ("EF"), one of the world's top language schools.
On November 18th, EF Corporate Solutions president, Peter Burman, visited ANA president, Osamu Shinobe, to express EF’s appreciation for the partnership agreement and to discuss strengthening EF’s support for improving ANA’s linguistic ability. Foreign language ability is becoming increasingly necessary within ANA, due to the expansion of business development driven by intense competition among airlines in the global market. With considerable cooperation from EF, ANA has developed an Online English School for all their employees, including dedicated educational materials for cabin crew. ANA understands that this is improving their frontline global readiness, but they also recognize that they still have some way to go to
attain the level of proficiency
demanded by their global customers. ANA has said that they intend to continue to address this as a management priority. Mr. Burman's visit to ANA has raised expectations for the partnership beyond what had been previously imagined. During discussions with Mr. Shinobe, EF pledged to build a solid partnership with ANA which includes developing advanced language programs that utilize online functions and provide know-how amassed over many years. ANA hopes that each and every one of their employees will take the initiative to begin language study with a sense of urgency in order to overcome the competition they face in the global market.