Both the SAR Government and the business community are aware of the importance of good business English, as reflected in the launch of the "Workplace English Campaign" and the setting up of the "Business Coalition on Education."

HKGCC, too, is working to enhance English skills by offering a series of training programmes, the latest of which is a Web-based training programme entitled, "Enhancing Your English Telephone Skills," scheduled to be launched in May this year.

"The business sector is aware of the problem of poor English telephone skills that often results in misunderstanding or even loss of potential clients and business," HKGCC Director Dr Eden Woon said. "Now, we're offering a time-and-cost effective way for employees to tackle this problem by launching an e-learning programme on this subject."

The key to effective training is not merely to get participants to attend all classes, but to also give them enough time digest what they have learned. e-Learning plays an important role in allowing participants to learn at their own pace and access course materials through the Internet when it is convenient for them. Nevertheless, tradition classroom training is still important in allowing participants to interact with the trainer. Therefore, HKGCC has come up with this special programme, combining the advantages of both classroom training and e-learning into one course.

To ensure the quality of the course, the Chamber is teaming up with one of the U.K.'s leading educational publishers, Pearson Education (North Asia) Limited, and a local company at the forefront of e-learning, Learn On The Net (Hong Kong) Limited. Based on the content provided by Pearson, Learn on the Net designs the programme and provides the technical platform for online training.

Learn On The Net General Manager Helen Ma (pictured) said, "The key to success for participants is to make use of the online training which is available anytime, anywhere with unlimited access within one month of the training course."