www.ef.com/corporate

Shanghai上海, China, 14 February 2012EF Education First today announced the launch of an English language training pro-gram with Midea, China’s largest white goods manufacturer. Midea is a rapidly-expanding company which has embraced globalization to become a world-class business. They launched an online English training program to assist their internationalization strategy and selected EF as their partner of choice for the undertaking. Founded in 1968 as a single workshop, Midea is now a leading consumer appliances manufacturer that employs over 180,000 people across the globe and takes in over $17 billion in annual revenue. With over 150 export regions around the world, Midea is one of the top 5 biggest manufacturers in the white goods industry. Midea’s global opera-tions and constant expansion mean that they need a single language of communication to support their growing international business. In the past, Midea used a local face-to-face English training provider but found that the administrative work involved in

finding qualified teachers prevented them from achieving significant results. They decided to switch to EF’s Online School because of the diversity of content and creativity of training methods found in the school. Midea also liked the fact that they could keep the teacher-led learning environ-ment, while eliminating the administrative hassle of scheduling face-to-face lessons, thanks to EF’s virtual classrooms. Initially, Midea is training employees who will potentially be sent on overseas assign-ments and the program has been met with

a very positive reception. The students have clear objectives and are motivated to learn, some studying four times as hard as required. “We are very happy with EF’s Online School so far,” said Yu Qi, the Training Manager at Midea headquarters.

“At first there was some resistance to the switch from face-to-face to online training, but, in our location, it is not easy for us to find suitable teachers so an online school really is the best option. The fact that EF’s Online School includes unlimited access to teacher-led conversation classes means we really do get the best of both worlds – an engaging learning environment in a conve-nient way.” For their part, EF is also pleased with the partnership. Johan Nordqvist, EF’s Regional Vice President, Asia, said “We are very happy to be chosen as language training provider for Midea. Their decision to switch from traditional classroom training to EF’s Online School shows that they are embracing the most cutting-edge solution to position them-selves as leaders in the international market.”

“We are very happy with EF’s Online School”

Yu Qi, Training Manager, Midea

Leading white goods manufacturer Midea enters strategic partnership with EF Education First

EF Corporate Language Learning Solutions

EF Corporate Language Learning Solutions, an EF Education First company, is the world leader in corporate language training for multinational businesses and public sector organizations. Over 1,500 organizations and 15 million students worldwide have put their trust in us for a reason – we have proven time and again that our training solutions generate real results. With a worldwide network

of offices in over 50 countries, Executive Language Institutes in Cambridge, London and Boston, and the world’s most advanced online, on-demand lan-guage school, EF provides the highest returns on language training investments. For more information on EF Corporate Language Learning Solutions please visit: www.ef.com/corporate

Press Release