Frequently Asked Questions

What are soft skills, and why do they matter?

To reach closer to their potential, the best students and employees must possess both hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are technical and position-specific prerequisites that one needs to be in a certain position within their profession. These skills are typically quantifiable.
Equally important are soft skills, which are interpersonal knowledge and experience that allow employees and executives to work far more productively, efficiently, and empathetically. These range from effective communication, cultural competence, emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution, to adaptability, networking, time management, and critical thinking.
While soft skills are more difficult to quantify than hard skill diplomas and certifications, sufficient emphasis on soft skills forges more efficient, desirable, and adaptable employees and leaders, and can have an enormous impact on an organization’s bottom line.

What is leadership development, and why is it so important for an individual or an organization?

Leadership development is comprised of the detailed skills and activities-based training necessary to forge more qualified and successful employees and organizational leaders. Exceptional training programs increase productivity, organizational morale, quality recruitment, and employee retention, while strongly enhancing corporate culture and best practice strategic decision-making.
Programs are best when they put focus on small to medium sized groups of students and employees at a time, so as to build kinship while enhancing individual focus and retention. Instructors should not only focus on skill learning and practice for the trainees, but also on the ability of trainees to impart these skills on others. To further enhance retention, training should never be narrowly focused or strictly lecture based, but rather diverse, interactive, engaging, and enjoyable. Goals should be set and milestones clearly marked along the program path. Follow-up and continuation are also crucial to ensure the successful retention and implementation of skills learned.

What is Business English training, and how does it differ?

For international students, employees, and organizational leaders, there is a too frequent, misplaced conflation between Business English programs and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. Yet the approach to each is entirely different. Business English programs serve the critical purpose of training non-native speakers of English – yet those with a preexisting, fundamental proficiency in the language – to read, write, speak, and listen at a higher professional level, more on par with their native speaking counterparts. In many cases, native speakers can also benefit from Business English training.
Business English-specific training includes modules such as professional writing, including letters, memos, reports and emails; advanced vocabulary and grammar; speaking, communication and interpersonal skills; and diversity awareness and cultural competence.
Mastering Business English is critical for success in more diverse workspaces and in an increasingly global professional environment.

How large is a typical cohort of Precision Learning students?

Precision Learning’s training programs can be customized for larger audiences, with the advantage of a wider simultaneous reach, lower fees per student, and greater diversity in the classroom, or smaller, more personalized sections. In either case, the core results-oriented approach to our trainees remains the same.

Does Precision Learning training interfere with a student’s regular coursework or an employee’s daily work schedule?

With the engaging, energetic, and results-driven approach to Precision Learning’s student and employee programs, we often find that our students are very motivated to achieve while undertaking our training simultaneously with their regular coursework and daily work schedule.

For students, schedules are customized to ensure a good fit within or prior to each semester, with training taking place during the summer, on semester weekends, or during non-peak weekday times. For employees, schedules are customized to fit around rigorous work schedules and personal lives. We have not found obstructive challenges in scheduling programs in a way that is synergized with student and employee schedules, and we will bring this same flexibility and accommodation to your school or business.

What is the financial investment involved in training?

The cost of training varies depending upon the length of the customized program and the number of students or employees being trained. For academic institutions, program fees are often paid for by the students as a line item on their tuition. In other cases, the institution provides our training as an added incentive to their students. Private training is most often self-funded, unless a sponsor can be arranged. Corporate training is most often sponsored by an employer.

To lessen any potential burden, fees can be paid in installments. We do not want fee structure to come in the way of delivery to our trainees, and we are always working to ensure the best possible scenario for our clients.

When should Precision Learning training be executed?

For corporate professionals, training can be executed both as part of on-boarding into the company and as ongoing professional development. For students, there is a clear advantage to starting soft skills and leadership development training, with the addition of Business English training for international students, when students are freshmen, with an incremental approach that starts with more basic soft skills and personal branding and culminates in more advanced career development in their third and fourth years. If intensive training is only sought for one period of students’ academic careers, however, we would encourage it to be implemented in their junior or senior year. For graduate programs, we work to provide schedules that match the unique circumstances of the program and field of study.

Where is Precision Learning training executed?

Unless otherwise requested, all programs can be executed at our client’s location for maximum convenience. We hire exceptionally accommodating Instructors who are either local or willing to travel to campus. We also offer the use of state-of-the-art facilities should our client request that we host the training program.

Who are the Precision Learning trainers?

We currently have a growing team of 21 qualified Instructors. All Precision Learning Instructors have met strict minimum requirements and have passed through a very stringent screening process.

For one particular summer intensive program, for example, we required the addition of four Instructors to join our growing team. We received over 80 applications, only interviewed 15, and ultimately hired and further trained the four most exceptional candidates. This is the prestigious culture that we established and have insisted upon since our founding a decade ago.

Why should soft skills and leadership development training be prioritized for today’s students and career professionals?

• According to McKinsey & Company, 500 top executives surveyed about their priorities for candidates for employment ranked soft skills and leadership development as a top three priority that must be adequately addressed.
• 30% of US companies admit that they have failed to exploit their business potential because they lack enough leaders with the right capabilities.
• Two-thirds ranked soft skills and leadership development as their number one priority.
• 93 percent of senior managers surveyed believe that their employees are not as sufficiently skilled and effective as required in these areas.

Why do so many training initiatives fall short?

• They fail to look at the unique context of the trainee, including their social style, personality type, learning style, communication style, culture, gender, and generational difference.
• They fail to implement kinesthetic learning, focusing on concept reflection at the expense of real world training.
• They fail to understand a student’s pre-program mindset and innate challenges. For example, some are visual learners while others are auditory learners.
• They fail to reasonably set expectations, to create milestones, and to measure results.

Recognizing the most common mistakes made, how do Precision Learning’s programs stand apart?

• Precision Learning works to build camaraderie, synergy, and identify strengths and weaknesses as a priority to ensure measurable progress.
• Our Instructors work diligently to approach each student individually so as to identify skill challenges before they overwhelm or hinder the student’s academic and career progress.
• We work to identify gaps in student advancement so as to positively impact our client’s bottom line: inspiring students and employees to go the extra mile and best maximize their potential as ambassadors of the university or company that they represent.
• We embrace the importance of context and student mindset when delivering our programs.
• We separate between the instructional approach to the student’s regular coursework or standard HR employee training and our training. Precision Learning’s training is immersive and personalized in a way that most academic institutions and companies simply do not have the bandwidth to execute.
• We utilize impactful activities, competitions, and excursions for practical application that tie in to our lessons’ goals at various levels.
• Our classes are immersion-style, interactive, and incorporate “hands-on” use of skills, which is six times more likely to be absorbed than with lectures alone.
• We work diligently to determine pre-program conditions and post-program results by providing assessments at the beginning and end of any program.

What does Precision Learning work to instill into our trainees?

• We build Emotional Intelligence to help trainees focus on their academic and career priorities.
• We strengthen Communication Skills and inspire our trainees to take action based on the constructive vision that we set forth together with the sponsoring university or company.
• We work on Character Development, including integrity and authenticity.
• We work to establish Life-Long Learning in our students, aiming to inspire consistent studying, growth, flexibility, and personal development.

What is Precision Learning’s ultimate goal as your strategic partner?

We ultimately aim for more confident and skilled students and employees who are more prepared to take on their next steps, open communication with our partners, and a lasting collaborative partnership. We do not operate within the traditional client-company business relationship framework, so please consider us to be an ally to and complementary piece of your program, an important segment of your holistic vision, and a strong part of your team.

While the logistics of partnering with us are minimal, the partnership that is built is incredibly beneficial for students as ambassadors of their university, for employees as representatives of their company, and for our client’s ultimate bottom line. You can give us your wishes and expectations, dump the burden on us, and we will work our hardest to take care of the rest!

We look forward to working with you.