PROGOS Inc. (hereafter, “PROGOS”), the subsidiary of RareJob, Inc. (hereafter, “RareJob”), which utilizes data related to human resources to develop global talents, reached the basic agreement with Tokyo University of Foreign Studies on May 12 in 2021, to build the business together related to an assessment of Japanese speaking ability.

Social issues in the Japanese language education for foreign talents

Facing the problem of declining population in Japan, the utilization of foreign talents to secure labor forces is getting important. On the other hand, foreign workers need to speak in addition to reading and listening in Japanese fluently to live and work in Japan.

However, it is not necessary to measure nor prove Japanese speaking ability for foreign people to obtain permanent resident visa and working visa. Therefore, communication problems in Japanese arise after they come to Japan to work. The survey targeting foreign residents by Immigration Service Agency of Japan also showed opinions about such communication problems. For example, some said “Japanese language classes/schools are expensive”, “no opportunity to take advantage of acquired Japanese speaking skills are found”, “any Japanese language class is available after work.” Effective measures to solve the problem should be taken(*1).

The significance and strength of PROGOS Inc.

The RareJob Group has provided services and products that effectively and efficiently help people learn English by visualizing, assessing English speaking ability and providing teaching materials, teaching methods based on the global standard of the linguistic index, CEFR.
In the past, English education in Japan used to have problems. For example, “expensive tuition fees are required to attend brick and mortar English tutoring schools.” “No opportunities to speak English daily can be found.” “There are no English tutoring schools nearby.”
RareJob Eikaiwa, which provides reasonable one-to-one online lessons, has solved these issues so far. Smart Method® Course, which is the result-guaranteed program to improve English speaking skills in 16 weeks, and the business English speaking test called PROGOS, are also employed by many corporations as the programs that offer further value and possibilities of the English learning.
By applying insight and knowledge accumulated by the past experiences to the Japanese language education industry with the advantage of the assessment business, we contribute to improvement of Japanese speaking abilities of foreign talents, the promotion of utilizing the talents in Japanese companies and support of the active participation of the talents in workplaces.

The joint development with Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies is the higher-educational institution with the great achievements of linguistic education and research as it was called Tokyo School of Foreign Languages founded in 1873. For about 150 years since its establishment, the university has practiced language education and research which should be highly recognized in the world. Yukio Tono, the professor of the Graduate School of Global Studies in the university who has led to promoting CEFR in Japan, has supervised and developed Smart Method® Course and the PROGOS test.
In this joint development project of the Japanese speaking assessment with the university, we believe that we can take advantage of our connections and the past experiences as we have collaborated with some educational organizations so far.
By combining the high-quality educational expertises of the university with the assessment business by PROGOS, we aim to develop the Japanese speaking assessment business that maximizes the strengths of business-academia collaboration and solves the issues.

Future outlook

PROGOS and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies will start the joint development for the Japanese speaking ability assessment project targeting foreign talents from now on. In addition to this assessment program, we will develop the Japanese speaking tutoring program in the new company which will be established with JELLYFISH Inc, which has experiences in foreign recruitment consulting and Japanese language education, as we announced on April 21.
We are also planning to expand business-academia partnerships in near future. This agreement is the first step for the expansion of our partnership with educational organizations. We will keep working to develop high quality programs by strengthening cooperation with educational institutions with high-level of expertises, solve the issues related to Japanese language education, and realize the mission of PROGOS, “developing the global leaders truly needed in the world.”

*1 Source: Approaches to Japanese education for smooth communication (Immigration Service Agency of Japan 2021.3.24)

About PROGOS Inc.

Address: 6th Floor, Cranes Park Building, 18-1, Jingumae 6-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Masuyo Ando, President
URL:https://www.progos.co.jp/
Business: Evaluation, training, and recruitment of global leaders

About the National University Institution Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Address: 3-11-1, Asahi-cho, Fuchu-shi, Tokyo
President : Yoshiko HAYASHI
URL:http://www.tufs.ac.jp/english/