RareJob, Inc. (hereafter, “RareJob”) , which utilizes data related to human resource to develop global talents, and its subsidiary PROGOS Inc. (hereafter, “PROGOS”) formed an alliance with en world Japan K.K. (hereafter, “en world Japan”), a recruiting firm specializing in global talent, concluded a basic agreement to visualize and quantify English speaking skills and to associate these assessment scores with the recruitment service for foreign capital and Japanese global companies.

The challenge that recruitment firms do not perfectly understand the English speaking skills of candidates when they place candidates in foreign capital and Japanese global companies

Many foreign capital and Japanese global companies require a certain level of a business English speaking ability as one of essential skills for their employees.
On the other hand, not many companies have adopted quantitative standards or indicators to assess how well English speaking ability is exactly required for their businesses. For this reason, employers and job applicants rely on subjective and qualitative judgments to see if a candidate can speak English fluently enough at work by asking a question, “Can you communicate with people at work in English without any problems?”. Recruiting firms must carefully check job applicants’ English speaking skills to avoid any gap between the practical English skill required for work and his/her actual speaking skill. These problems happened due to the lack of standardized quantitative indicators and methods to evaluate English speaking skills.

Solving the problem by the PROGOS test

The business English speaking test, the PROGOS exam, which is provided by PROGOS, complies with the international standards, CEFR (*1) that indicates how well a person can speak a language. The PROGOS test, which gives questions related to various business scenes, can measure an English speaking ability of an examinee quantitatively by eight levels based on CEFR-J (*2).
In other words, examinees (in this case, job applicants), recruitment firms, foreign capital and Japan global companies can clearly understand English speaking skills of job applicants by the PROGOS test. The test is likely to help make objective judgments to avoid any discrepancy between the practical English skill expected for a position and his/her actual present speaking skill.
In addition, the PROGOS test with the automated scoring system can give results in as little as a couple of minutes, which is characteristic. The test enables thousands of people to take tests because it doesn’t have to depend on human resources to score tests. It means the test will be able to accept all examinees if the number of people who wish to change jobs increase.

Structure of the alliance between RareJob group and en world Japan

First stage: Free provision of the PROGOS test and visualization of English speaking skills
First of all, the PROGOS test will be offered to all candidates who registered for the recruitment service of en world Japan for free. This reduces hassle of checking English speaking skills of job applicants when en world Japan introduce them to client companies, making en world Japan easier for them to achieve enabling success of their placed candidates. Companies are more likely to hire people who meet their needs for English speaking ability and avoid job mismatches. Job applicants can make the most of their skills in new workplaces.
We will also utilize this structure to gather useful data, for example, the data to what extent foreign capital and Japanese global companies require English speaking abilities.

Second stage: Achieving various career paths based on employment records of client companies
In the future, we will be provided information by en world Japan about “placement track record to foreign capital and Japanese global companies”, and “required English speaking skills (CEFR basis)” based on a consent from the test takers. By utilizing the information, we will launch a new service to provide job opportunities information to “RareJob Eikaiwa” learners when they want to change jobs.

If the services above are realized, RareJob Eikaiwa learners who want to change jobs will have more options to take advantage of their learned English skill for their careers. It means they are likely to expand opportunities to play an active role globally. We believe that the services will enhance motivation for learning as learners can see next steps clearly after English learning.

In addition, introduction of job applicants who match the requirements will be offered for free by RareJob to en world Japan. It enables en world Japan to help their clients recruit more numbers of suitable candidates who can contribute to foreign capital and Japanese global companies effectively because en world Japan is able to understand their English speaking abilities quantitatively.
PROGOS will make the norm to assess English speaking skills based on CEFR and accelerate each company’s business growth by utilizing the PROGOS test as the key.

When the candidates of recruitment service of en world Japan and RareJob Eikaiwa members can’t meet the required English skills for their desired careers, we introduce English speaking learning services of RareJob which are appropriate to a level and need of each person. A recruitment service to introduce candidates who have sufficient English speaking skill will be established because we will be able to seamlessly link the assessment of English speaking abilities, the provision of English speaking study opportunities, and up to the recruitment service.

Career-related business of the RareJob group and future outlook

We plan to expand the number of recruitment agencies as our alliances from now on. PROGOS will also promote visualization of skills needed for global business in addition to English speaking skills. We aim to realize our mission of “developing the global leaders truly needed in the world” by providing a wide range of support from recruitment to talent development by assessment and visualization of diverse skills.
Furthermore, this alliance will accelerate the penetration of CEFR, which is already commonly used as the standard indicator to assess English levels in other countries, as one of criteria for decisions to hire a person in Japan. We resolve the issues related to English speaking skills of job applicants when foreign capital and Japan global companies look for global talent.

This initiative is the business to support career development to realize that Japanese people can play an active role globally by speaking English. As previously announced, the RareJob group has also begun developing a program to measure Japanese speaking skills and offer Japanese learning programs for foreign talent. We will make a further progress in the career-related business of the RareJob group based on speaking skill assessments for English and Japanese.

*1 The official name is Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment.
*2 The new index to evaluate English proficiency was optimized based on CEFR particularly for English language education in Japan.

About PROGOS Inc.

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

About en world Japan K.K.

Location: Tokyo Square Garden, 12F 3-1-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Vijay Deol, President & Representative Director
URL:https://www.enworld.com/
Business: Talent acquisition (permanent, contract staffing and RPO) and related services