Only 15 percent of office workers have certification of their English language abilities, while most say they do not have such certification because they believe their English language abilities are not up to scratch, a survey shows.
The Council of Labor Affairs’ (CLA) online job bank, eJob, conducted an online survey from Dec. 1 to Jan. 10 asking 1,529 office workers about their English language certification and asking them to assess their English language abilities.
Only 15 percent of office workers said they had some form of certification indicating their English language abilities, while 84 percent lack any such certification, the survey showed.
More than 70 percent said they did not want to have their English language abilities tested because they thought they would not qualify for certification. Those who did obtain certification, on the other hand, said they did so because they were interested in the language (47 percent), followed by those who believed that the certification would help them land a better job (37 percent).
The most popular form of English-language certification is the GEPT, chosen by 55 percent of the respondents, with the TOEIC the next most popular (39 percent), the survey showed.
When asked about which area of the English language they believed they needed most improvement in, most workers replied that all areas were not up to par, but that the need to have better listening skills was much greater than writing, speaking or reading.
The lack of confidence in tackling English was also shown in the low marks that workers gave themselves, with almost half of respondents saying they were failing (under 60 points) in the subject.
Huang Yen-ju (黃彥儒), a manager at eJob, said office workers are correct in identifying the GEPT and the TOEIC as the most widely accepted and recognized certifications of English-language ability, based on the job bank’s research of employer preferences.
However, Huang said that many workers who believe that the certification is not important for job hunting are mistaken, because many businesses and organizations, when evaluating recruiting candidates with similar backgrounds and abilities, prefer to offer the position to the candidate with the higher score on the exam.
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