Course participants can expect to cover the following areas during the course:

• Presentation of one's own work, organisation and products/services
• Simulated negotiations and business meetings
• Analysis of a company's business – eg marketing, production and distribution
• Analysis of the financial aspects of a company's business
• Aspects of national and international economies
• Case studies and discussions
• Analysis of a company's strengths and weaknesses, general and financial
• Communication in an international context including intercultural understanding
• Presenting figures and graphs and describing economic and social trends

We aim to give participants greater confidence in taking part in and chairing business meetings and negotiations. Therefore we cover appropriate communication strategies such as:

• agreeing and disagreeing
• interrupting
• clarifying and confirming
• asking for comments
• summarising
• asking appropriate questions
• challenging/defending an opinion
• persuading and compromising
• making proposals, offers, suggestions
• opening/closing meetings

Professional hospitality, entertaining visitors and handling social situations are important for many business people, as is confidence when using the telephone. Areas covered would therefore include:

• meeting and greeting
• receiving visitors
• socialising
• using the telephone effectively
• practice in communicating more complex ideas and discussing problems