4. IH Certificate in Teaching Business English

IH Certificate in Teaching Business English

The aim of IH Business English Teaching is to give participants the necessary skills and knowledge to start teaching business English. An interesting aspect of the Business English Teaching course is that you will work both on teaching methodology as well as business background elements.

Choose your dates and apply for the Certificate in Teaching Business English now >>

In this video, tutor Choreanne Frei goes into more detail about why this course is worth taking and what you can expect to get out of it. 

Who is it for?

  • Qualified teachers with little or no experience in teaching business English
  • General English teachers wanting to diversify into business English
  • Newly qualified teachers wanting to expand their teaching experience in the business English field
  • ESP (English for Specific Purposes) teachers who are interested in specialising in business English

Content

The IH Business English Teaching course includes modules related to teaching materials and methodology as well as professional business topics. The course generally alternates between one ELT module and then a Business English module.

The 14 modules are:

  1. Introduction to the course and overview of business students
  2. Organisational structure
  3. Needs Analysis
  4. Marketing
  5. Vocabulary
  6. Lesson Planning and Syllabus
  7. Sales
  8. Published Material
  9. Human Resources
  10. Authentic Materials
  11. Graphs and charts
  12. Writing skills
  13. Speaking Skills
  14. Presenting skills

In the video below, Choreanne explains more about the workload and what you can expect on a weekly basis.

Structure and assessment

The course is 100% online and 100% asynchronous which means that there is no requirement for you to be online at specific times, you work through the materials when you want. However, you must complete all tasks within the set week, and work in lock-step with your tutor group. Each week has required discussion forum input, collaborative tasks, as well as compulsory and optional activities.

There is no assessed teaching in this course. Candidates submit a final project, which is submitted two weeks after the course input finishes. The project is worked on throughout the course, with regular feedback from tutors on drafts of your work. This allows you to receive formative feedback during preparation, which will help you develop your business English teaching skills. To pass the course you will need to participate in the discussion forums, and submit a successful final project. 

Due to elements in the assessed project, it is necessary to be teaching at the time of taking the course. This doesn’t need to be a business class, any General English adult class is suitable. 

You can find out about the certificate you will receive here.

Read our IH OTTI FAQs >>

What are the key elements a student will take away from the IH BET course?

The key elements are knowledge of business basics, business backgrounds, and how to incorporate these into business teaching as well as a refreshing teaching methodology. Another benefit is you will connect with teachers from all over the world. You will meet teachers who already have experience teaching business English, but you will also meet novice teachers, and you can exchange ideas and experiences with these teachers, which is really an advantage for anybody taking the course.

Time commitment

There are fourteen weeks of tutor-led input on this course. After this you will have two weeks to complete and submit the final project ready for assessment. 

We recommend that participants spend 7-10 hours per week online working on the course materials and project.  The workload depends on you, how much you want to invest into the course, and how much you want to get out of the course. The more time you are prepared to invest, the more you will get out of this course. What is great about this online Business English course, is that you do not have fixed times when you have to be online so you can tailor the course around your workload.

Tutors

There are at least two tutors per course but this may vary depending on the number of participants. The course is run by qualified and experienced Business English teachers who also hold an online tutoring qualification.

Course dates & fees

  • 8th February - 17th May 2025 - £506
  • 17th May - 23rd August 2025 - £506 
  • 11th October 2025 - 24th January 2026 - £506

*The course fees stated are exclusive of 20% VAT. VAT will be added to the fee if it is paid by a business or individual located in the UK.

Course fees must be paid in full prior to the start date. 

IH staff discount available - ask your DoS for details. 

How to apply

  1. Choose your dates and fill in the online application, which is sent directly to us. You will have to answer some basic questions about your qualifications and experience, but there is no need to submit any documents or proof of language level.
  2. We will review your application and get in touch if we have any queries.
  3. Once your application is approved, we will send you a payment link to pay for the course via debit/credit card. 
  4. Once the payment fee is paid (by you or your employer) we will confirm your place on the course.
  5. A few weeks before the start date we will send your login details, and you can access the platform / VLE to familiarise yourself with how it works before the course starts. We will also send you any pre-module reading materials.

There is no deadline for applying, but once we have 12 people confirmed on a course, then it is full – so it is better to send your application form in as soon as you’re interested, to secure a place on the course!

We create each new course specially for the participants, and so we need to close applications on the Wednesday before the course begins to give us time for this.