Case Study — Workplace Language Programme for We Are Social

01 — Client Background

A global creative agency investing in its team's personal development

We Are Social is a global creative agency. To enhance employee engagement and personal development, their HR department wanted to launch an optional workplace language programme.

The programme was designed to be employee-funded and accessible: lessons would run at lunchtime, before and after work, with the focus on lifestyle and travel goals rather than strict business objectives.

02 — The Challenge

Organising a large, mixed group of employees into a coherent programme

The challenge was logistical as much as pedagogical. To make the programme work, we needed to:

Identify which employees were interested, in which language, and at what level, across a large company.
Group people effectively, according to their level.
Schedule everything around lunchtime, before and after-work windows that actually fit people's real working days.

The HR team chose to work directly with me: a single experienced teacher handling both languages, the assessment process, and the programme design from beginning to end.

03 — The Solution

Structured onboarding, then lifestyle-focused lessons across 5 groups

I built the programme in two stages: a rigorous onboarding phase to set everyone up in the right group, then a teaching approach designed around what these employees actually wanted from the lessons.

Onboarding

Survey and skill assessment

A company-wide Google Form to map out employee availability and language preferences.
Individual 15-minute oral interviews and short written tests to place each person at the right level.

This produced five homogeneous groups: two absolute beginner Spanish groups (5 students each) and one A2 Spanish group (4 students); one absolute beginner French group (6 students) and one B1 French group (3 students).

Approach

Lifestyle and cultural fluency, not classroom drills

Because the programme was employee-funded and motivated by personal enrichment, the lessons targeted "holiday" language skills and cultural fluency through an interactive, non-academic format:

Practical grammar focused on useful structures for real-world communication.
Interactive role-play simulating everyday scenarios: dining out, hotel check-ins, shopping, and so on.
Cultural immersion through songs, film extracts, and short videos.

04 — The Results

Real progression across all five groups, and learners who kept going

5 homogeneous groups successfully organised.

The majority of absolute beginners reached A2 level.

Intermediate and advanced students improved their overall conversational confidence and accuracy.

Many participants continued with private online lessons after the programme, eventually reaching B1 and B2 fluency.

The most telling result is that last point. Beyond the formal outcomes, the programme created learners who wanted to keep going on their own, the strongest possible signal that the lessons worked.

05 — What Participants Said

In their own words

"Anna is a fantastic teacher, she's managed to get me from zero to almost hero when it comes to conversation."

Participant, We Are Social

"Anna is an amazing teacher! She ensures we learn all the necessities for the language, but in a way that does not feel like we are in a school classroom. Her lessons are always fun, but really test our knowledge. Anna is incredibly patient, knows each of our strengths and weaknesses, and builds our confidence."

Participant, We Are Social

"It feels like my French has improved so much since I started taking lessons with Anna. Her lessons have made a real difference. As a teacher, she's patient, organised and, most importantly, very effective."

Participant, We Are Social

How I built a cost-effective workplace language programme for We Are Social