The need to develop “globally literate” employees grows as the world economy effectively becomes borderless. Competitive pressures of globalisation are heightening the need for companies to venture into new territories. Not only is the universal reach of technology directly affecting – and enhancing – business possibilities, it’s also raising employees’ expectations of career mobility as a means of garnering wider experience. As a result, cross-cultural know-how and fluency in the English language are in high demand. And these issues are particularly pressing for the Japanese government and some of its major corporations.

A recent survey by the Japan Business Federation revealed that 80 per cent of its 505 member companies believed the development of global human capital (GHC) was the most urgent issue they had to overcome to grow their businesses significantly. A dearth of global literacy skills has prompted several top Japanese multinationals recently to appoint non-Japanese executives to senior roles.

Pushing the global literacy bar even higher, beginning in 2012, two of Japan’s most progressive retailers, Uniqlo and Rakuten, announced that their companies will use only English in all internal communications and meetings at all levels. Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten’s chief executive, says all board members who can’t converse in the language will be fired.

Such dictates have sent Japanese human resources departments whirling into a flurry of activity, looking for training for their staff. As the country’s economic growth stalls – the Japanese economy slipped back into recession in the wake of the March 2011 tsunami – Japanese public and private sector leaders are becoming acutely aware that they must increase their presence overseas and make their workforce globally literate.

The problem is not unique to Japan. Dr Dan Caprar, a lecturer in cross-cultural management at the Australian School of Business in Sydney, says that developing “a global mindset” has become vital for businesses worldwide. “Most countries now have a diverse multicultural workforce, even in local companies,” he says. However, Japan has proved an exception.

“Internationalising businesses is a way the Japanese haven’t gone before, but they’ve now identified it as a matter of survival,” says Chris Rees, Australia’s senior trade commissioner in Osaka. “It’s a very powerful idea and many companies are taking this idea seriously,” he insists.

Senior executives are admitting their current workforce lacks adequate levels of spoken and written English, as well as fundamental GHC skills. “These skills include communication ability, cross-cultural understanding and leadership capability, vital to operating in a global environment.”

There are major opportunities for Australian tertiary education providers, in particular because Australia and Japan already have a shared education past, according to Rees. “The Australian ELICOS (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) sector was founded 20 years ago on Japanese students,” he notes. “The sector has the longest history with Japan of any country in the world. The biggest reason, though, is the sheer quality of Australian education providers. We have enormous strength and experience in course development, and the ability to tailor-make courses is well established.”

Australian universities, with solid experience behind them in English language and cross-cultural training, are now moving to assist Japanese companies with the urgent requirement for global literacy skills.

Recent winner of the Education and Training Award at the 49th Australian Export Awards, the Institute of Continuing & TESOL Education (ICTE) at the University of Queensland is at the forefront of efforts to help Japanese companies tackle global literacy. In March, ICTE will begin rolling out a new Go Global program to assist in up-skilling Japanese employees for international roles. As part of this program, ICTE has just signed a memorandum of understanding with DISCO – a Japanese human resources consultancy – and is in the midst of negotiating the fine details of the tailored course. This initiative draws on the expertise built through programs, such as the Skilled Migration Internship Program Accounting (SMIPA) at the ICTE, which has been addressing the need for younger, globally mobile workers and has already helped more than 120 students from a range of Asian countries.

Even with a degree from Queensland’s Griffith University, graduate Naoya Egawa found it impossible to get an interview for any accountancy position anywhere in Australia. While he had the academic knowledge, he lacked the necessary “soft skills” required to apply for a job and to successfully get through an interview. Most of all, he did not have the confidence to communicate and sell himself in an unfamiliar cultural environment.

Then the Japanese student heard about the SMIPA at the University of Queensland. He applied and claims that the one-year program has changed the direction of his life. “The course was very strict and we were forced to stand up in front of our group and speak three times a week for 30 weeks, and that is what made the difference.”

Koji Sueyoshi is another Japanese student who recently completed the SMIPA course. Even though he also had a Bachelor of Business majoring in Accounting from the Queensland University of Technology, Sueyoshi lacked confidence when it came to his English-speaking skills. Upon commencing the SMIPA course his self-doubt began to disappear: “I actually learned many things. I didn’t know how to introduce myself before, how to behave at the job interview, what the work environment was like or how to network with people. Now I know all these things.”

The new Go Global program draws on experience gained through SMIPA, but with slight difference. Instead of training overseas students to apply for a job in Australia, “We are up-skilling existing Japanese employees for international employment,” says David Nelson, deputy director of the ICTE at the University of Queensland. “Also with SMIPA, the students have already completed at least two years of a course in Australia so we expect their English will be fluent, whereas in the Go Global course we will spend more time improving the students’ English.”

The Go Global program will be a mini version of the SMIPA course lasting 20-25 weeks, which will also involve an eight-week, Australia-based internship.

Diana Pilling is the managing director of Australian Internships, which places a total of 1,200 students a year from over 60 countries in internships across Australia, including all the SMIPA students. Her company will work with the Go Global program next year and she believes the global literacy training they provide will be invaluable for the students to succeed.

“Many international students initially fail to actively sell themselves in a job interview,” she says. “From the employers’ point of view, they see the cultural gap and think, ‘This person is not going to be able to talk to our clients. Neither will we be able to joke around and have a normal work relationship with them.’”

Other students also have totally unrealistic expectations of the type of internships they think they 'deserve', even though they have no hands-on experience, Pilling says. “We expose them to the little cultural differences, like the fact that in Australia, even senior executives often take their own notes, do their own filing and their own copying.”

After the cross-cultural training, however, the fit with a host employer for the internship is usually excellent; 60 per cent of students get offered a permanent job from their internship position and 90 per cent land a job soon after graduation.

The initial University of Queensland Go Global program will focus on the pressing need for training Japanese employees. Australia’s proximity to Japan, the fact that it’s in a close time zone and only a few hours, travel away, makes it an obvious and attractive education destination, according to Rees. Australia is a multicultural country – particularly compared to Japan – so as well as having an “Australian” experience, students can sample other cultures as well; in most universities at least one in five students are from overseas, Rees points out.

However, Japan is likely to be only the first stop for Australian education providers in cross-cultural training as the global market keeps growing, says Rees. “Now, Japan has identified its need, the question is who’s next? Korea is an obvious choice; they have already identified this issue and are committing a lot of resources to it. China is another market that is looming in the future.”

The trend for cross-cultural training looks set to snowball, confirms Dr Caprar, who points to a likely snowball effect that’s for the better. “The important aspect is that people with good cross-cultural training expect diversity,” he says. “Cross-culturally trained people are more tolerant and curious when they look at different behaviour. They don’t use stereotypes, they are not judgmental and they seek to understand it better.”

ICTE won the Education and Training Award at the 49^th Australian Export Awards in December 2011.