eCorp English, a virtual English-language training company, will open its global headquarters in Middlebury, Vt., in 2011.
The global company provides online and live interactive English-as-a-second-language classes for business personnel from 52 companies operating in Europe and Asia. It has trained thousands of workers for Google, HSBC, UPS, AXA and Alcatel Lucent in 10 countries. In 2010, eCorp expanded its market to China.
Deborah Schwarz, founder of the company now based in Malta, made the announcement on Thursday at the Vermont Economic Development Authority offices in Montpelier. The company will continue to house its sales operations in Malta and bring its information technology functions, now in Mumbai, India, in-house.
In Middlebury, it plans to open learning “studios” for telephone/internet conferencing with small groups of students (meeting in virtual classrooms.) eCorp will initially employ 28 people in Vermont; Schwarz has committed to hiring more than 100 Vermont workers by 2013.
In an interview, Schwarz said she believes eCorp will serve 1 million learners in three years. The average cost per student is 542 euros; training typically takes about 18 months.
State agencies and funders helped to woo eCorp to Vermont in competition with three other states – Oregon, New York and Massachusetts – for the opportunity to host the growing company.
Proximity to Middlebury College, which is renowned for its language programs, was a major factor for eCorp. Schwarz said linguistic capacity is “absolutely critical.”
“The name of Middlebury has a resonance in the U.S. and abroad because of its long, distinguished history,” Schwarz said.
The Vermont Economic Development Authority has given eCorp $175,000 in loans, the Vermont Seed Capital Fund contributed $200,000 in capital investment funds, and the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive (VEGI) will provide incentives to eCorp as it meets employment targets. The Vermont Center for Emerging Technology helped eCorp find a location and personnel.
State officials – including Gov. Jim Douglas and Gov.-elect Peter Shumlin – were on hand to celebrate the news.
Douglas said eCorp’s decision to move to Vermont is proof that the VEGI program works. The program, which offers cash payments in exchange for jobs, has come under scrutiny for its effectiveness. eCorp has promised to hire 128 workers and must meet targets over a four-year period in order to receive $248,000 in cash payments.
“We’ve had to fight for some of these appropriations over the last few years in the great recession and its aftermath, but I think policymakers understand … that the VEGI program and others really are sound investments for the state,” Douglas said.
Shumlin said the state’s efforts were rewarded: “This is what happens when credit is made available to companies that otherwise couldn’t get it elsewhere.
“As Vermonters are feeling a lot of economic pain, wishing that they had jobs that paid more, wishing they had more options to meet the economic needs of their families, this is just the kind of company that is going to make Vermont strong and allow Vermonters to prosper again,” Shumlin said.
John Tenny, chair of the Middlebury selectboard, said his town has seen businesses close, lay off workers and retrench during the recession. The eCorp expansion will give the town, which is dominated by Middlebury College, an economic boost, he said.
“From Middlebury’s standpoint, we are damn lucky,” Tenny said. “We are damn lucky this worked out well. In spite of quick reactions and good efforts here, this might not have happened. It did happen with the help of many. It shows to me we have to redouble our efforts — we are in a very competitive world – to bring good businesses to our state and to our communities. In Middlebury we understand that.”
Schwarz said eCorp based its location selection on four criteria: strong information technology infrastructure, highly qualified IT and training personnel, linguistic capacities and easy access to sales markets in Europe and Asia.
The company will create small soundproof “studio” offices at its new Middlebury offices for trainers who will work with five to 10 students at a time using real-time telephone-based video conferencing. This “e-learning” platform, Schwarz said, gives students a chance to work directly with an instructor trained to teach personnel to “work in English.”
“Living as we all do here as Anglophones in a country where English is our native language, we have no idea really how important that is for people,” Schwarz said. “For companies, if their personnel can’t work in English, they can’t compete globally. Additionally, the personnel are not able to have a secure economic future and be part of the global family if they are not able to do their jobs in English.
“We like to think of our company as a small part of the effort to create a global economic environment, while encouraging the development of a global family united through language,” Schwarz said.
eCorp posted job advertisements for two management and five tech jobs for its Middlebury office on Thursday.
www.e-corpenglish.com
