Thai Airlines since 1988 has used the TOEIC tests, the gold standard for workplace English proficiency assessment, to screen flight attendant applicants. However, a recent, simple change in their hiring process steps has now provided them with significant savings as well as improving the quality of their screening.

 

Becoming a flight attendant is an extremely popular goal, with about 10,000 applicants for Thai Airlines typically competing for around 100-150 open positions. Originally, the airline did an initial screen to try to determine which applicants seemed to fit their broad range of qualification requirements. This initial screening typically cut candidates down to about 1,000 applicants.

 

Claimed English proficiency was one initial screening measure. Those applicants that made it through the initial round then took the TOEIC test to confirm their English proficiency claims.

A few months back I was talking to a representative of the credential evaluation service World Education Services (WES). He told me that WES advises their clients to put a very short, WES-generated description of their degrees on their résumé, showing potential employers how each degree compares to a U.S. degree. He suggested that we should help people do the same thing with their TOEIC test scores.

 

As with credential evaluation of a degree, TOEIC test scores provide objective, external proof of what a person says on their résumé, in this case regarding their English language skills.