EF Announces Winners of the EF International Collaboration Excellence (ICE) Awards

LONDON, July 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

EF Education First today announced Schaeffler and Monsanto Company as joint winners of the EF International Collaboration Excellence Awards (EF ICE Awards). The EF ICE awards were founded by EF Education First, the world leader in corporate language training, to give businesses across the world the opportunity to showcase exceptional cross-border collaboration projects.

The winning projects were chosen based on their achievement against five criteria: scope and scale; the centrality of international collaboration; the originality of the processes and procedures involved; quantifiable measures of success; and the project's lasting impact. Schaeffler and Monsanto Company scored equal highest overall on these criteria.

Schaeffler is one of the world's largest producers of rolling bearings and linear products. With around 79,000 employees in over 49 countries, they needed a structure to ensure that their employees around the world had an equal level of support to reach their personal and professional goals.  International collaboration was key to development of the Schaeffler Academy - a project that aimed to standardise the opportunities for employee development worldwide.

Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality. It has more than 22,000 employees in 68 countries that operate in a variety of environments. International collaboration was central to the creation of an HR Case Management System and an integrated HR portal to increase employee engagement, identify and develop talents and shift mind-sets to achieve operational excellence.

"We had many excellent entries for these awards, but it was Monsanto Company and Schaeffler that scored highest against the criteria," commented Andy Bailey, CMO, EF Education First. "These companies clearly demonstrated best practice in operating successful projects involving employees from multiple countries to achieve impressive results."

As their prize, Schaeffler and Monsanto Company will each be able to nominate two executives to attend a residential, week-long English course at one of EF's Executive Language institutes in either Boston (US) or Cambridge (UK).

About EF Corporate Language Learning Solutions 

EF Corporate Language Learning Solutions, an EF Education First company, is the world leader in corporate language training for multinational businesses and public sector organizations. Over 1,500 organizations and 20 million students worldwide have put their trust in us for a reason - we have proven time and again that our training solutions generate real results. With a worldwide network of offices in over 50 countries, executive language institutes in Cambridge, UK and Boston, USA and the world's most advanced online, on-demand language school, EF CLLS provides the highest returns on language training investments. For more information on EF Corporate Language Learning Solutions please visit: http://www.ef.com/corporate.