I am the Founder and Managing Director of BECS, a training company that delivers customised corporate courses in business skills, management skills and mental health skills worldwide and “Exclusive Business English Experiences” in Devon.
I qualified as a teacher in 1994 and spent many years teaching in primary, secondary, higher and special needs education and in private language schools in Devon, UK. I was also involved in adult education and became a Senior Lecturer at Exeter University.
In 2000 I lost my voice so I started a job at Nortel Networks Opto-Electronics where I worked with optical fibres. I liaised between my production team and management. I attended and organised meetings, wrote business reports, technical reports and minutes. I was also responsible for Human Resources issues in my team and provided a link to different departments. This position gave me an insight into company culture and the running of a large international company. After two years at Nortel I felt that my voice was good enough to start teaching again.
In 2002 I moved to Brussels and worked as a corporate business trainer for two years. In 2004 I set up Business English Consulting Service Ltd or BECS which proved to be a big success in the Arabic Gulf, especially in Kuwait where I became a Director of the British Business Forum. I set up and chaired the BBF Businesswomen group and co-founded the International Women Network Kuwait.
I realised that absenteeism caused by work-related stress is a big problem across the world. The media is full of mental health, burnout and suicide stories so I signed up for a clinical diploma course in Plymouth that focuses on the psychology of mental health problems and I graduated as a Psychotherapist in 2019. Since then I wrote two books on mental health and designed mental health courses for BECS which are delivered by a team of psychotherapists who are also security, sales, business and education specialists.
Check out these two websites for more information on BECS training: www.becsltd.com and www.englishandbusiness.com
An Swinnen 