Promoted within 6 months — Sajith's SpeakUP Pro story

Sajith M., a Marketing Manager from Colombo, shares how SpeakUP Pro transformed his confidence in the workplace — and led to a promotion he had been chasing for two years.

Sajith had been passed over for promotion twice. Not because of his ideas — his manager told him directly that his ideas were among the best on the team. The problem was that in client meetings and cross-functional presentations, he went quiet. "I would prepare everything but when the moment came to speak, I would freeze or say very little. And the person next to me — with weaker ideas but better English — would get the credit."

Sajith had studied English in school for more than ten years. He could read and write perfectly well. But speaking confidently in a professional setting — in front of clients, in video calls with regional teams — was a completely different challenge. "School English and work English are completely different things. Nobody teaches you how to present, how to push back politely, how to sound confident when you disagree."

Finding SpeakUP Pro

Sajith found SpeakUP through a colleague who had completed the Next programme. "He mentioned it casually in a conversation. I looked it up that evening and booked the placement test the next day. I wasn't going to wait any longer."

The placement test surprised him. "It wasn't just grammar. They asked me to talk, to respond, to explain things. I realised very quickly that my speaking was much weaker than I thought — and that the AI was measuring things I had never even considered, like how I handled pauses and whether I sounded certain or uncertain."

The 12 weeks

Sajith was placed in a SpeakUP Pro group of nine professionals — a mix of marketers, engineers and finance executives. "That was actually one of the best parts. We all had the same problem but from completely different angles. Hearing how an engineer explained a technical concept in English taught me a lot about how to structure my own ideas."

"By week four, I was volunteering to speak first in our group sessions. That had never happened to me before in any setting."

The weekly coach sessions focused specifically on professional English — presentations, email tone, handling difficult questions, managing meetings. "My coach would correct me in real time but in a way that didn't feel embarrassing. She would say 'try it this way' and we would do it again together."

Three months later

Sajith led his first solo client presentation in English at week ten of the programme. "I had presented before but always as part of a group, always letting others take the harder questions. This time I prepared differently. I knew how to structure it, how to handle questions, how to sound confident even when I wasn't 100% certain of an answer."

His manager noticed immediately. Six months after completing SpeakUP Pro, Sajith was promoted to Senior Marketing Manager. "She said my communication had improved dramatically. She didn't know about SpeakUP but she absolutely noticed the change."

Sajith's advice

"Don't wait until your English is perfect before you try to improve it. That logic doesn't work. Start where you are. The placement test shows you exactly where that is — and the programme takes you from there. For me it was 12 weeks and a promotion. I wish I had done it two years earlier."

Sajith is now preparing for the CEFR C1 certification through SpeakUP. He has also referred three colleagues from his company to the programme.