Press Release

South West celebrates business language success

Employers and students in the South West are today celebrating the success of a project to raise the profile of languages in the workplace. Thirteen companies were named Business Language Champions and partnered with schools in the region, providing an insight into how language skills are used in real work contexts.

The Business Language Champions initiative, co-ordinated by the Regional Language Network and Comenius South West, created dynamic, mutually beneficial partnerships as part of a successful pilot, which it is hoped will serve as a model to other regions. The business community has become more aware of the importance of languages and young learners have seen first-hand the career opportunities language skills can bring.

Students have visited businesses and have worked with authentic company materials to see how languages are used in everyday business. Companies have worked with learners to create multilingual resources and in some cases, have organised work-experience placements.

Reuters, one of the business involved in the project, said that the language skills were vital to the company and described the pilot as an opportunity to encourage potential, future employees to learn languages.

Isabella Moore, Director of CILT, the National Centre for Languages, which oversaw the project, said: 'Much is said about the importance of business and education working together and here are some tangible, practical examples of what can be achieved. I believe that the project has fulfilled and exceeded its aims and my congratulations go to all involved.'

A gala dinner to mark the success of the Business Language Champions project will be held this evening at the Lord Haldon Hotel, Dunchideock.