Making Language Learning Relevant
Business Language Champions aims to promote modern foreign languages and cultural cohesion by demonstrating to young students the importance of language skills in the workplace. By bringing schools and international business people in the region together, they inspire more young students to continue with their language learning through to further education and then beyond into language related careers.
At King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, we were delighted to host an event for Business Language Champions who were teaming up with GCHQ for a peek behind the scenes at one of the UK’s intelligence services!
GCHQ plays a part in the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, and other forms of serious crime, as well as providing support to military operations across the world. Working with the UK’s international partners, they help inform UK policy on a range of security topics. They employ a large team of language analysts covering a wide range of languages to help them.
The day involved taking an area of GCHQ’s work as a theme for the day and the students were set a number of tasks using French and German to uncover details about an international crime.
Students worked through a series of tasks and activities relating to GCHQ’s work and integrated their knowledge of French and German into their teamwork. They also enjoyed a keynote talk from a GCHQ linguist as well as a language taster session in either Mandarin, Russian or Korean – all of which are important languages at GCHQ. At the end of the day, students were required to present their findings in French or German. Before heading home, there was a Q&A with the opportunity to talk to international business people working with and for GCHQ. These business leaders reiterated the message about the importance of language learning and how languages are valuable assets in their businesses.
Business Language Champions work with a range of global organisations such as the RAF and UEFA and their events always showcase how languages can be instrumental in the workplace.
Check out their website for details about future events and how you and your pupils can get involved.
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