Education Providers

This section provides information for anyone providing modern language education whether you are involved in compulsory education, further education, higher education or adult learning.

The West Midlands is a huge centre for language learning, with some of the best universities for languages in Britain:

  • There are 20,000 European students attending higher education courses at one of our universities.
  • There are 2,590 European Language students at our universities.

 

There are also 21 Specialist Language Colleges in the region, aiming to raise the standards of achievement and quality of teaching in Modern Foreign Languages.

Resources

The RLN West Midlands can point you towards language teaching resources that are available to support you in your teaching as well as events and courses that may assist you to further your own professional development. Further resources can be found at:

  • The Comenius Centre who can offer additional training and support in your implementation of the National Languages Strategy.
  • Languages ICT - a new website to help primary and secondary school teachers in using information and communications technology to teach foreign languages.

 

Business Language Champions

A nationwide initiative designed to increase the take up of foreign languages, the Business Language Champions programme partners schools with local businesses to help students see how vital language skills are in the modern workplace.

Information

We provide up to date information on language careers to help inspire your students and promote the value of language skills for employment.

Sources of funding

If you are involved in Vocational Education and Training (VET), work-based learning or you are an adult education provider or learner then you may be eligible for funding to enable you to visit another European country. This could be to complete a work placement, meet with and learn from other organisations or to update your skills and competences.

Statistics

We bring you up to date statistical analysis of languages in education. Here you can find out more about the numbers of language students in the West Midlands and how their achievements compare to the national averages.

National Language Standards

These Standards, which have been recently revised, provide a scale of competence for languages within a work setting and are a useful tool to benchmark the language skills of an individual. You can use them to identify skills gaps and as a basis for training materials. To find out more about the National Language Standards visit CILT, the National Centre for Languages.