News Archive 2009
This page keeps you up to date with the latest language news from around the West Midlands and beyond. Please contact us if you have a language news story or culture-related news item you would like us to publicise on this page.
Angela Maxwell, director of Acuwomen and one of the West Midlands’ most successful entrepreneurs added another accolade to her name this week when she walked away with the Business Language Champions Ambassador Award.
The Award, presented at a national ceremony at London’s Imagination Gallery, recognised Angela’s dedication to the Business Language Champions programme which partners schools with businesses to highlights the links between learning foreign languages and being successful in business.
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Established entrepreneur Angela Maxwell returned to the classroom recently to inspire the next generation of international business leaders.
Angela, director of business consultancy Acuwomen, visited Barr Beacon School in Walsall to speak to Year 9 students about the importance of language skills in the workplace. She shared her experiences of living overseas and explained how language skills and cultural awareness helped her to market products internationally.
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Students at Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College learned that it is not just languages that make the world go round when they took part in a cultural awareness workshop recently.
Jayne Baliman-George, a language and cultural trainer based in Bromsgrove, visited the college to encourage pupils that keeping up their language skills and being aware of cultural differences could improve their job prospects and increase future travel opportunities.
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Warwickshire school students spent a day contemplating their future paths when they took part in a Languages at Work conference held recently at the University of Warwick.
Following talks about languages at A level and university, Business Language Champions, Angela Maxwell and Brian Savin spoke to students from Aylesford School, Warwick School and Kings High School about the importance of languages in the world of work.
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Pupils at St Joseph’s College in Stoke on Trent took part in a range of language and cultural workshops recently to highlight the importance of studying languages and to improve their future job prospects.
A variety of visiting speakers ran hour-long workshops for Year 8 students enabling them to try new languages such as Japanese and Mandarin and understand the importance of language and cultural skills to successful international business.
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Clive Bawden of Catalyst Corporate Finance, an award winning international corporate finance firm with an office in central Birmingham, met with Sixth Form students at Arden School and Language College in Solihull in July 2009 to talk with about the importance of language skills in the workplace.
Clive, who has worked in the UK and abroad for several large international companies such as Inchcape Plc and Saint-Gobain, explained why even basic language skills can be beneficial across all industries and lead to increased employment and travel opportunities.
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Year 10 girls from Tile Hill Wood School and Language College in Coventry became the latest students to benefit from the Business Language Champions programme when they were visited by Comtec Translations Director, Sophie Howe.
Sophie ran a workshop with the girls to help them think about the application of languages in business by researching and planning how they would market and export make-up products in France.
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Angela Maxwell, one of our most prolific Business Language Champions, worked her magic again this week when she visited Barr Beacon Language College in Walsall.
Angela, Director of Acuwomen and former European advisor to UK Trade and Investment, visited the school on 6 May 2009 to persuade students that continuing with their language learning could improve their future employability and potential salaries.
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Students at Newcastle under Lyme School took time out to consider their future careers recently when they took part in a workshop to discover the importance of languages in the world of work.
Wendy Hall, International Trade Advisor for UK Trade and Investment and Claire Dickenson, who uses French and German in her work for the Automotive and Aerospace industries, visited the school on 27 March 2009 to encourage students to continue with their language learning.
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Students from all the Warwick secondary schools made languages their business when they took part in a conference at Warwick University on Monday 23 March 2009.
The Languages at Work conference, organised by Aylesford School and the Independent State Schools Partnership, aimed to show students how useful language skills can be in the workplace and why continuing with their language learning will bring long term benefits, both professionally and personally.
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Pupils at King Charles School in Kidderminster got their thinking caps on recently when they took part in a workshop to show the importance of language skills at work.
Year 9 students participated in a ‘What’s my Line?’ event, where they had to guess the careers of six visiting business people. Students were given a short career description, detailing qualifications, salary and languages spoken and had to ask questions to match the business people to their careers.
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Students at Trinity High School in Redditch were urged to include languages in their future plans recently when they took part in a workshop with certified business coach Mary Collin.
Bromsgrove-based Mary, who provides support and guidance to small business owners, spoke to sixty Year 9 students, ahead of their GCSE options decisions, about her own experience of using languages and how such skills can increase career and social opportunities.
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Students at Ninestiles School in Acocks Green, Birmingham, were urged to consider languages in their future plans when they were visited by a local businessman.
Mark Wilson, from Catalyst Corporate Finance, an independent corporate finance firm, visited the school in March 2009 to help students understand the global nature of British industry and how languages could be useful in their future careers.
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Students at Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School and Language College were urged to keep up their language skills recently when they were visited by a local businesswoman.
Helen McLeod-Jones, senior manager for Audit and the China Business Services Group at Ernst and Young LLP, visited the school on 25 February 2009 to encourage students to pursue languages to improve their chances in the employment market.
This event is part of the RLN's successful Business Language Champions programme.
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Pupils at Redhill School in Stourbridge were encouraged to hit the airwaves recently when they took part in a workshop to raise awareness of language skills.
Brian Savin, director of Savin Productions, a producer of radio commercials and foreign-language recordings, visited the school recently to urge students to continue with their language learning.
This event is part of the RLN's successful Business Language Champions programme.
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Pupils at Fairfax school in Sutton Coldfield were persuaded to consider languages in their future plans when they were visited by local businesswoman and languages enthusiast, Alison Cowan.
Alison, Head of Human Resources at Tamworth-based Bristan Group Limited, the UK’s largest bathroom supplier, visited the school in February 2009 to encourage students to continue with their language learning.
This event is part of the RLN's successful Business Language Champions programme.
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Pupils in Redditch took part in some 'real-life' language lessons recently when they were visited by the management team of a local company. Pete Vaughan, Edith Hurst-Earle and Mary Whitehead from Redditch-based storage and logistics company Oakland International Ltd, spoke to pupils at St Augustine's Catholic High School and Arrow Vale School about the importance of continuing with their language learning.
This is the third year running that Oakland have acted as a 'Business Language Champion' and it is hoped their continued involvement with these two schools can boost languages uptake.
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A new initiative to encourage employees to take up sign language as an extra language and skill is coming to Stourbridge.
Signs4Life, which is leading efforts to raise public and political awareness of deafness and deaf people, is setting up introductory employee in-house courses ranging from six to eight weeks to help people communicate and deal with the deaf community.
Sara Phillips, founder of Signs4Life, said: “You never know when you will come into contact with a customer or member of the public who is deaf or hard of hearing. "
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Pupils at Bishop Perowne C of E College in Worcester were encouraged to increase their future employment opportunities recently when they took part in a workshop to raise the profile of languages. John Phillips, regional director of the Institute of Directors West Midlands and May Philpott, business director at Churchill China, visited the school as part of the RLN's Business Language Champions programme, to increase awareness of the importance of language skills.
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