Young people from St Ninian’s High School had the opportunity to engage with local businesses at Surgeons’ Hall, Edinburgh on 30 January 2017. S4 students joined 140 learners from schools across Scotland to hear from a range of business leaders who view language skills as key to the growth and success of their company. The Business Brunch demonstrated the relevance of language skills in a work context and aimed to encourage pupils to continue with their language studies into the senior phase of their secondary education, and beyond school.
A teacher attending the event said: “Pupils are much more engaged in language learning as a result of attending the event. They are now aware of the relevance of language skills in the wider world. The speakers really brought to life the things we emphasise in class and showed them how languages are important.”
One of the young people added to this, and commented: “I learnt that languages are important and can help your career in lots of different ways. It was inspiring to discover the range of careers involving languages and to hear real life experiences of languages in the workplace.”
Sonia Valcarcel from VisitScotland, one of the workshop leaders, stated: “Speaking another language made me free to travel around the world, meet amazing people and work in some great jobs within the tourism sector. I would encourage all the young people attending today to consider language skills seriously when planning for their future.”
The event was organised by SCILT, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages based at University of Strathclyde in partnership with the University Council for Modern Languages Scotland. Companies attending included Asia Scotland Institute, VisitScotland, National Galleries Scotland, National Library of Scotland, GlobalScot and China-Britain Business Council.
Fhiona Mackay, Director of SCILT said: “Events such as these are a really important way of providing young people with high quality careers advice delivered by the business people themselves and of demonstrating to them the value of language skills in our increasingly globalised world”.
Meaningful employer engagement and providing relevant careers advice are both key recommendations of Scotland’s Youth Employment Strategy, “Developing the young workforce”. This Business Brunch supported these aims by giving young people the opportunity to ask questions and find out more about the role of languages in the business world. The targets laid out in the Scottish Attainment Challenge are about achieving equity in educational outcomes, with a particular focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap. Through hearing from a range of business leaders and interacting with employees, the aspirations of the young people who attended were raised.
This collaboration between schools and businesses supported Scotland’s International Policy to equip young people with international communication and employability skills that they will need in our increasingly globalised society and economy.
The event is one of a series of Business Brunches being held across Scotland in January and February 2017.
For more information on SCILT’s 2017 Business Brunches go to http://www.scilt.org.uk/Business/BusinessBrunches2017/tabid/6023/Default.aspx