Global Connects and the SCILT Language Employability Award
Global Connects are extremely passionate about giving back to the community so when Beeslack Community High School contacted our Head of Language Services, Fiona Woodford, in September about working with the Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), she was thrilled to attend and speak to their S3 students.
Beeslack Community High School are currently working towards the SCILT Language Employability Award. The Award “developed by SCILT, in partnership with Bòrd na Gàidhlig, encourages innovation and creativity in the promotion of language skills through meaningful engagement between employers and schools. The Award is available at three levels: Gold, Silver and Bronze.” As part of this award, the students are required to speak with people working in a professional industry to do with languages.
Fiona Fletcher is a Teacher of Languages at Beeslack Community High School and got in touch to see if anyone from Global Connects would be able to speak to her students about the importance of learning a language and the positive impact language learning can have on future career prospects, health and wellbeing. We work in close partnership with the Scottish Parliament through the tenders we work on, and it was the Parliament who recommended us to Beeslack Community High School and Global Connects were delighted to help out.
Our Head of Language Services, Fiona Woodford, started by creating a job description for working as a Project Manager, she provided this to the students in English, French and German. On 27th September, Fiona attended the school to give a talk to a class of S3 students about the importance of learning a language, how it has benefitted Fiona’s life and career and how she uses languages every day in her role at Global Connects. The students had some very insightful questions which showed a quest for knowledge and a keen interest in languages fostered by the teachers at Beeslack and the event during the month of European Day of Languages. The second stage of the visit will see students applying for the position of Project Manager with Global Connects in English, French and German – Fiona will provide feedback on all applications and CVs received by the students in order to aid them in their future career applications.
Here are some photos of Fiona and the students in action. Stay tuned for more career events like this where Global Connects try to inspire young school age students to follow a career in languages.
