Introduction | Lifecycle stage part 1 | Lifecycle stage part 2 | Corporate priorities 2007-2010 | Your views

What do you see as priorities for CILT, the National Centre for Languages?

CILT, the National Centre for Languages, is committed to reviewing its strategy to produce a new three-year Corporate Plan to cover the period 2007-2010. We are seeking your views at an early stage to inform the development of this Plan. The Plan will be launched in 2007 and will set out our programme of actions, which will contribute to the delivery of the National Languages Strategy. You can contribute by telling us how well you think we have achieved our aims in relation to our previous Plan and what our priorities should be for the future. We have made an assessment of the issues which will face us in the next phase and how we want to go about tackling them. We want to know if you agree with our analysis and where we should be concentrating our efforts in order to play the most effective role as the National Centre for Languages.

You can respond to this consultation online or, if you prefer, download a pdf version and send in your comments by post. The deadline is 31 December 2006:

Developing the nation's language capability 2007-2010 (pdf version, 149KB)

CILT's Corporate Plan 2004-2007

CILT has a unique role as the National Centre for Languages, undertaking
the following types of activity:

• supporting the implementation of national policies;
• encouraging the take-up of languages;
• supporting professionals;
• promoting a greater awareness of the value of language skills and
  intercultural competence;
• stimulating research, development and the dissemination of best
  practice and innovation;
• providing statistics and intelligence.

CILT's direction was set out in its Corporate Plan for 2004-2007 which listed the challenges and opportunities for the organisation as the newly-merged National Centre for Languages in supporting the agenda for change set out in the DfES National Languages Strategy. We identified 2004-07 as a key period for building capacity for the languages entitlement in primary schools and drew attention to the 'major fault lines' in post-14 provision. We stressed the crucial role of languages for economic competitiveness and employability and the challenge of convincing employers to articulate their needs for such skills. In a time of increasing globalisation affecting education, training and workforce development, we aimed to take advantage of increased opportunities for international co-operation.

The four strategic aims of this Plan were:

• improving teaching and learning;
• increasing the number of language learners;
• underpinning language capability;
• locating languages in a broader context.

The Plan recognised the added value of working in partnership and was therefore designed to engage partners. It built a consensus on priorities, which subsequently shaped the development of detailed annual action plans and provided the focused approach needed to make best use of the resources available to the organisation. The Corporate Plan recognised the importance of regions for the sustainable delivery of the National Languages Strategy and some major activities have been devolved to a regional level. Much of our funding and work was brought together into programmes of activity delivered both centrally and through our two regional networks (Comenius and Regional Language Networks). You can read more detail in our Annual Reports of what was achieved.

Lifecycle stage part 1>