Students get behind the cameras to celebrate languages and the Olympics

Students weighing up their university options were inspired by a whole range of people and activities at a Podium Skills event last week. Organised in collaboration with the University of Westminster, the event aimed to give students an insight into the kind of jobs languages can lead to, with a special focus on careers in media.

As part of the event, students were introduced to the Language and Film Talent Awards (LAFTAs) competition, which this year has a special category dedicated to 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. The afternoon session of the day was dedicated to making short films in groups to highlight the many ways that language skills will make a difference to the successful running of the Games.

Students were encouraged to get in front of and behind the cameras, and had every opportunity to practice their languages skills during the day. They even had the chance to learn a few new words in Arabic and Mandarin.

“Today has really inspired me to want to continue with Spanish at university,” said one of the students. “I didn’t realise how many doors languages could open up.”

Hopefully the workshop sessions motivated the students to go away and make their own short clips about languages and London 2012 in time for the LAFTAs deadline at the end of February 2010. For more information on how you can get involved in the competition, too, visit www.languageswork.org.uk/laftas