Passport to Export is a competition for teams of Year 10 students who are asked to design a product using local materials which they believe would sell well in Spain. In a simulation exercise which is relayed by video conference to the British Embassy in Madrid, they then have to convince a panel of judges – the UKTI international trade team in Madrid – to ‘buy’ their product, pitching in both Spanish and English. The winning team goes on a ‘business trip’ to Alicante, with a visit to a Cornish/British company trading in Spain. The pupils then report back to the school's Education Business group. Winning products have included a waterproof map and a soap made from local ingredients. The Soap Stars team is now hoping to go into production with their soap and other linked products.

Although part of the final sales pitch is in Spanish, many of the team members do not learn Spanish. Some of the team members have to learn enough Spanish to be able to compete and the participants also learn the importance of researching a country’s market, culture and socio-economics.

This language and enterprise project can serve as a model to other schools looking to highlight the importance of language skills in business and indeed has already been adopted by a local school, which has linked up with international trade team in Dusseldorf to run the project in German. The project, which has had a strong impact on everyone it has touched, is an example of excellent collaboration with external agencies and private companies and highlights the benefits of an innovative partnership approach. Passport to Export is the recipient of the Euro London Business Language Prize of £1,000.

Language(s): Spanish

Hayle Community School is a mixed comprehensive school with 722 pupils based in the coastal town of Hayle in South West Cornwall. The school is a Language and Business and Enterprise College.