News of one of our BLC projects caught my eye
today because it made the point of stressing the importance of
native language skills (which many people take for granted) for
increased employability.
Pupils from Stoke Newington School have been
working with the local Police to encourage native Turkish speakers
to cherish their mother tongue and think about how they could use
it to build a successful career in the future.
The students, all of whom are studying towards
a GCSE or A Level in Turkish, were given the opportunity to quiz
seven members of the Metropolitan police force on the ins-and-outs
of their jobs.
Through their work with Stoke Newington
students, the Metropolitan police have not only been able to
understand and influence local peoples’ perceptions of the police,
they have made joining the police force a viable and appealing
option for young people considering their future careers.
What makes this project so special is that it
puts the focus on the native language skills, which many students
just dismiss as something they were born with, as Head of Modern
Foreign Languages at the school, Danielle Thom, said:
"Watching them act out the scenarios, it
was clear that the pupils had not fully grasped just how much of an
asset their Turkish was in these situations. The rest of the room
sat in silence, with no idea what was going on because it was all
happening in a foreign language."
This collaboration has not only broken down
barriers between the police and local community but also
demonstrated to students that having language skills enables the
police to deal with incidents much more effectively.
"The simple fact is that if we employ more
people from the various Turkish speaking communities in London we
will be able to deliver a more responsive and empathetic service,
not only to Turkish speaking victims, witnesses and offenders, but
to people from all minority communities - by actively
demonstrating a commitment to encourage differences such
as languages other than English, cultures, religions and
customs within the service." said Tony Cox, who is
leading the project for the Met.
For more information on this Business Language
Champions partnership or how your school or business can get
involved in the programme in the London area please contact
Pinky Sidhu