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Press Release
25 November 2008

New national Standards promote intercultural respect at work

The first ever National Occupational Standards for working with people from different countries or diverse cultures will be launched today at a high profile event in central London. The new Standards provide a quality benchmark for building mutual respect, improving communication and workforce relations, and reducing racism.

The new National Occupations Standards for Intercultural Working describe the skills, knowledge and understanding required by anyone wishing to work effectively in a multicultural environment. They can be used to inform policy and procedures, provide a good practice guide for human resources professionals, and identify training needs to promote social and community cohesion.

CILT, the National Centre for Languages led the government-funded project to develop the new Standards, which were approved by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills in September 2008. Today’s launch celebrates the completion of the project, which has involved hundreds of organisations, employers and individuals from across the UK over the past two years.

Speakers at the event include Kathryn Board, CILT’s Chief Executive; Dr Waqar Azmi OBE, the Government’s former Chief Diversity Adviser and EU Ambassador of Intercultural Dialogue; Sean Taggart, Managing Director of Albatross Travel Group and former deputy chair of the Small Business Council; Claude Mbuyi, Operations manager of the Interpreting Service at the Refugee Council; and Cherry Sewell, Director of Business and Skills at CILT, the National Centre for Languages.

Cherry Sewell said: ‘We are delighted to have led the development of these important new Standards. The standards describe how people from different countries or diverse cultures can work most effectively together. Our research and consultations across the UK have involved much discussion of how intercultural skills contribute to social cohesion. It is important for people to learn about each other and to adapt, and at work to develop a ‘third space’, where people can ‘rub along’ together. This must be underpinned by mutual respect. We hope that the Standards will prove to be a useful tool for the development of skills which are essential for living and working in a multicultural world.’

To find out more about the new Standards, visit www.cilt.org.uk/standards/intercultural.htm