Business sector: Aviation
Number of employees: 38,500
Language(s) supported: Arabic, British Sign
Language, Cantonese, French, German, Guajarati, Hindi, Italian,
Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Somali, Spanish, Russian,
Japanese, and Urdu.
British Airways operates international and domestic air services
for the carriage of passengers, freight and mail. It flies to more
than 300 destinations worldwide. In 2009 the Company carried more
than 33 million passengers and carried 777,000 tons of cargo.
Through its Community Learning centre at Heathrow, BA offers
learning programmes for schools and community groups that focus on
customer service training, languages, global and environmental
education and ICT. British Airways was highly commended at the 2009 BLC
awards.
Summary of engagement
BA trains teachers to test students in the BA
Language Flag Award. Based on the BA language test for employees,
it is offered in 18 languages and 59 schools across the country are
currently involved. The airline also delivers language
presentations in schools and hosts language immersion at their
Learning Centre, reaching 2,300 secondary and primary students this
year alone.
Objectives of employer engagement:
- To tackle the shortage of language skills in
the workplace.
- To motivate pupils to continue studying
languages at GCSE level and beyond.
- To offer additional support to language
teachers.
- To offer recognised qualifications for
speakers of community languages.
- To engage with a minimum of 1,800 students
per year, achieving 2,000 Flag Award tests per year, and delivering
three to four language immersion days per week and one to two
presentations per month.
Engagement activities:
- Language
Presentation
Students enjoy talks from BA employees
on their experience with languages. This is followed by a
discussion on the use of English, celebrities with language skills,
and careers in BA. Students also had the chance to perform the BA
cabin announcement in French, German or Spanish. A short video
presentation is currently being developed.
- Language Immersion
Days
Language Immersion Days were introduced in
November 2008 and are held in French, German and Spanish. Students
participate in a range of interactive sessions, including language
games, role-plays in a simulated aircraft cabin, and a tour of the
organisation’s Headquarters. Throughout the day there is a strong
emphasis on languages for real life situations in the
workplace.
- Language Flag Award: The
flag award was created in 1999 and piloted in seven schools. The
award builds confidence in speaking skills, motivates learners as
they complete a professional award, and allows for ‘authentic’
learning as the role-plays are based on real business
scenarios.
Impact on school and
students:
To date, over 10,000 students around the
country have achieved the BA Language Flag Award. Between January
and October 2009:
- 2311 students, ranging from KS2 to KS4,
attended an immersion day or presentation.
- There have been 15 teacher training days for
the Flag Award involving 50 teachers.
- 2154 students had been tested by July 2009
and 1699 of those passed.
- One secondary student wrote as part of the
feedback process “I had an amazing time at BA. What we did wasn’t
just reading or copying, but actually doing, which I think is the
best way to learn” following a languages immersion day.
- Blyth Community College, Northumberland,
timetables ‘Flag Award’ lessons for GNVQ students and offers the
class as an extra-curricular enrichment programme for GCSE
students.
Teacher quote:
"The award has made a huge difference to the level of motivation in
Year 9.” Rachel Glick, Teacher at Debden Park High
School
Impact on business:
- BA and Slough Grammar School have developed
an excellent working relationship whereby 51 BA staff members are
taught Spanish onsite by teachers from the school during working
hours.
- Evening classes are also offered at the
school in six different languages at three different
levels. All classes will lead to Asset Languages qualifications for
the BA staff.
- The whole project raises awareness of the
value of languages among staff.
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