Just before the half term holiday, in preparation for Year 9 students choosing their GCSE options, the Modern Foreign Languages department invited Ruth Partington, founder and director of Empower, a high powered market research company, to Shipston High School to talk about the usefulness and true benefits of speaking and having the knowledge of a language within the workplace.

Ruth’s presentation was extremely informative and impactful. Year 9 students were given a real opportunity to consider careers where languages were a key requirement within parts of those industries. These included the manufacturing, scientific, gaming, food, clothing and logistics industries as well as the more traditionally recognised careers such as translating, education, events and hospitality.

Students who took part in the event were surprised how great a part languages can play in a number of careers (some they hadn’t even thought of!) and realised how being able to speak a foreign language can give you an extra advantage when seeking employment.  It certainly made a number of them consider the possibility of taking a modern foreign language to GCSE and beyond.

Feedback from the students at the end of the session was very positive, including comments like:

“I think that the languages assembly was beneficial and helpful in informing students how languages can affect and help them in later life”

“I really enjoyed taking part in the assembly and learnt how much languages are actually needed for so many jobs.  Languages are fun to learn so I’m really glad they are so helpful too!”

“It helped me to decide to choose a language because it showed me all of the possibilities there are from taking a language”

“I learnt how important language is in many industries.  Before, I did not want to take a language however I am now considering it”