We are asking for input from Modern Foreign Languages Teachers, Careers Advisors, School Leadership and Enterprise Advisers into a survey to help inform the development of North East focussed languages and careers resources and activities.
PLEASE COMPLETE THE SURVEY BY 20TH JULY AT THIS LINK: https://www.menti.com/alunkefd5d2g
With North East partners (NE Combined Authority and Association of Language Learning North East), we are exploring developing a comprehensive toolkit could provide practical resources, activities, and strategies for teachers, careers advisors, parents, school leadership and enterprise advisers to support and promote the value of language learning in the North East and encourage language take up and progression.
By highlighting the connections between language skills and career opportunities, the toolkit could help students make informed decisions about their education and future careers. This can relate to Modern Foreign Languages being taught in school, as well as Home Heritage and Community Languages that students may speak at home or in the community, which can be as important.
We value all input and we will review responses to inform the next steps in developing a toolkit.
Towards developing a North East toolkit
International Newcastle has been working with skills and careers leads from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and North of Tyne Combined Authority (now both within the new North East Combined Authority), as well as partners from the Association of Language Learning, since 2023 to explore how to improve languages and careers resources in the region.
From our work in Newcastle and also as Co-ordinator of Express Yourself North East Festival of Languages, we have seen a growing demand for activities and resources around languages and careers from primary, middle and secondary schools. The Festival’s languages and careers webinars in March 2024 engaged 85 schools and 6,679 children and young people, with 4,445 of these attending the Futbol Lingo webinar on languages and careers in football.
There are very few North East focussed resources available, although we shared those that are as well as examples from other areas as part of the Festival languages and careers resources for schools and colleages (online here) we and our partners believe that together we can create a bespoke set of activities and resources that would support schools and colleges to promote language learning as a key skill which will widen their future education and career opportunities.
MFL Teacher Encounter event on 20th June
Claire Frater and colleagues from the North East Combined Authority hosted an MFL Teacher Encounter on 20th June in Durham for Modern Foreign Languages Teachers and Careers Advisors.
Participants found out about the importance of language skills in the labour market, the level of earnings increased through these skills, the types of flexible courses available at Newcastle University and heard from a Newcastle University School of Modern Languages student, Bibi, about her experience.
Bibi (pictured left) is a second year student at Newcastle University’s School of Modern Languages. Originally from Middlesbrough and with GCSEs and A Levels in German and Spanish, she is now studying German, Spanish and Portuguese (and a bit of Dutch!). She is due to go on her year abroad to Austria, Spain and Brazil. She gave an inspiring talk to the audience at the MFL Teacher Encounter on 20th June, sharing her love of languages and her views on why children and young people should study languages.
Participants at the event also met with North East businesses who rely on employees with language skills and took part in a workshop with International Newcastle CEO, Declan Baharini, on what resources, activities and strategies would be helpful to support teachers, careers advisors, parents and the school leadership in promoting languages and careers.
The survey is now being widened to schools across the North East to gather more responses.