Modern languages in the workplace - exporting around the world

18 October 2007

UKTI joins forces with Hayle School and Devonport High School for Girls in an International Enterprise Competition to raise the profile of exporting from the South West.

This autumn, UK Trade & Investment South West will be building on the success of the project it ran in 2006 with Cornwall Education Business Partnership (CEBP) to encourage entrepreneurship in schools, raise the profile of international trade and the importance of learning other languages to facilitate communication with business partners.

UKTI ran the first of two International Enterprise & Entrepreneurship competitions in September. One of the competitions was at Hayle School, a specialist language college in Cornwall, the other will be with Devonport High School for Girls in Plymouth, also a specialist language college. Students will be given the opportunity to learn about exporting a product or service and will receive support to develop their own product or service to export. A series of short workshops will be provided for the top language sets in years 10 and 11 called 'Modern Languages in the Workplace - Exporting Around the World'.

Staff from the Commercial Sections in the British Embassy in Madrid and the British Consulate in Düsseldorf have both agreed to get involved. Small teams of students have formed 'companies' and will ask staff to judge whether their product or service is likely to be successful in the Spanish or German markets. On the final day of the competition the teams will present their business idea via video link and the commercial staff will decide the winners. The winning Hayle team will win a business trip to Spain to visit a successful exporter and the winning team from DHSG will win a business trip to Germany.

Understanding cultural and language issues will be of key importance along with researching and selecting overseas markets and routes to market and practical issues like HMRC procedures and Customs tariffs. UKTI and Cornwall EBP will work with others such as RLN South West and Flybe, which has a strong policy on rewarding employees with language skills, on this project.

The competition at Hayle School was launched on Thursday 26 September. Rose Brooman, Trade Development Manager for UKTI South West, and Mike Puzey, International Trade Adviser in UKTI Devon and Cornwall, made presentations about exporting and UKTI services and Tommy Armstrong from Protection Racket talked about his experience of exporting to Japan. Steve Parrott of Flybe explained why he thinks it is so important for employees to be able to communicate in languages other than English in the workplace. Two workshops designed to help the competitors develop their ideas and understand the basics of exporting will be run in October and the final day of the project and the competition will be held on Thursday 15 November.

The DHSG project was launched on Thursday 27 September. Rory Uniacke, International Trade Manager in UKTI Devon and Cornwall, made presentations about exporting and UKTI services in the morning and Glenn Jones from local luxury pen manufacturer, Conway Stewart, was invited to talk to the girls in the afternoon. Two workshops similar to those that will take place in Hayle will be run in October and the final day of the project and the competition will be held on Thursday 22nd November when staff from the Commercial section at the Consulate in Düsseldorf will join the girls via video link.

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