Centrax -
Torquay Boys' Grammar School
Guy West, Director, Gas Turbines Division and Lynne Hamlyn, Sales Office Coordinator, talked to more than 40 students at Torquay Boys' Grammar School, explaining how the company communicates with customers from other countries using an understanding of other cultures through the course of its business.
Engineers need languages too
Particularly with many of the students being interested in engineering, Florence Ayache, Head of Modern Foreign Languages at the school, was able to make the language link more relevant to the boys’ interests. With 90% of the company’s business done abroad and using Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese on a regular basis, there were endless opportunities for project ideas.
The school also developed a programme of lesson activities which would all involve using the information supplied by Centrax. Students also worked on the geography of Europe by looking at where Centrax has its branches and had to choose a country and make a presentation about the country and Centrax in simple French in order to improve their language and presentation skills.
Florence also asked her students to look at examples of the Centrax in-house newsletter ‘Interface.’ The task was to then write an article in French to feature in the newsletter with the best one actually going into the next version to be distributed internationally to all branches.
Lynne Hamlyn said that Centrax were delighted to be involved with the initiative, having previously been recognised for its investment in employee linguistic training. "We have direct contact with customers on a daily basis including documentation relating to their equipment, literature printed in different languages and business-related travel abroad. Being able to communicate in their language minimises the room for errors and greatly enhances our business relationships.
"Even if your interest lies in engineering, it is still important to study foreign languages."
Future plans
The school are already planning some visits to the company next year and they are going to integrate the use of company documents into their vocational French GCSE course which is just getting underway. Having access to original authentic documentation is difficult, so the documents supplied by Centrax will be of great help to the students and teachers involved. It is also hoped that one of the school’s students will go to the company on a work experience placement, particularly useful as it he can gain both engineering and language use experience at the same time.
