gro group international -
South Dartmoor Community College
Geraldine Bedford of gro group international visited South Dartmoor Community College in April to show students how the company is looking to languages to maintain its export success and expand into new markets. Future entrepreneurs might have been inspired by the story of the Devon company, which started from a single idea and now employs people around the world following rapid international expansion.
Students get a taste of business life
The company and the school are both based in Ashburton, and there are plans for students to visit the company and to look at work experience possibilities. The partnership has had some great ideas for projects with languages, making leaflets in French, advertisements and letters to distributors, letting the students gain real hands-on experience.
Geraldine Bedford explained her reason for getting involved in the initiative: “We are very keen to encourage students to continue with their foreign language learning as they will be key to the success of South West businesses in the future. Without them companies like ours will not have a pool of talent to draw from.
“Most companies have a website these days, which means that they are an international business from the word go. Having access to language skills is important as this can prove to be the difference between making or losing a sale.
“With so much of our business having an international slant, foreign languages are in common use throughout our company, whether it be a Spanish presentation to prospective customers or a Swedish advertisement. Whilst we can, and do, employ translation agencies for specialist work, having in-house language skills are often essential to ensure that the right brand and company messages are delivered.”
Sarah McDermott, head of modern languages at South Dartmoor Community College described the value that the students got from the presentation: “Taking part in the Business Language Champions Project and working with gro-group international has meant that students at South Dartmoor Community College have been able to see how foreign language skills are an essential business tool.
This opportunity has provided them with a unique insight into how they could use foreign languages in a South West company in their future career and is the key to encouraging them to continue studying languages. Students are able to see the relevance of languages outside the classroom, which is vital.
With gro-group as our Business Language Champion we have been able to bridge the gap between foreign language learning in the classroom and how languages are used everyday in the world of business. Having a local South West champion based in the same town has given the students a unique learning opportunity, which we hope to build on in the future.”
