During the last term, we set a new business challenge for our Year 8 modern foreign language students.
We teamed up with Nottingham-based company, GeoSLAM, which specialises in global 3D mapping technology, and students had a simple but challenging brief: create a short profile about the company and why having a language in this business was essential, written in either French or German.
Language skills are critical in GeoSLAM’s business operations, and two colleagues from the company came to the academy to set up the task. One of the representatives from the company could speak five different languages and she explained to students how useful this had been in her role liaising with customers from all over the world.
We were delighted with the levels of language skills and detail produced by Year 8 and it was a fantastic opportunity to put language learning into a real life context.
The very tough judging panel consisted of the ELA MFL faculty, Mrs Hardy and Mrs Reynolds (head of HR at GeoSLAM). After much deliberation, they picked three fantastic winners in two categories:
French – Hannah, Marcus and Harry
German – Izzy, Alex and Nissiya
These types of challenges help students gain both business acumen and language skills, and help them appreciate how the communication skills they learn in language lessons are important for many careers, some of which they may not have even thought about. Learning as part of a real life business case and outside of the classroom, helped students put their skills into practice. It also demonstrated how many other opportunities exist to use languages, including working for companies like GeoSLAM who are based right on their doorstep.
