Louisa, university student support officerLouisa graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in Spanish and French. Typical of most language students, she spent a year abroad, with six months each in a French and a Spanish university. Apart from enhancing her language skills, she also feels this period was highly beneficial in developing self-sufficiency, initiative, confidence and generic communication, which has helped her enormously since graduating. In addition to the period abroad, the course also taught her to analyse and interpret texts and pay attention to grammatical detail and accuracy of meaning. When she graduated, Louisa wanted to work in the voluntary sector, with a vague interest in using her languages. She started out in her university Student Volunteer Bureau. Her languages were not in direct use there, but her communication skills were and she had the experience of dealing with international students. Following this, she moved to Refugee Action where she found she was using her French every day. She ran workshops, gave presentations and did some interpreting for new arrivals, many of whom were from the French-speaking countries of North Africa. Without her knowledge of French, much of the developmental work she was able to carry out would not have taken place, as many of her clients initially spoke no English. Louisa is currently a student support officer at another university, where she supports mature students and care workers prior to, and during their studies. She is now using her languages less, but studying languages has meant that she has got to know people from around the world which has enriched her, and given her a broader perspective on numerous situations. She finds this invaluable in the workplace. Louisa’s longer term goal is to live and work in Spain, possibly within the growing charity sector there. back to top Rachael, specialist B2B marketing consultantRachel studied Spanish and French at university including a year abroad. She has experience of teaching in Spain and holiday work in France. On graduating, she registered with several specialist language recruitment agencies and got a job at Barrett Dixon Bell, a specialist business-to-business marketing communications consultancy, which recruits mainly language graduates because of its international client base. Rachel loves her work which involves full service marketing, PR, media planning, event management, exhibition support and general client interface. She uses her languages to the full. She stresses that, although English may be the official business language, this is often at a senior level and within larger companies. Being able to speak the same language as your clients and the media gives you the local touch and leads to a much better response. Barely 20% of the 20,000 bakers in France speak any English! She believes that many language students often feel lost on graduation, but now realises that languages are a key asset to many organisations, where business skills can be learnt ‘on the job’. The year abroad also equips you with confidence, flexibility and adaptability, which are essential qualities for many roles. back to top Sioban, freelance tutorSioban studied creative and performing arts at university. On graduating, to give herself more time to explore career areas, she took part in the full-time UK Community Service Volunteers (CSV), programme where she was based in a social education centre. She worked with adults with learning difficulties and this developed into a paid job. Through a contact there, she was offered a position as an English teacher in a British international school in Istanbul, which she decided to take for the experience of living abroad. She spent a year there, helping children aged 2 to 7 with English. A contact there alerted her to a job in a school in southern Turkey, where she was responsible for teaching English to the younger children and also taught music. After about four years she was fluent in Turkish and began to do some additional tutoring work in local banks, helping the employees to learn English. She returned to the UK with excellent Turkish and now teaches part-time beginners Turkish classes at local FE colleges. Turkish is not a main foreign language in the UK, so there are few intermediate or advanced-level Turkish classes in many areas, and this limits the number of classes available for her to teach, but she is enjoying keeping her Turkish alive and sharing it with other people.
|
