Author: Jacqui Burns, Stirling Council
This year, we have worked to develop opportunities for schools to build language-based partnerships with businesses in order to increase awareness of the links that exist between language skills and employability.
Building on the success of previous heritage projects, including a partnership with Stirling Castle, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has supported more Stirling schools in developing projects with HES heritage sites. This has included a new project with The Engine Shed, looking at links between Scotland and China.
New partnerships have been developed with Bannockburn Heritage Centre and Bannockburn House for primary-aged learners. Both projects have a focus on French and Scots. Learners have created resources for use at these sites, as well as podcast and vlogs to record their progress. Plans are in place for learners to conduct a tour of Bannockburn House for their peers and families using French. Learners have been really enthusiastic about the projects and we hope to continue to build on this next session.
We have developed a partnership with the University of Stirling to co-deliver a business event in September 2019, aiming to promote the relevance of languages in the world of work. Our aim is to encourage learners to see the relevance of languages and consider continuing with their language studies.