Employment

As part of their work for the Modern Languages for Life and Work Award, S3 learners at Mearns Academy were given the opportunity of hearing a variety of guest speakers who came to their school to talk about their job and how languages have been useful to them in their chosen career.  This was organised by the school’s DYW co-ordinator and involved local businesses and organisations. 

In addition, learners wrote simple CVs in French, learned language related to job interviews to aid them in a short, simple job interview in French, learned some French to help them with applications, and learned how having a knowledge of languages helps to get a job in such diverse areas as banking, expedition leading, marketing and IT.    

This project impacted on learners and has led some to changed their options for S4 so that they are now studying at least one language.

This is a good example of a successful project carried out with one year group; the careers event and linked activities are all meaningful and engaging. This engagement that the learners have had seems to have had an impact on how they view languages in the workplace and in encouraging some to continue language learning beyond S3. The verification team commended this project for its planning and evidence of impact, and we are delighted to confer a BRONZE award on the team at Mearns Academy, with our congratulations. 

For any future submissions, the verification team would suggest adding some more detail about business partners, speakers represented in projects etc in order to strengthen these submissions. We look forward to hearing about future developments there, including the planned interviews with partners – this would be a great addition to an already strong project!