Employment

This submission consisted of three different projects: 

Project 1 - S1 and S3 French and Spanish classes took part in a ‘Languages Open Doors’ Event on 26 September to celebrate European Day of Languages. This featured a range of guest speakers, including Police Scotland, tourism and food retail. Videos of speakers taken by an S6 Language Ambassador, can be seen on the departmental Google site (please note this can only be viewed when signed into a school Google account).  

Project 2 - S6 Languages Ambassadors visited a local primary school to teach French to P3 & 4 and Spanish to P5, 6 & 7. Initial training was provided by Susan Lawson and Karen Faulds of SCILT on teaching languages to primary learners. This was part of the SQA Volunteering Award and of National 5 Work Experience; all ambassadors achieved both qualifications, developed in confidence and built skills for employment. 

Project 3 - S4 pupils completed the Modern Languages for Life and Work Award in Spanish at level 3 or 4 and achieved a National 4 Work Experience with Historic Scotland and Stirling Castle. This was arranged by the school DYW co-ordinator and the languages team, and consisted of work experience with Stirling Castle costume department working with staff in French, Spanish, and Italian. Through this, learners developed skills for applying for jobs, college and dealing with the public. Next steps are to develop this into a longer work experience in order to allow learners to achieve Nat 5 level.  

The impact can already be seen in the fact that learners have elected to continue the course in S5, leading to the school’s first S5 MLLWA class next session.  

The three projects combined to raise the profile of languages in the school and wider learning community, to increase engagement in classes and to develop employability skills in each learner, thereby enhancing their future pathways and language learner journeys. 

This is an outstanding submission from Wallace High School which richly deserves its GOLD Award – congratulations!  

It is really pleasing to see the way in which Wallace High School has built so successfully on the work of their previous Bronze Award (May 2023). The verification team all commended most highly the excellent range of meaningful activities across year groups, sectors and languages that this year’s work represents. Of particular note for us was the effective collaboration between Languages and Gaelic, and the inclusion of Police Scotland using BSL - the team felt that this was a really great way to highlight language learning as a skill for life in local communities.  

This submission reflects the impact of the different employability projects included in it on learners, the school community and the wider learning community through work with a local primary school and local businesses. The project really does deliver on its title of ‘Developing Employability Skills for Future Pathways with Languages’ and this submission was a pleasure to read. Well done Team Wallace!