Business Language Champions Awards 2009
On Monday 30th November, a fantastic celebration was held at
the Imagination Gallery, London for the BLC awards evening.
We are delighted to announce the 2009 winners.
BLC Award for Innovation
Highly Commended – IBM, Newcastle Office
IBM has launched a range of creative activities in German and French to inspire language learners in primary and secondary schools. Activities have improved motivation and results for students whilst giving the business an opportunity to build links with its local community and develop the skills of their staff volunteers.
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Winner - Widnes Vikings Rugby League Club
Toulouse’s inauguration game in the Super League, played at Widnes inspired the original idea for the club to link up with Wade Deacon High School to teach some of the players some rugby themed vocabulary in French. All KS3 and 4 French students were involved in the project with some even being featured on Sky Sports giving a French lesson.
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BLC Award for Outstanding Commitment
Highly Commended – British Airways
BA trains teachers to test students in the BA Language Flag Award. Based on the BA language test for employees, it is offered in 18 languages and 59 schools across the country are currently involved. The airline also delivers language presentations in schools and hosts language immersion, reaching 2300 secondary and primary students this year alone.
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Highly Commended – Gripple Ltd
This SME, working in manufacturing and engineering, has shown exceptional commitment to supporting language learning in the Sheffield area. NVQ language students enjoy visits in French, German or Spanish to the business whilst selected year 10 language students at MeadowheadSchool and LanguageCollege participate in a new collaborative language project each year.
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Winner – HSBC Bank
The judges were impressed by the sustainability of HSBC’s Business Language Champions scheme, set up and managed by trainees on their graduate programme in London. Each year two new trainees take over the responsibility of the BLC programme, working with schools to introduce students to the uses of languages in business and to increase the uptake of GCSE languages. The next aim is to roll out the project in offices around the UK.
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BLC Ambassador Award
Highly Commended – Hal Jaffer, Hotel la Place
Hal has shown outstanding dedication to the support of language learning in schools across London. His creative approach brings languages to life through interactive workshops in several languages based on real life scenarios at Hotel La Place where he is general manager. He is passionate about sharing his business and language skills with young people to ensure that they value languages as a skill for life, both for work and for leisure.
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Winner – Angela Maxwell, Acuwomen
Angela gets students to think outside the box by incorporating language, culture and globalisation into the talks she delivers to students around the West Midlands. She aims to inspire more young people to become entrepreneurs, sharing her experiences of how learning languages and working abroad have helped her to succeed in business. Angela has helped to improve both uptake and achievement in the schools she has worked with.
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