5th March 2020
We were privileged to have five linguists visit us this week, to give a Languages & Employability talk, as part of our National Careers Week programme at the college. They spoke to over 50 A-level German, French and Spanish students about how speaking different languages has helped them in both their work and social lives.
Ex-St Brendan’s student Graciela, talked about her life since obtaining her German, Spanish and English Literature A-levels – from her Languages degree at Exeter University (including a year in Vienna) to working in a German Summer School to her current job with British Airways.
Maureen, who since retiring has been kindly giving German students extra speaking practice at St Brendan’s, talked about her diverse 50 year career. This has involved a range of jobs from being an au pair in Berlin, to a bi-lingual medical secretary in Hamburg, to a computer programme super-user for a large, German chemical company in Manchester. She told her audience that her German language skills have followed and helped her throughout her career, and shared some recent research that shows how languages open the doors to all sorts of employment.
Idriss, Vincent and Nour all speak more than one language and find this very useful in their jobs at Airbus. Vincent and Nour are both doing internships at the company in 3D Printing Research, and Idriss is a Supply Chain Apprentice who is loving working and earning whilst still getting his degree via his job at the company. All three said that there are great opportunities for linguists at Airbus in its four main bases in Germany, France, Spain and the UK and throughout the 130 different cities in which it has a presence around the world.
All five linguists spoke passionately about their experiences with languages and encouraged the St Brendan’s students to travel the world using their language skills (‘there is no better way to learn’) and to explore the massive range of job opportunities that languages can lead you to.
Left to right: Graciela, Idriss, Nour, Vincent, Maureen
