Intercultural Communication and Translation News

The launch of the website for Our Languages, a groundbreaking initiative funded by the DCSF, takes place today at the third CILT Community Languages National Conference in Sheffield.

The new website, hosted by CILT, the National Centre for Languages, provides vital information and support for community languages teachers and managers in the UK. Content includes video clips showing best practice, case studies, useful links and training and event information. Key features include a database of schools teaching community languages in England and information on how to gain accreditation in community languages: www.ourlanguages.org.uk

The Our Languages project began in September 2007 in response to a need to raise the status of community languages in the curriculum and to recognise the work of the complementary (or supplementary) sector in England. The project aims to provide support for community languages teaching by developing partnerships between complementary and mainstream schools. In its first phase, which ran until March 2008, nine schools, teaching more than twelve community languages, formed regional partnerships in Birmingham, Leicester, London and Manchester.

Read more > CILT 

European IT services company Steria has launched the first of four international training and development programmes in India, designed to create a single culture across its global workforce.

Twelve of the 58 participants are from the UK, and all expect to gain leadership qualifications at the Steria Academy based in Chennai. The course will largely be conducted online over the next eight months.

Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth, Steria’s new group HR director, said the programme would help train senior managers to better deal with international clients.

“We have lots of international clients, so it’s essential we train our employees to deal with them,” Hughes-D’Aeth told Personnel Today. “Our HR teams will continue to deliver training locally, but these senior modules will be run across national boundaries.”

She said the benefit of the web-based programme was that it allowed the participants to work from their home countries, but receive the same training as their counterparts in the 15 other countries that Steria operates in. “I think this is quite unique to have a global programme like this that is a true blend of both face-to-face and multimedia,” she said.

Read more > Personnel Today 

Western managers are falling behind their Chinese counterparts in education and training, research has warned.

China has the fastest growing global economy and – according to a study by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) – also boasts a highly ambitious, sophisticated and commercially astute management population that poses a challenge to managers and businesses in the West.

The Global Management Challenge, which surveyed 327 managers in the UK, US, France and China, reveals that Chinese managers are underestimated by their Western counterparts and are launching a serious challenge to established Western business and management practices.

Read more > Chinese Managers