Round Table and Business Platform Report

Despite of the strike emptying the streets of Brussels that Monday, 30 January 2012, the CELAN Round Table attracted 35+ high level stakeholders in the Language for Business arena. During the first part, Wolfgang Mackiewicz, CELAN coordinator, gave a short introduction after which the Steering Committee members presented the activities carried out so far. Here are the presentations for downloading:
CELAN Overview - Margaretha Mazura, EMF
Language needs for European Businesses - Gustavo Gonzalez-Qujano, COTANCE
Language Industry Stock Taking - Christian Galinksi, INFOTERM
CELAN platform and tools - Mike Hammersley, FAV

Chaired by Professor Stephen Hagen, an expert panel consisting of representatives from industry and the learning environment reflected on CELAN results and discussed the best way to raise awareness about the importance of multilingualism to businesses. Some of the key outcome were: Sensibilise the young for languages; give real-life use cases as examples, ideally around a successful (language) business model; raise  awareness of opportunities in a global world; and finally, the confirmed fact that "not one size fits all".

The Business Platform for Multilingualism meeting the following morning enlarged the audience while contributing to the findings of the Round Table. The meeting was kick-started by Belén Bernaldo de Quirós, Head of Unit for Multilingual Policy at DG EAC. She gave an overview of the political landscape of multilingualism at EU level, emphasising the most recent Council Conclusions on Mobility that gave a clear mandate to the EC to support initiatives like the Business Platform. [Presentation of B. Bernaldo]
Kristina Cunningham, Deputy Head of Unit, gave an overview on "Languages for competitiveness and employability",  while Peter Birch, Head of Sector, EACEA, pointed out the synergies with other LLP projects in his presentation "Languages for business - the LLP experience". The presentations were followed by interactive "World Café" type sessions that discussed the role of higher education for language learning, the way businesses can be reached, and gave indications on the future activities of the Business Platform.

Business Platform for Multilingualism Plenary

On 11 April 2011, the members of the Business Platform for Multilingualism held their 5th plenary meeting. Keynote speaker Pierre Mairesse, Director at DG EAC, underlined that access to the labour market is a priority, in particular for the youth, and that multilingualism is an important success factor. The platform members, representatives from business organisations, trade unions, language interest groups and language professionals, discussed about the next steps, amongst them a more transversal approach to languages, and the acceptance of linguistic knowledge acquired informally or non-formally. The platform will issue a report by mid-June that will give an overview on achievements so far and recommendations for the future until 2013.

Business Platform for Multilingualism - Next Plenary

This is to inform you that the next plenary of the Business Platform for Multilingualism will be held on Monday, 11 April 2011, in the Albert Borchette conference centre in Rue Froissart, room 3A in Brussels. Main topic will be how to join forces and create synergies between the CELAN project activities and the broader membership of the platform and its networks.

Die nächste Plenarsitzung der "Business Plattform für Mehrsprachigkeit" wird am Montag, dem 11. April 2011, im Albert Borchette Konferenzzentrum, rue Froissart, Saal 3A in Brüssel stattfinden. Hauptthema wird die Zusammenarbeit zwischen dem CELAN Projekt und den Mitgliedern der Plattform sowie ihrer Netzwerke sein.

Je vous informe que la prochaine réunion plénière de la "Business Platform for Multilingualism" aura lieu le lundi 11 avril 2011 à Bruxelles, dans le centre de conférence Albert Borschette, Rue Froissart, salle 3A. Le thème principal sera de savoir comment unir nos forces et créer des synergies entre les activités du projet CELAN et l'ensemble des membres de la plateforme et de ses réseaux.