Europe’s Changing Landscape: Languages for the World of Work

Wolfgang Mackiewicz, coordinator of the CELAN project and president of CEL/ELC, held a keynote speech on languages for the World of Work on the occasion of the Symposium, including an Award ceremony, on Europe’s Changing Landscape in Carlsberg Academy, Copenhagen, last October. 

Download the speech here.

Multilingualism is key for business, growth and the Europe2020 strategy

The Final Workshop of CELAN – Language strategies for competitiveness and employability took place on 15 November 2012 in Brussels and was attended by key stakeholders such as business associations, Higher Education representatives, decision-makers but also companies that implemented language strategies successfully and language technology providers. 

"Multilingualism is key for business, growth and the Europe2020 strategy" emphasised Sonia Peressini, DG EAC, Multilingualism Unit, in her welcome address. And Wolfgang Mackiewicz, Freie Universität Berlin and CELAN coordinator evoked again the two main tenets CELAN came to: "multilingualism needs to be business-driven, and "no size fits all", in particular for SMEs". 

Workshop presentations :

• CELAN Final Workshop Wolfgang Mackiewicz
• CELAN Final Workshop Gustavo Gonzales
• CELAN Final Workshop Christian Galinski
• CELAN Final Workshop Mike Hammersley
• CELAN Final Workshop Margaretha Mazura
• CELAN Final Workshop Gerald Lobermeier

The beta version of a needs assessment tool is available now. Any feed-back is highly appreciated to letter-box@emfs.eu.

NEW VENUE for CELAN Final Workshop

The CELAN Final Workshop on "Language Strategies for competitiveness and employability" will take place at the Hotel Leopold, rue du Luxembourg 35, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.

The workshop starts at 13.00 hrs until 17.00 and is followed by a networking cocktail.

Final Programme. 

CELAN Final Workshop 15 November, Brussels

The Final Workshop of the CELAN project - Language Strategies for Competitiveness and Employability - will take place on 15 November 2012 in Brussels. 

"In the age of globalization, an ever increasing number of products and services are offered to a growing number of language communities... I have to admit that I was overwhelmed by these findings – and their economic implications" says Wolfgang Mackewicz, coordinator of the CELAN project. Join us and find out your language needs and be part of the panel discussion on future strategies. 

Programme 

Registration

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.

Language needs of businesses - Round Table 30 Jan 2012

The CELAN project investigates the language needs of businesses and provides solutions to language strategies. The Round Table is geared at businesses, business representative organisations, language service and technology providers, training institutions, etc. It will discuss where market meets training and what should be done in the future to improve competitiveness and employability through language strategies.

The Round Table is followed by the meeting of the Business Platform for Multilingualism on Tuesday, 31 January morning. For more information, have a look at the programme.


Download the draft programme