This is Routes into Languages third webinar exploring how a knowledge of languages is useful in business. Watch our panelists, Bernardette Holmes, Diane Appleton, Lizzie Fane and Raquel Fernandez-Sanchez talk about languages, employability and careers.
The Panel
- Diane Appleton, Career Services University of Liverpool
Diane is a Careers Adviser and Deputy Head of the Careers & Employability Service at the University of Liverpool. She has worked with language degree courses for several years, delivering employability activities, working with employers and giving advice and guidance to students and graduates. She is a member of the Routes into Languages Advisory Board and is the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services’ careers representative for the Centre for Languages, Linguistics & Area Studies, liaising between the organisation and University Careers Services. - Lizzie Fane, Founder ThirdYearAbroad
Lizzie Fane studied abroad as part of her UK degree and she founded ThirdYearAbroad.com to support other students through the process. On graduation, TYA members wanted to use their intercultural skills and languages in their career, so Lizzie recently launched GlobalGraduates.com to connect those graduates with career opportunities.
- Raquel Fernandez-Sanchez Director of the Routes into Languages West Midlands Consortium, Aston University
After graduating with a BA in History of Art and a MA in Latin American Studies at the Universidad de Salamanca (Spain), Raquel moved to the University of Exeter where she spent seven years teaching at the Hispanic Studies Department while completing her PhD. In 2004 she moved to Aston University in Birmingham, to set up the Spanish programme at the School of Languages and Social Sciences.At Aston she has taught language and content modules, and has performed several other academic roles, from Head of Spanish to Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching - the post which she has held since 2014. She has been a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since July 2014, and Director of the Routes into Languages West Midlands Consortium since February 2015.
- Bernardette Holmes MBE, principal researcher on the Born Global project and an expert on languages for business/employability
An expert in languages education. She is principal researcher of Born Global, a major policy research project funded by the British Academy, engaging key stakeholders from employment and education in a radical rethinking of languages education for 21stcentury Britain. She is Campaign Director of Speak to the Future and Past President of the Association for Language Learning. Bernardette is recognized as an innovative and inspiring teacher who throughout a long career in languages, as adviser, inspector, teacher trainer and researcher has made a major contribution to languages education in England.
Throughout the development of language policy since the inception of the National Curriculum, Bernardette has played a central role in articulating both the pedagogy and support structures needed for coherent language learning in primary and secondary schools. She has advised the DfE on curriculum reform for modern languages and is lead drafter of the new GCSE criteria for both modern and ancient languages and Subject Content Criteria Writer for Advanced Level. She has international experience in language policy profiling as a member of an expert panel for the Council of Europe and through research and development of Content and Language Integrated Learning. Bernardette is a Bye-Fellow of Downing College, University of Cambridge.
