St Mary’s Launches Language Classes

St Mary’s University College, Twickenham is introducing language classes this September, which are open to students, staff and the local community. Part-time courses will be on offer from 24^th September in Beginners’ Italian, Spanish and British Sign Language, and Conversational French and Advanced English. The courses have been developed with students, staff and the local community in mind, whilst the English language classes are ideal for international students, local au pairs and visitors. As a globally aware institution, St Mary’s attracts students from both the UK and internationally. It boasts world-class research in Second Language Acquisition within its newly formed School of Arts and Humanities. This expertise will ensure that the new part-time language provision is enriched and informed by the most up-to-date findings about how languages are taught and learnt. Mariann Baker, Head of St Mary’s International Office said, “St Mary’s foreign languages provision fits into our agenda of serving both our local and global communities.” According to recent National Employer Skills Surveys, the number of unfilled vacancies in jobs requiring foreign language skills has increased. At the same time, numbers of students taking A Levels in Modern Languages has been declining steadily. Students from across the University College will find the new language classes offer the perfect opportunity to present unique and enhanced skills to prospective employers and the provision complements the work of both St Mary’s Centre for Workplace Learning and the Careers Service in providing St Mary’s graduates with a competitive edge in what is, a crowded jobs market. It also supports the work of St Mary’s Study Abroad unit within the International office, whose mission it is to arrange short-term, semester-only study placements for students at overseas universities around the world. Such placements, coupled with language skills, will give a cross-cultural edge to graduates’ CVs. The courses also work in line with the University College’s staff development unit, which offers an exciting range of programmes in IT, Management, Coaching and several other subjects to enhance staff skills. Mariann continued, “We are delighted that the language courses have been welcomed into the portfolio of courses which are available to members of staff. Conversational French is proving particularly popular as most people are keen to brush up on their old O Level, GCSE and A Level knowledge.” For further information on our language courses visit the website, email langauges@stmarys.ac.uk or phone 020 8240 2342 or 020 8240 4370.