Theme: Proposals for a national languages strategy 2020
Background:
The British Academy published Towards a National Languages Strategy: Education and Skills in July 2020, with proposals from The British Academy, AHRC, ASCL, The British Council, Universities UK.
This strategy would be UK-wide and would take a joined-up, holistic approach.
The previous National Language Strategy dates from the period of the Labour Government at the beginning of the century.
Key messages:
This document makes proposals only; it is not a statutory document and has not been adopted; the proposals are detailed and these extracts are chosen to give a flavour.
General proposals:
- Establishment of a Languages UK brand and online portal for sharing messages, information and resources
- Major communications campaign to promote all languages, including home/heritage languages, with support from UK governments
- Continuation of Erasmus+, Generation UK, student ambassador and mentor schemes
- Creation of a cross-sector framework for language competency with recognised equivalence between qualifications across the four UK jurisdictions, and to include home, community and heritage languages which need greater recognition and utilisation
- Joined-up strategy for recruitment and retention of language teachers
- Intensive schemes for languages accessible to all learners (building on Mandarin Excellence Programme model).
To read more: Briefing 25 Proposals for a national languages strategy