Education Secretary's visit to promote English as global export
Damian Hinds visited Anglolang College in Scarborough today (28 August) to highlight the importance of the English language as a crucial global export.
One of the most widely spoken languages in the world, English is the language of businesses and trade across the globe. At Anglolang College in Scarborough, a British Council accredited college, partnerships and collaboration with other European countries is helping to build a global Britain and creating vital links between the local community and international students.
During his visit, the Secretary of State met staff and students at the college to discuss how English language programmes – such as Erasmus+ – are contributing to the success of this country by giving opportunities to foreign students to train and study in the UK, learn our culture and contribute to our education system.
The Education Secretary also spoke to senior leaders at Anglolang about the government’s overall plan for leaving the EU, setting out how the White Paper proposal will ensure a deep and long future relationship with the EU, including on Erasmus+, while also taking back control of our laws, borders and money as voted for in the referendum.
Secretary of State for Education Damian Hinds said:
English is a global language and today it was a pleasure to meet international students who have a love of our language which they will share through teaching it across the world. It is the language of business, of trade, and of course that will continue when we leave the EU in March.
We place enormous value on international exchange schemes and collaboration - like Erasmus+ - all of which is part of our vision for a global Britain. That’s why we have guaranteed funding for students and organisations participating in this programme to continue to the end of 2020.
A British Council accredited college, Anglolang has provided training for more than 1,000 teachers of English as a foreign language from the EU, through the Erasmus+ programme. Colleges like this are driving a global Britain by linking local communities and international students to benefit through the exchange of cultures and skills.
The Education Secretary met teachers from around the European Union who are training at Anglolang to teach a range of subjects in English to non-native speakers. Trainees stay anything from one week to a year at Anglolang, living on campus or with local host families, and use the stay as an opportunity to develop their English skills, network with other teachers, visit local schools and learn more about British culture.
An Anglolang Academy spokesperson said:
We have been successfully running EU funded teacher training programmes for over 14 years, most recently the Erasmus Plus KA1 programme. This enables our school to operate year-round in a highly seasonal marketplace, thus providing employment and income to staff and accommodation providers in Scarborough, not to mention the extra spending in the local economy and leisure venues.
Additionally, the resulting intercultural awareness and understanding has benefitted local people and Europeans alike and enabled us to cooperate and network together for our mutual benefit.
The Erasmus+ programme, which offers international exchanges for students, provides funding for education, youth, training and support projects up to 2020. The UK is a key country in the programme, with 35,000 higher education students and staff coming here under the Erasmus programme in 2016.
To ensure that the UK continues to benefit from this, the government has guaranteed that – subject to discussions with the EU commission – that funding will be available for UK institutions for projects which are agreed before 2020, so they can continue with any Erasmus+ programmes they are involved in where possible.