In the application Dr Ryland explained that the aims were to widen participation in languages HE, to establish a UK-wide network of universities collaborating with each other to send student ambassadors to schools (including virtual visits) in order to advocate for pupils to (a) choose languages at school; (b) consider applying to study languages at university.
Alignment with aims of CDBU
‘Advocacy for a university education [in modern languages] accessible to all those able to benefit from it.’
While this project involves schools, it is centred on universities, both as providers of ambassadors and in their capacity to continue to offer an advanced education in languages that is open to all.
The project will
- bring together a group of universities that want to initiate or improve languages ambassador schemes
- facilitate specific collaborations between groups of universities, so that they can pool their ambassador-scheme efforts and target them better, with a focus on cold spots and disadvantaged pupils
- provide training to those universities in how to initiate and run an effective languages ambassador scheme
- provide a toolkit of curated resources for languages ambassadors to use
- collaborate with a web developer to upload that toolkit to the TLG website
- help the HEIs to align their languages-ambassador offer with demand in schools (locally in the case of in-person schemes, nationally in the case of online ones)
Intended impact on policy and/or practice
- more HEIs sending student language ambassadors into schools
- increased targeting of language ambassador schemes at disadvantaged areas
- increased effectiveness of language ambassador schemes (through sharing of resources and best practice)
- increased uptake of languages at schools, leading ultimately to increased numbers applying to study languages at university.
