North East language and careers videos and classroom activities (KS2-5) Available from 6th January 2026+

KS2-5 North East schools: A series of 2-5 minute videos with pupil booklets to inspire pupils to progress with languages and understand the opportunities available to people who speak more than one language.

Language and culture sessions (Careers with Languages option) FULLY BOOKED Feb-March

North East KS2-KS5 pupils (7-18): 30-45 min virtual or 2-hour in person language and culture taster sessions (Careers with Languages option). Choose your language for interactive sessions with University staff and students

Modern Languages in the Working World with Sanako UK (KS3 Y8/9) 9.30-10.15am on 2nd March

NE & UK schools Y8-Y9: Join David Binns for an inspirational careers talk for students, stressing the importance of a second language skill in any chosen career and at initial interview stage and encouraging GCSE take-up.

Spanish language and careers webinar with Spanish Embassy Education Office (KS3-5) 9.30-10.15am on 3rd March

NE & UK secondary schools/6th forms: Inspire pupils to progress with Spanish and find out about the benefits of learning languages and the future opportunities learning Spanish brings.

The Spanish Apprentice Y10 Tourism Challenge at The Auckland Project 4th March, Bishop Auckland FULLY BOOKED

NE Y10 Spanish learners: Teams of 5 pupils work with Durham University students on a Bishop Auckland tourism marketing challenge and deliver a pitch in Spanish to a judging panel.

Languages at Work webinar: Careers session and live language challenge (KS3) 9.30-10.30am on 5th March

NE and UK schools (KS3 Y8-Y9): Motivational session with professional linguists. Sharing career insights and running live language challenges in French, German and Spanish.

Languages and careers in football webinar with Pierce Kiembi, Futbol Ling0 (KS2-5) 10.30-11.15am on 6th March

NE & UK schools (KS2-5): Join Futbol Lingo’s motivational webinar, using football to inspire a generation of future linguists and open perspectives on the range of careers in football.

Where can languages take me? Careers webinar (Y8/9)  9.00-9.45am on 26th March

NE & UK schools Year 8-9: Inspire pupils to choose languages at GCSE with professionals sharing their language learning journeys, skills and how they use languages in their work.

Languages and careers in football workshops with Futbol Lingo (KS3-5) 9.30-12, 1-3.30pm 31st March, Newcastle FULLY BOOKED

NE schools (KS3-5): Inspiring workshops to encourage pupils to progress with languages. Football themed motivational talk, practical and fun classroom language and footballing activities

A series of short videos from speakers whose lives and careers have been impacted by learning and speaking other languages. Designed to inspire secondary pupils to continue studying languages, or to choose languages as an option.

Choose four of the videos and use them in a lesson with a group of students, alongside the pupil booklet provided. Each speaker talks about their own language learning journey, the languages that they have learned, where they have travelled to, the skills that learning languages can bring and how they use languages in their work. Click here to access the videos and pupil booklet from British Council.

Click here to access Let’s Talk about Languages resources from British Council. They help introduce language learning into the classroom and start discussions about the value of learning other languages.

There are resources and fun activities available for primary schools and the secondary schools resources focus on why choosing languages is a good idea, with key information about the power of language learning for pupils.

A booklet produced by partners in Durham to explain why languages are good for business and future careers, what employers are looking for and how speaking another language can bring benefits to young people as they progress to employment. With examples of local companies who employ people with language skills.

• Click here to download the booklet.
• Click here for the 5 accompanying posters with examples of jobs that language graduates from Durham are doing.
• Click here to download the Languages – Skills for Life poster
• There are also some videos produced by Durham with North East companies which promote languages in work. Click here to see all the Languages are Our Business resources from International Durham.

Pearson Edexcel have recently published a set of free resources to encourage pupils to learn a language as a means to building skills and future options for careers.

Links to each are available in the Language Learning for the Future 2 page summary.

This includes videos and printable resources:

• Conversations with footballer Eric Dier
• Languages in life series of students, language mentors and people across the globe on the impact of speaking other languages
• Student and teacher perspectives on language learning
• Posters about different careers which benefit from language skills (diplomat, engineer, nurse, first responder, screenwriter, journalist, marketing manager, lawyer, detective, teacher, translator, travel blogger, flight attendant, chemist)
• 7 reasons to learn a language infographic
• Languages in life – personal stories of the impact of languages on life paths and choices
• Permission to Speak: Amplifying Marginalised Voices through Languages – a series of teaching resources around decolonising and diversifying the MFL curriculum

Creative Multilingualism was a research programme led by Oxford University. It produced a series of videos, amongst other resources, to encourage young people in the UK to be ambitious and to think creatively about the career possibilities languages open up.

Click here to view 11 short videos from speakers who work in football, music, journalism, law, vlogging, communications and events, the army, in documentaries, business, PR and poetry.

This website provides advice and links to information about the kinds of employment that language skills can be used in, the range of job options, work experience suggestions for those studying abroad as part of their degree, as well as examples of current jobs, the top 10 jobs of modern language graduates, skills that can be included on a CV and opportunities for further study.

Click here to view the website and access information on job options, work experience, typical employers, skills and further study.

Career Pilot is web-based support for advisers, parents and students to look at potential careers, options and help with planning next steps.

Click here to view the languages section, which explains how languages can be useful in all career areas, gives examples of jobs, apprenticeships and degree courses that relate to languages, as well as what people can do to take forward their learning, as well as courses and apprenticeships that relate to languages.

Click here to download Talk the Talk, a British Academy guide to how young people can go further by speaking or learning other languages. It summarises the skills gained by speaking other languages and includes profiles of people who have benefited from this, including from culture and sport, business, public sector and politics, business and the charity and community sector.

Click here to download Step Ahead with Languages: Career Flyers produced by Routes into Languages Cymru. This resource can help pupils think about their future direction towards a career.

Each of the career leaflets looks at how languages will help pupils in this field and also gives hints and tips and useful websites so that you can do a bit more research.

The flyers include business and retail, diplomatic service, disaster management, engineering, film and TV, interpreting, IT and computing, journalism, law, marketing, media and entertainment, medicine, outdoor pursuits, Personal Assistants, pilot. professional sports, teaching and travel and tourism.

The UK’s Intelligence Services – made up of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – work together to protect Britain’s people, interests and businesses from threats at home, overseas and online. They recruit people with an in-depth understanding of a country’s culture, ideology, and politics.

A formal qualification isn’t necessary, you just need to be a proficient user of the language. So, whether you’ve grown up in a multi-lingual household, studied to degree-level, or have been trained in the military, your language expertise could be a significant asset to safeguarding the UK.

Click here to find out more about language related careers at Mi5

Republic of Ireland – Languages Connect guidance and teaching resources

A series of teaching and learning guidance resources and activities designed by Languages Connect in Ireland, some of which could be adapted for schools in England and can be used by guidance counsellors and careers advisers.

These include:

• Guidance Counsellor Resource for work experience
• Supporting Modern Foreign Languages at School leaflet, explaining the importance of learning a language in developing key skills
• The Amazing Outcomes of Language learning – a guidance and teaching resource with real-world case studies, linked to videos
• Working with Languages – guidance resource on developing an appreciation of languages in the workplace (lesson plan and links to videos)

Included in this Languages Connect toolkit from Ireland are a selection of ideas and resources which could be adapted for an English setting, including the following:

• Tips for hosting open days/nights in your school for incoming first years and their parents
• Ideas for engaging the students and their parents with games and online activities
• Language passport designed to give students confidence in their capacity to learn foreign languages
• Language specific activities for the four main curricular languages  
• A range of posters to download which encourage participation (what languages are spoken in school, cinema abroad, skills linked to learning a language poster)

Skills linked to learning a language poster – download

Languages Connect Ireland videos from industry experts and people who use languages in their work, or where languages have impacted on their career choices and opportunities (scroll down the page to see the videos).