PUPILS from seven North Ayrshire schools had the opportunity to engage with local businesses at Prestwick Airport this month.

More than 80 S3-S6 pupils heard from a range of business leaders who view language skills as key to the growth and success of their company.

The event “Broaden your horizons with languages” demonstrated the relevance of language skills in a work context and aimed to encourage pupils to continue with their language studies into the senior phase of their secondary education, and beyond school.

Pupils attended from Irvine Royal Academy, Greenwood Academy, Ardrossan Academy, Arran High School, Auchenharvie Academy, Largs Academy and St Matthew’s Academy.

Jim Fleeting, former Director of Football Development at the Scottish Football Association, stated: “It is so exciting to be involved in a session like this. I would encourage young people to be ambitious to take up the challenge of learning languages. They will be a valuable asset for their future.”

The event was organised by SCILT, Scotland’s National Centre for Languages based at University of Strathclyde, in partnership with Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Ayrshire.

Companies attending included Choice Language, Alex Begg, Skills Development Scotland, KF German Translations, Project Trust, Radio Lingua, ARCS Partnership and easyJet.

Fhiona Mackay, Director of SCILT said: “Events such as these are a really important way of providing young people with high quality careers advice delivered by the business people themselves.”